Availability sync case study
London House Holiday Cottages: building a bespoke availability sync
A polished direct-booking website for two North York Moors cottages, powered by a bespoke Sykes Holiday Cottages iCal alternative.
The challenge
Current availability without an affordable iCal feed
London House needed a website that showcased Owl Barn and The Nook while allowing guests to check availability before submitting a direct booking enquiry.
Availability was managed through Sykes Holiday Cottages, but an iCal feed was not included in the owner's existing arrangement. Obtaining one would have required a significant increase in monthly fees.
Without a feed, the owner would normally have to update a second calendar by hand. That repetitive process risked stale information and enquiries for dates that were no longer available.
- Properties
- Two cottages
- Automatic refresh
- Every three days
- Owner control
- On-demand sync
The solution
A purpose-built alternative to a Sykes iCal feed
A bespoke availability scraper bridges the gap between the Sykes listings and the London House website. Rather than collecting visible text from a web page, it securely reads the structured availability information used by the Sykes booking calendar.
The service establishes a browser-like session for each cottage, requests the relevant dates and stay patterns, then converts the response into data the London House website can use. The processed information is stored locally to power the interactive calendars.
- Available and unavailable dates
- Valid changeover days
- Bookable arrival dates
- Three-, four- and seven-night stay patterns
- Pricing and booking restrictions supplied with the availability data
Automated and manual synchronisation
Regular updates with an immediate refresh when it matters
Availability synchronises automatically every three days, keeping visitor information regularly refreshed without asking the property owner to maintain another calendar.
A secure administration dashboard also includes a Sync Availability action. When a booking changes, the owner can immediately update both cottages and see when the latest refresh completed.
Timeouts, automatic retries and overlapping-sync prevention make the process more resilient and stop duplicate refreshes competing with one another.
More than a calendar
Availability that validates each enquiry
The imported data also controls which booking enquiries can be sent. Guests can only select supported arrival and departure dates, and the system checks that every night in the requested stay remains available.
This creates a clearer booking journey while reducing unsuitable enquiries and unnecessary administration for the owner.
The result
A practical direct-booking experience
- Avoids the additional monthly cost required to obtain an iCal feed
- Keeps availability for Owl Barn and The Nook synchronised
- Reduces repetitive manual calendar management
- Helps prevent enquiries for unavailable dates
- Supports direct customer enquiries through the London House website
- Gives the owner an immediate manual refresh whenever required
The custom availability system solves a genuine operational problem with a focused technical solution. London House gains more control over its direct-booking journey without duplicating day-to-day calendar administration.
Bespoke integration development
When the standard integration is unavailable or uneconomical
An iCal feed is often the simplest way to share booking availability, but it is not always included or cost-effective. This project shows how a carefully scoped integration can provide the data a direct-booking website needs while preserving a straightforward workflow for its owner.
Integration safeguards
- Scheduling
- Automatic refresh
- Recovery
- Timeouts and retries
- Concurrency
- Overlap prevention
- Visibility
- Last-sync tracking
Need a booking availability integration?
Turn third-party availability data into a dependable direct-booking journey built around your business.