The short answer
If you already use Hospitable, Guesty or Hostaway, connect it directly. Lemon then receives each reservation with its status, and a cancellation arrives as a cancellation. If you list straight on Airbnb and Booking.com, the calendar link (iCal) is what you have, and it works. You paste a link and Lemon does the rest.
What each one gives you
| Calendar link (iCal) | Direct PMS connection | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives | Dates, and sometimes a short label | The reservation itself: status, dates, guest count, platform, code |
| Cancellation | Lemon has to notice the booking has gone | Sent as a clear cancellation |
| Speed | Within about 5 minutes, plus any delay on the platform's side | Seconds |
| Host blocks vs guests | Look the same on Booking.com | Told apart |
| Setup | Paste a link | Authorise once |
| Availability | Every platform | Hospitable, Guesty, Hostaway |
When iCal is the right answer
Most hosts with 1 to 20 properties do not run a PMS; they list on Airbnb and Booking.com directly. For them iCal is the only option that exists, and it is enough, provided the software reading it is built for what these calendars actually do. Lemon's calendar handling was built precisely because iCal is what most of its customers have.
When to move to a direct connection
- You take last-minute bookings and the few minutes of delay matter.
- You have back-to-back stays on Booking.com and want the second checkout to exist without a review step.
- You want cancellations to be facts, not guesses.
- You already pay for Hospitable, Guesty or Hostaway.
How Lemon combines them
Each property gets its bookings from one source. When you connect a PMS, Lemon switches off that property's calendar links so the two never clash. From the PMS, Lemon keeps only what scheduling needs (dates, status, a reference), not the guest's contact details.
Technical details
- An iCal feed delivers date ranges, each with a UID and (sometimes) a summary. Cancellation is inferred from absence. Identity is the UID, which Booking.com changes; a PMS reservation has a stable reservation ID.
- PMS changes arrive by webhook in seconds; Lemon also polls every 30 minutes as a backstop. Setup is OAuth.
- Each property has a
bookingSource:icalor the PMS. When a property is connected to a PMS, its iCal feeds are deactivated by the integration. PMS reservations are scrubbed of personal data at ingest. - Hospitable reservations that are
on holdare treated carefully because the term covers two different situations on that platform; Lemon documents both.