Booking Calendar: Add to External Calendar (iCal)

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Locate: Calendar > Booking > Add to External Calendar
Prerequisites:

• Admin permissions or restricted permissions to View calendars and access RSS and iCal feeds.
• Bookings and a third-party External Calendar application, such as Google Calendar.

New to the Booking Calendar? Be sure to read the first article in this series for an overview of the new experience or check out any of the other articles via the links at the bottom or side of this page.

In this article, we walk through generating an iCal Feed, so that you can subscribe to Checkfront bookings through an External Calendar such as Google Calendar.

 

Looking to add iCal events to your Booking Notifications? Learn more here: iCal for Booking Notifications: Setup

 

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The option to Add to External Calendar allows you to synchronize your Checkfront bookings with a calendar outside of Checkfront. Synchronization is facilitated using the Checkfront iCal Feed, which in turn, utilizes the standard iCalendar media type and file format (.ical) to transfer the information.

iCalendar is supported by most calendar software products such as Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, including those on your mobile devices.

 

It's important to note that the Booking Calendar sync is one way - view only in the External Calendar. As you make changes to the bookings in Checkfront, these are reflected in the third-party External Calendar. The frequency of syncs depends on the third-party application. However, changes to the third-party External Calendar do NOT update Checkfront.

 

iCal Feeds are linked to the account that generated them. If the account that generated the feed is disabled or if the login credentials for that account change, then any iCal Feed links previously generated will no longer work. To resolve this, you can generate new iCal Feeds to link to your External Calendars.

 

How accurately your External Calendar reflects availability, depends on how often your External Calendar checks the iCal Feed for updates. For example, Google Calendar can take several hours to update with the iCal sync. Check your external calendar settings for options.

 

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Start by reviewing your options in terms of which bookings, categories, and items you would like to Add to your External Calendar. When the Booking Calendar is synced to your External Calendar, it displays bookings according to the limits defined with these settings.

When customizing the settings notice how the Webcal Link and the bottom of the modal changes. This is how your feed subscription is defined and determines what information Checkfront communicates to your External Calendar.

 

The Only show my bookings setting filters out bookings made by other Staff members, leaving only the bookings made under your account.

The Only show locked bookings setting filters out any bookings that do not have a locked booking status. This is a great way to hide bookings from the External Calendar that are awaiting confirmation. To learn more about statuses, please click here.

 

Checkfront will sync up to 24 months of future bookings with your External Calendar. Six months is the default setting.

Past bookings display as far back as one month prior. The number of months past is not configurable at this time.

 

By default, the iCal Feed is set to display All Categories.

You can uncheck the All Categories option to view a list of All the Categories associated with your Checkfront account. You can then choose the specific Categories you wish to include in your feed by checking them off individually.

 

You can generate as many links to different Categories as you need. This gives you more flexibility when adding subscriptions to your External Calendar. Your setting selections are not saved in the Checkfront system once you close the modal. The Webcal Link you generate and copy simply contains the information needed to subscribe. Fee free to try out different combinations of settings and links until you find the combination of feeds to suit your needs.

 

Rather than filtering by Category, it’s also possible to single out an individual Item to be added to your feed. To do this, click on the Add Filter button. This reveals a drop-down menu, from which you can choose your Item. The Webcal Link is updated to only include bookings for that one Item.

 

You can generate as many links to select Items as you need, This gives you more flexibility when adding subscriptions to your external calendar. Your setting selections are not saved in the Checkfront system once you close the modal. The Webcal Link you generate and copy simply contains the information needed to subscribe. Feel free to try out different combinations of settings and links until you find the combination of feeds to suit your needs.

 

The settings that you choose for your iCal Feed are reflected in the Webcal Link. Click on or copy the link to subscribe to this feed in your third-party calendar software.

 

The Booking Calendar feed can also be accessed through your Checkfront Account Profile (Account > Profile > Available Feeds > Booking Calendar (iCal)). Learn more about your Account Profile here: Accounts: Profile

 

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Once you're happy with the configuration of your feed, it's time to subscribe to the feed through your External Calendar. The process for this will vary, depending on which third-party calendar you're using. Simply copy the Webcal Link provided and paste it into the appropriate place in your External Calendar. If you're adding the feed to a calendar app on your local computer, try clicking the Webcal Link provided to open your External Calendar directly.

 

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Depending on which Category and Item options you have chosen when generating the Webcal Link, your synced information displays one of the following two ways.

 

Bookings display as one Checkfront calendar feed in your External Calendar if you select All Categories and do not add an Item filter when generating the Webcal Link.

 

Multiple feeds can be subscribed to through your External Calendar if you choose select Categories or filter for a select Item when generating the Webcal Link. You can then colour-code each feed for better legibility!

 

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< Booking Calendar: Booking Insights

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