If you’re in the vacation rental business, organization and efficiency are key. This means relying on all the tools that are available to help you rent out your home. And while it will come as no surprise, one of the most important tools for any property manager is a vacation rental booking calendar.
Also known as a vacation rental availability calendar, this is an excellent resource for tracking your reservations and avoiding double bookings.
To help you out, we’re sharing a free vacation rental booking calendar template that you can start using today, as well as information on more comprehensive vacation rental calendar options.
Don’t see the form to download our calendar? Click here.
What is a vacation rental calendar?
A vacation rental property calendar is a specialized availability calendar for organizing bookings. It’s an essential tool for anyone renting out a vacation property on a nightly basis.
Some calendars are simple, stand-alone applications, while others form part of a wider software service. We’ll get into the various options below.
Vacation rental availability calendar options
Vacation rental booking calendar options range from basic spreadsheets to complex software that syncs your calendars across booking platforms. We walk through all the options below, ranging from the most simple (but limited) options to the most advanced.
Vacation rental calendar template
If you’re looking for a free online vacation rental calendar to start using immediately, an Excel template might be for you. These templates are simply spreadsheets, formatted as calendars, that give you an overview of all your bookings in one place.
Here’s what Lodgify’s template looks like, to give you an idea:
The benefit of these templates is that they’re easy to use and often free. However, unless you sync your spreadsheet with software, you’ll have to update it manually each time you get a booking. This is not only extremely time-consuming, but makes it likely that you’ll get behind or make mistakes, leading to double bookings.
That’s not to say free vacation rental calendar templates are all bad. In fact, if you’re just getting started, we recommend using this kind of template while you look for and set up a more comprehensive solution.
Sound like what you need? Download our vacation rental calendar Excel template to start tracking bookings immediately.
Vacation rental calendar app
You can also manage your bookings with apps, with options available that sync direct bookings from your bookable website. Needless to say, apps are a step up from old-school spreadsheets.
However, if you’re also listing vacation rental properties across third-party platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo, any app you choose will need to be able to sync your bookings from all of these sites (as well as your own). Since most apps that do this are offered as part of more comprehensive software solutions, we’ll dive right into this next option.
Vacation rental calendar software
Finally, vacation rental calendar software is the only full-proof way to manage bookings across multiple listing sites.
This software will synchronize all your bookings from your website and different listing sites onto a single platform. This vacation rental calendar sync gives travelers real-time availability, while owners get quick access to existing reservation details.
Let’s say you have your property listed on Airbnb and Vrbo. Instead of having to manually check each listing site every time you receive a reservation, short-term rental calendar software will keep you updated at all times without fearing double bookings.
Benefits of using vacation rental calendar software
Clearly, software is the best option when it comes to managing your availability calendar, if only because it’s the most effective. But the benefits of using this type of software go even further:
- No more double bookings: As we explained above, this type of software prevents double bookings by syncing your booking calendars across all your listing sites. This short-term rental calendar sync means that all your calendars will always be up-to-date.
- Time savings: One of the key advantages of using an availability calendar is that it saves time. By being able to access important information at a glance, owners have no trouble finding the information needed. This allows them to spend more time on business operations.
- Convenience for guests: A booking calendar makes your guests more comfortable as well. They get real-time information on current bookings and can view availability for their own reservation dates. When a traveler makes a reservation directly using software that links to a reservation calendar, it automatically updates this for your staff as well.
- Reservation management made easy: Forget about managing multiple accounts. With calendar software and other channel manager features, you can manage all your reservations from a single platform.
- Simplified team management: For property managers managing staff, short-term rental calendar software makes it easier than ever to keep everyone on the same page. There’s no need to notify everyone about each reservation—they can simply check the calendar and accept or reject requests. It also allows them to block off certain periods of time as unavailable and gives a clear overview of their entire schedule.
- Better brand visibility: A synchronized calendar means that you can list on numerous third-party platforms without the added work of managing multiple calendars. The result? More brand visibility, customer reach, and bookings.
Choosing the right short-term rental calendar software
You will find that you have plenty of choices when it comes to vacation rental software. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when doing so.
First, you want an application that is easy to use and has all of the functionalities that are important to you. You should be able to easily pull in information from third-party listing sites and have a good support team behind you. Last but not least, the software you decide to go with should be affordable.
When choosing the right software for your rental business, take your time and review different options carefully.
Put your short-term rental calendar into action
By now, you should have an idea of why short-term rental calendar software is crucial for your business. All that’s left is to find the perfect software solution. And luckily, we have a tip.
Lodgify’s channel manager enables you to fully synchronize your listings via API with the top listing channels in the vacation rental industry, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia. Instead of worrying about overbookings or an empty calendar, you can focus your energy on building a vacation rental strategy and taking your service to the next level.
Want to see for yourself? Try our free seven-day trial! And in the meantime, our vacation rental calendar template is available free of charge to download and start using today.
Don’t see the button to start a free trial? Click here.
