How to sync your Airbnb calendar with Google Calendar
You can connect Airbnb and Google Calendar, but only one direction actually blocks dates. Airbnb to Google is a read-only subscription: paste your Airbnb export link into Google Calendar and your bookings show up as events you can view, not edit, refreshed on Google's own schedule, commonly described as up to 24 hours, not in real time. Google to Airbnb works the other way: paste a Google Calendar export link into Airbnb's calendar-import field and real events on it will block those nights on Airbnb, though nights merely marked busy without an actual event may or may not carry over, per Airbnb's own Help Center. Neither direction is instant, and Google Calendar only ever connects to the one calendar you feed it, it has no way to also watch Booking.com, Vrbo, or any other OTA.
Airbnb to Google Calendar: view your bookings
On Airbnb: go to Calendar, then Availability, then Sync calendars, and copy the export link for the listing (it ends in .ics). In Google Calendar: on the left, under "Other calendars," click the plus icon, then "From URL," paste the Airbnb link, and click "Add calendar."
This connection only runs one way and is read-only. Your Airbnb bookings now show up as events on your personal calendar, but nothing you do inside Google Calendar, adding, editing, or deleting an event, changes the actual reservation. It is a view of your Airbnb calendar, not a control panel for it; to change a real booking you still have to do it inside Airbnb.
Google does not commit to a fixed refresh interval for a subscribed calendar like this one. It fetches the link on a schedule it controls, with no manual "refresh now" button, and that cadence is consistently reported, in independent testing and in Google's own community support threads, as up to 24 hours, not minutes. A booking you just took on Airbnb may not appear on your Google Calendar until sometime the next day.
Google Calendar to Airbnb: block dates from your own calendar
In Google Calendar, hover the calendar you want to export (it has to be one you own, not one someone else shared with you), click the three-dot menu, then "Settings and sharing," and scroll to "Secret address in iCal format." Copy that link; treat it as a secret, since anyone with it can see your full calendar.
Paste that link into Airbnb on the same Sync calendars screen, under "Import calendar." Once connected, per Airbnb's Help Center, nights that are genuinely booked on the imported calendar are automatically blocked on Airbnb. Nights just marked busy on the source calendar, without a real, dated event behind them, "may or may not" carry over, in Airbnb's own words, so a vague personal placeholder is not a reliable way to close a date; use an actual all-day event if you want it to hold.
What this setup does not do
Google Calendar connects to exactly one calendar at a time. It has no way to also watch Booking.com, Vrbo, or Agoda, so it cannot stop a double booking across multiple OTAs, only ever between the one platform you subscribed to and your personal calendar. That is a different, and more common, problem: keeping several booking platforms in sync with each other, covered in the channel manager vs iCal sync guide.
For that job, a personal calendar app is the wrong tool regardless of refresh speed. getfursat's free tier syncs Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda directly against each other, no Google Calendar involved, so a booking on one closes the others without waiting on any subscription to refresh.
Check if this is already costing you a night right now, or fix it going forward with real-time sync.
Can I block a date on Airbnb by deleting the matching event in my subscribed Google Calendar?
No. The Airbnb-to-Google connection is view-only: your subscribed calendar in Google Calendar is a read-only mirror of the real Airbnb calendar. Deleting or editing that copy does not touch the actual reservation; you still have to cancel or change it inside Airbnb itself.
How fast does the Airbnb and Google Calendar connection actually update?
Neither direction is real time. Airbnb pulls an imported calendar on its own schedule, commonly a few hours, and Google Calendar refreshes a subscribed calendar on a schedule it controls with no manual trigger, commonly reported as up to 24 hours. Treat a booking or block you just made as invisible on the other side for at least several hours.
Does syncing Google Calendar stop double bookings across Airbnb, Booking.com, and other platforms?
No. Google Calendar only ever connects to the one calendar you feed it, so it cannot also watch Booking.com or Vrbo. Stopping a double booking across multiple platforms needs those platforms synced against each other directly, which is what a channel manager, including getfursat's free tier for Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda, actually does.