Questions about syncing MyVR calendar with Google calendar

[Carole]

I have just setup a calendar sync with MyVR and Google Calendar.
I have successfully synced once, and I know this because I see my bookings in the Google Calendar (just the guest name for each property I have synced).
Once this is setup do these calendars sync at specific intervals regularly? I don’t see anyplace to set the sync frequency. Perhaps I need to resync them manually?
I have the same question for the syncs I have setup with HolidayLettings and Airbnb.
Thanks
Carole

[Jonathan Murray]

Howdy @Carole -

I think MyVR pulls in ical from other sources every ~3 hours. You can force a manual sync at any time by clicking “sync now” in the settings for the ical import. You can see how frequently we’re pulling by looking at the sync history for each import into MyVR.

The syncing that I think you’re talking about, however, is the syncing at the listing sites. The frequencies of those are determined by the listing sites because they’re “pulling” in the ical we feed them. We do show you in MyVR how frequently the listing site is pulling them in the sync history, so you can just check tomorrow and you’ll know how frequently each channel pulls in the calendar. I recommend setting up each channel separately in MyVR so that you get a different ical link for each. Otherwise, you won’t get a read of how frequently each individual channel gets pulled. All channels will be mixed if you send the same ical link to each of them.

For the most up-to-date calendars, we recommend using the full channel management on the channels where it is offered (currently Airbnb, HomeAway, TripAdvisor, and Booking.com).

There are a few good threads on ical in the forum and the help center.

Happy Holidays!
Jonathan

[Carole]

@Jonathan-Murray Thanks. I list on Holidaylettings so I cannot use the full integration - only the calendar in order to update TripAdvisor. I am fully integrated with HomeAway and that’s working fine.
With regards to the Google Calendar sync - I don’t see any ‘sync now’ option in my dashboard. I am trying to create Google calendars so my housekeeper can see guest arrival an departure details.
Carole

[Jonathan Murray]

Hi @Carole -

Have you had a chance to check out the documentation that I referenced?

The ‘Sync now’ button is in the settings for the ical imports into MyVR (under Channels/Calendar Only Sync). We only control the frequency of the imports into MyVR. As mentioned, the syncing into a listing site is controlled by the listing site, we just give you the iCal link to export to the listing site. There can be no ‘Sync Now’ on that at MyVR, as it is controlled by the listing site, but it might be possible to force a sync at that site (you’ll have to check the site you’re trying to sync to). We show you the sync history in MyVR, however, as we can tell how often the iCal link is hit by the listing site.

Hope that helps.

We sell an iCal sync audit in the Services marketplace if you want help setting it up or testing to make sure things are set up right.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Carole]

An answer on Christmas? That’s above and beyond (but appreciated)!

I have searched and read anything I could find in the forum and the help sections.
I am specifically wanting to know about a one way sync to Google. Does it actually repeat after the first time?

I have set up a few of my properties to sync to a Google calendar. Within MyVR I see:

And inside the manage setup I see Sync Histories:

And in the advanced setup I see:

I do not see any options for changing this nor has the calendar updated again today.

On the other hand, I have a sync setup with HolidayLettings Basic Calendar Sync and I can see it has updated several times already (it looks like it synced at 10 hours the first time and 9 hours the second time) - so from what you’ve said I assume that the interval for syncing is controlled by HolidayLettings?

If you think the easiest way for me to achieve what I need (putting all of my bookings up on a Google Calendar so the housekeeper has them) is to have MyVR do this, I’m happy to do that. I just want to make sure that what I’m trying to do is achievable (I read a thread on this forum that you do this for your property to communicate with your housekeeper as well, do you have to manually update each time you get a booking or does it occur automatically for your one property - but maybe it is more complicated because I have multiple properties?)

Thanks again
Carole

[Jonathan Murray]

@Carole -

To answer your questions:

• yes, the sync to Google should happen repeatedly and not just once, if it is set up right. I’d just wait until tomorrow and see if it uploads again tomorrow.
• no, there are no settings to change your sync history into Google because that’s controlled by Google, not MyVR.
• Holiday Lettings syncs more frequently than Google because the creators of HolidayLettings chose a more frequent import than Google has set up.

I took a snapshot at another user’s Google Calendar sync history. Here it is:

I think I answered all the questions, but let me know if I missed one!

Happy Holidays!

[Carole]

@Jonathan-Murray
Thanks - that answers my questions.
I will check tomorrow and see if any of them update.
Happy holidays!
Carole

[Carole]

@Jonathan-Murray

With regards to this:

yes, the sync to Google should happen repeatedly and not just once, if it is set up right. I’d just wait until tomorrow and see if it uploads again tomorrow.<<

The sync between MyVR and GoogleCalendar occurred once. It has not updated since the first day.

Can you confirm that your statement above is referring to my ability to post my bookings that are within MyVR onto a Google Calendar (for my housekeeper to see)?

Carole

[Markus Nordvik]

@Carole Hi Carole - looking at your account, it looks like this is specific to exporting from MyVR to your Google calendar. The way that works is that we produce a link that you place in your Google calendar. Google then hits that link to pull in the calendar events from MyVR. For this reason, we have no control over the frequency with which Google pulls in calendar events from us (or if they do at all), that would be something that would need to be managed in your Google calendar.

I looked around for a while and unfortunately couldn’t find a definitive help article from Google on how to manage these imports from MyVR. If anyone comes across this, would be great to post the link here.

[Carole]

@Markus-Nordvik Yes, I have been looking too. I do understand MyVR has no control over it - but in a previous message it seemed like @Jonathan-Murray was saying that it can be done (in another thread he mentioned that he does this to communicate with a housekeeper - that’s where I got the idea to do this).

[Markus Nordvik]

@Carole To be clear, I am not saying it isn’t something Google offers, only that I couldn’t find a definitive help article from Google that demonstrates a) this feature is currently offered by them, and b) if so, how to manage it in your Google account.