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"Calendar sync deactivated after 5 failures" VRBO calendar

Julie M
Apr 7, 2022 10:11 PM
Joined Jan, 2021 10 posts

Hello!  This afternoon I received three emails notifying me that the calendar sync on three of my VRBO listings has been deactivated.  

This calendar sync has failed 5 times in a row on a connection or parsing error, meaning either we couldn't reach the listing site or the iCal they returned was badly formatted. Since the error has occurred repeatedly, we've deactivated the sync for the time being.

I went to VRBO to pull the iCal link to resync, in case it got corrupted somehow, but since I have API integration with VRBO, VRBO just tells me:

Your rates and availability are uploaded from your integrated property management software. Any edits will need to be made in your software. These will automatically be updated in Vrbo.

So what can I do?  

Rex C
Apr 7, 2022 10:31 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2021 47 posts

Looks like Vrbo disabled iCal for any API connected account. If you go to any of those iCal links that have been disabled, it shows a Vrbo error:

 



 

Once you're API connected, you don't need iCal's anyway -- they only ever worked for pre-API bookings. If you have any pre-API bookings, just be aware that if the booking is changed on Vrbo, make sure to update the dates or cancel them in OwnerRez (based on whatever is changed in Vrbo, since the iCal will no longer be able to update automatically).

 

But API bookings don't use the iCal so nothing will change there.

 

iCal links for non-API connected listings are still working fine.

 

No need to update anything -- the alert you got means that OwnerRez detected that the feed was erroring across hours of checks, so the calendar sync was eventually disabled because it kept erroring.

Julie M
Apr 7, 2022 10:35 PM
Joined Jan, 2021 10 posts

Got it!  Thanks for such a quick (and thorough) response!  I didn’t realize the API didn’t rely on iCal to sync, though it makes sense now that you’ve said it. I was worried about the possibility of double bookings, but there’s definitely no pre-API bookings so I’ll just rest easy :)  Appreciate it!

Kate M
Apr 8, 2022 2:31 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 15 posts

I got the same and just came here to see what I could fine! Thanks for posting yesterday! 

aMAYzing PM
Oct 30, 2022 10:24 PM
Joined Jul, 2022 1 post

I got the same message post API.  Should I delete the sync?