Vrbo calendar sync,
hands off.
Connect Vrbo once and stop copying dates between tabs. A booking on any channel closes those nights on the others, and there is a free way to do it before you decide whether the fast one is worth paying for.
Laurie saved $4,000 last year when he switched to Host Port.
“I was paying hotel money for software I needed a training call to understand. Host Port does the same job for a fraction of it. One calendar, every channel, and nothing I have to think about on a changeover day. Moving all four took less than an hour to do.”
Laurie hosts four stays around Manly, NSW.See them on Airbnb
Two ways to sync Vrbo. One of them is free.
Both keep your calendar in step. They differ in what they carry and how quickly, and the right answer depends entirely on how busy your calendar is.
- Vrbo’s booked dates come into your calendar
- Your calendar goes back out as a feed Vrbo reads
- We check every 15 minutes; Vrbo refreshes on its own timetable
- Rates, minimum stay and reservation details do not travel
Fine when your calendar is quiet and a few hours of lag would not cost you a booking.
- A booking on any channel closes those nights on Vrbo, and vice versa
- Rates and minimum stay push out with the availability
- Reservations arrive with guest, dates and totals attached
- Your existing Vrbo bookings are pulled in when you connect
What you want the first weekend two guests could plausibly book the same night.
Start on iCal if you are not sure. Nothing about it is a trial, it does not expire, and moving to a direct connection later is a setting rather than a migration.
What crosses between you and Vrbo, and which way.
Worth being specific, because “two-way sync” is usually where the detail stops, including about the things that do not travel at all.
Arrives with the guest, the dates and the total, and closes those nights on every other channel.
Those nights close on Vrbo the moment the booking lands, without you opening it.
Drag across the dates, save, and they close on Vrbo along with everywhere else.
Pushed with the availability, so you are not repricing the same night in three extranets.
Nothing we run edits your Vrbo listing. Descriptions and photos stay yours to manage on Vrbo.
Both directions are event-driven, so the usual case is under a minute. Behind that sit a sweep every two minutes, a reconcile against Vrbo every fifteen, and a full resync overnight, so the worst case is a delay rather than a double booking.
Vrbo works differently to Airbnb, so we will say how.
Airbnb has an “approve this app” screen. Vrbo does not offer one, which means the connection is made by signing in rather than by authorising. You should know that before you start rather than halfway through.
Sign in to Vrbo, inside HostPort
Vrbo does not offer the “approve this app” screen that Airbnb does, so you enter your Vrbo details here instead. If Vrbo asks for a verification code, it arrives the usual way and you type it in.
Pick the listing
Your Vrbo listings are fetched and shown in a list. Say which HostPort property each one is, and set how minimum stay should be interpreted.
Your existing bookings come with you
Current Vrbo reservations are pulled in as the connection activates, so your calendar is populated before it starts pushing anything back out.
Your Vrbo credentials are used to complete the connection and are cleared once it is live, they are not kept on file afterwards. If the setup falls over halfway, running it again picks up the existing connection rather than creating a second one.
The double booking happens on the day you connect.
Not later, and not because sync is slow. It happens because the first push tells Vrbo a night is free when it was already taken by something the calendar did not know about. Four steps prevent it.
Get every existing booking into one calendar first
Whatever is already booked on Airbnb, on Booking.com, in your head or in a spreadsheet, make sure it is all showing in HostPort before anything starts pushing. A booking the system does not know about is a night it thinks is free.
Close the dates you know are gone
Block anything taken that has not arrived as a real booking, the friend staying in March, the fortnight you are using it yourself. Blocks push out the same way bookings do.
Then connect Vrbo
With the calendar already true, the first push closes the right nights on Vrbo instead of opening ones that were never available. This ordering is the whole trick.
Check the first weekend by eye
Open Vrbo once, an hour later, and confirm the blocked dates look the way you expect. It takes a minute and it is the cheapest insurance you will buy all year.
On Vrbo, the calendar and the messages are not the same connection.
These get conflated constantly, and it is better heard from us than discovered on day two.
The calendar, a direct connection
Availability, rates, stay rules and reservations run over a proper connection to Vrbo. It is two-way, it is quick, and it is what this page is about.
The messages, a different mechanism
Vrbo guest messaging does not run over that connection. It works, and it threads into the same inbox as every other channel, but it needs a one-off setup on your Vrbo account first. Worth knowing before you expect messages to appear on day one.
If guest messaging is the reason you are here rather than the calendar, read the inbox page first, it covers what Vrbo messaging does and does not do.
Three things worth a closer look.
Vrbo messages
How Vrbo guest messaging threads in alongside Airbnb and Booking.com, and the setup it needs.
See the inboxThe Airbnb side
What crosses between HostPort and Airbnb, which way, and what never moves.
See the connectionEverything else
The whole product at breadth, including where it stops being the right tool.
See the lotWhat you get free, and what costs $10.
We would rather you understood the line than found it after signing up. Here it is.
Unlimited listings. No credit card, no trial clock.
- One-way iCal sync with Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo
- Unified calendar across every listing
- Manual bookings, blocks and notes
- Mobile app with push alerts
- Commission-free direct booking page for every listing
- Team and cleaner access, unlimited seats
Per listing, per month, in AUD.
- Everything in Free
- Vrbo connected directly, not by iCal
- Two-way sync, usually inside a minute
- Rates and stay rules pushed with availability
- Airbnb and Booking.com connected the same way
- Priority support, one-hour first reply
Billed per listing, not per channel. Connecting Vrbo, Airbnb and Booking.com on one listing is $10, not $30.
Common questions
Is Vrbo included on the free plan?
Yes, over iCal, for unlimited listings and alongside Airbnb and Booking.com. What you give up is speed and detail: iCal carries dates and nothing else, and each platform refreshes on its own schedule rather than the moment something changes.
How do I avoid a double booking while setting this up?
Order of operations. Get every existing booking and block into HostPort first, so the calendar is already true, and only then connect Vrbo. Connecting first and tidying afterwards is how the classic migration double booking happens, the first push tells Vrbo those nights are free.
Why do you need my Vrbo login when Airbnb only needed a click?
Because Vrbo does not offer the authorisation screen Airbnb does. There is no “approve this app” flow to use, so the connection is made by signing in, with a verification code if Vrbo asks for one. Those details are held only for as long as the setup takes and are cleared once the connection is live.
How fast is it, honestly?
On a direct connection, usually under a minute in both directions, because both sides are event-driven rather than polled. The number that matters more is the worst case: a sweep runs every two minutes, the queue is reprocessed and reconciled against Vrbo every fifteen, and there is a full resync overnight. On free iCal, the honest answer is a few hours, because the refresh schedule is Vrbo’s and not ours.
Do my rates go to Vrbo as well?
On a direct connection, yes, nightly rates and minimum stay push out with the availability, so a price change lands everywhere rather than in one extranet. On iCal, no. iCal carries dates and nothing else, regardless of who is on either end of it.
Will this change my Vrbo listing?
No. Nothing we run edits your listing content, photos or reviews. The connection moves availability, rates, stay rules and reservations, and that is the whole of it.
Does Vrbo two-way sync cost extra?
No. It is $10 AUD per listing per month, the same as any other channel, there is no per-channel charge, no commission, and connecting Airbnb and Booking.com as well does not change the price.
What happens if I stop paying?
The listing falls back to free iCal sync rather than going dark. You lose the speed and the rate pushing, you keep a calendar that still updates, and nothing is held hostage.