AirBnB: Upcoming change to iCal listing information

[Mike V.]

I received this e-mail from AirBnB today.  This is going to make 'professional hosting' much harder for those of us that cross list on multiple listing sites.  AirBnB already refuses to allow integration dispite every other major listing site allowing it which forces us to use their iCal feature to cross link our calendars.  Now they are removing a significant portion of that information to force us to use the AirBnB site when issues arise.  For people with a few listings, or those who only use AirBnB this probably won't make much of an impact.  However, for those of us that handle multiple properties and get 50%+ of our reservations from other sites, this is going to be a huge pain in the rear.  It also diminishes the value of using third party software to help in our day to day processes by requiring additional steps to obtain basic airbnb guest information.     I am very disappointed in this policy and it seems like a direct attack on people who cross list.  I hope they don't go through with it. As part of Airbnb’s ongoing efforts to minimize exposure of guest information, exported iCal events will no longer display reservation details. These changes will take effect on December 1, 2019.

What’s changing?

The iCal calendar sync description for reservations will display only the last 4 digits of the guest phone number, along with a link to the reservation details page. The guest name and reservation code will be removed from the event titles, and the calendar sync will export listing calendar information for future dates only.

The following information will be provided for each reservation exported via iCal moving forward:

Summary: Will appear as “Reserved” Description: Will include a “Reservation URL” section with the link to the reservation details page and a “Phone Number (Last 4 Digits)” section with the last 4 digits of the guest’s phone number

What does this mean for hosts?

If you rely on detailed information from the iCal calendar sync descriptions, you may need to make updates or alert your software partners to the changes above so they’re ready when they take effect on December 1, 2019.

These changes won’t impact iCal’s syncing functionality—your calendar will continue to prevent multiple guests from booking the same dates.

We appreciate your help in making Airbnb a trusted community for all.

Thanks for being a host,

The Airbnb Team

I am in the process of putting together a website for my rentals after finally picking a domain name that I like.  I'm going to be using Wix and am wondering if any of you have experience 

[Benjamin Vail]

 Unfortunately I think the biggest change will be for the third-party software vendors such as PMS like Ownerrez, Smartbnb, Ect. They built their systems to rely on this meta data from the iCal link, and now they will stop receiving it. So this is a dig from Airbnb at owners that cross list, and a shot in the knees at 3rd party software vendors who built their system around the Airbnb iCal link.