How calendar sync works

LocalBook shares taken dates with other sites through iCal calendars. Booking.com, Airbnb and most similar sites use this standard.

Two directions

• Export: the site downloads the list of taken dates from LocalBook at intervals. Booking.com and Airbnb usually do this every few hours. LocalBook cannot make them do it faster.
• Import: LocalBook downloads the calendar from the site every 15 minutes. But the site updates its own calendar with a delay, often of some hours.

Result

For some hours after a new booking, the same dates can be free on the other site. This is a limit of iCal, not a LocalBook error. Thus LocalBook:

• checks the channel calendars again when you confirm a request,
• sends the e-mail "Possible double booking" when bookings overlap,
• sends an e-mail and shows a warning in the dashboard when it cannot connect to a site for a long time.

Which data LocalBook shares

Only dates. The LocalBook calendar does not contain names, contact data or the number of guests. LocalBook also takes only dates from the calendars of the sites.