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How do I connect Booking.com to Smoobu?

  • Updated

Linking Booking.com takes a few minutes per listing, partly in Smoobu and partly in your Booking.com Extranet. Once the connection is live, new Booking.com bookings flow into Smoobu automatically, and your Smoobu calendar keeps Booking.com's availability up to date, so you avoid overbookings and stop copying dates by hand.

Before you start

You need all of these in place before you connect:

  • A Booking.com Extranet account, with your login details.
  • Your Booking.com listings already exist. Smoobu links to existing listings; it does not create new ones on Booking.com. The listings do not have to be active yet: you can connect before they are open for sale.
  • A cancellation policy on every rate plan you want to connect. Booking.com no longer sets one by default, and until you choose one, no channel manager can connect to that rate plan. Set it in the Booking.com Extranet under Rates & Availability > Rate Plans > Edit Policy.
  • As many Smoobu properties as the listings you want to connect, one Smoobu property per listing, under Configuration > Properties. The names don't have to match exactly, but it helps when you map them.
  • Your Booking.com Property ID (or Hotel ID). The Booking.com Extranet calls it the Hotel ID. Log into the Extranet on a computer and look at the top left, next to the Booking.com logo: the number shown there is your Property ID. Click it, and copy it from the small dropdown that opens. It's usually 7 to 8 digits. If you also see a 10-digit number, that's a Room ID. You want the shorter parent Property ID.

You connect all your listings in one pass

On Booking.com, the connection is set per property, not once for your whole account. The guided flow is built so you still only walk it once: first set Smoobu as the connectivity provider (the service that manages your calendar and prices; that's Smoobu) for every property in the Extranet, then add all the Property IDs (or Hotel IDs) in Smoobu and map everything in a single pass. A property's listings won't appear in Smoobu's mapping step until you've finished that property's connectivity-provider setup, so complete all your properties in the Extranet before you return to Smoobu.

Steps

  1. In Smoobu, open Channels in the left sidebar. On the Booking.com card, click Connect. Read the on-screen instructions and click Continue.
  2. In a new tab, log into the Booking.com Extranet. For each property you want to connect, click the Account button (top right) and choose Connectivity Provider, then Search. Enter the two-factor code Booking.com sends you by phone or email.
  3. Search for Smoobu, select it, and click Connect. Tick Enable Extranet Access too: the connection works without it, but it lets Smoobu Support see the Booking.com side and fix issues much faster later. The Extranet then shows Pending Provider Setup; Smoobu approves this instantly, so there is nothing to wait for.
  4. Copy each property's Property ID (or Hotel ID), then go back to your Smoobu tab.
  5. In the Enter property IDs step, type a Property ID and click Add. Smoobu checks each ID the moment you add it. Add every ID, then click Continue. To connect additional Property IDs later, repeat steps 2 to 5 for each new property.
  6. Map each Smoobu property to its Booking.com listing: open the Not connected dropdown on the property's row and pick the matching listing. Mapped listings drop out of the dropdown, so only unmatched ones remain. Then click Continue.
  7. Confirm the import. Smoobu imports your genuine present and future Booking.com bookings only, not dates you blocked manually in Booking.com.
  8. On the final screen, choose to set up the Booking.com promotion later, so the connection finishes. Promotions are activated in the Booking.com Extranet, not in Smoobu: see Set up Booking.com promotions.
  9. Push your prices once: go to Pricing > Settings > Percentage adjustment > Overwrite Prices. Connecting and mapping does not push prices by itself. After this one-time push, later price changes reach Booking.com whenever you click Synchronize now in Pricing.

Check it worked

  • Your Booking.com bookings appear in your Smoobu Bookings list with the channel shown as Booking.com.
  • The same bookings appear on your Calendar as booking bars on the row of the property you mapped them to.
  • Block a date in your Smoobu calendar. Within a few minutes, the date shows as unavailable in your Booking.com Extranet.
  • Change a price in Pricing and click Synchronize now. The new price reaches Booking.com after a few minutes. The Smoobu page can keep showing the old value until you reload it.

Common problems

A listing won't appear when I try to map it

Almost always the rate plan has no cancellation policy. In the Booking.com Extranet, go to Rates & Availability > Rate Plans > Edit Policy, choose any policy, and save. Back in Smoobu, click Reload on the Booking.com page and try the mapping again. This is a Booking.com requirement that affects every channel manager, not just Smoobu.

A listing won't map, or Smoobu reports that more than one room is for sale

Smoobu maps one Booking.com listing to exactly one property, so a listing that offers more than one room at a time cannot map. Check the Rooms to Sell row in the Extranet under Rates & Availability > Calendar, then follow the case that matches you:

  • You rent one room of that type. A value above 1 is usually a mistake. Set it to 1, and the listing maps normally. You do not need to split anything.
  • You rent several identical rooms (ten identical double rooms, for example). Each room needs its own listing with a Rooms to Sell value of 1. The full procedure is in Split a Booking.com listing with several rooms into individual listings.

Smoobu says it can't access a Property ID

Smoobu validates every ID you add. If you see the message that Smoobu is unable to access a Property ID (or Hotel ID), finish that property's connectivity-provider setup in the Extranet (Account > Connectivity Provider > Search, select Smoobu, click Connect), then add the ID again. Also check you entered the 7 to 8 digit parent Property ID, not a 10-digit Room ID.

The Property ID is already connected to another Smoobu account

A Booking.com Property ID can only be connected to one Smoobu account at a time. Log into the other Smoobu account, go to Channels > Edit Booking.com, remove the Property ID, and click Save. Then connect it on the account you want. If you don't know which Smoobu account holds the connection, contact Smoobu Support and have your Property ID ready; they can identify the account and help release it.

Bookings or blocks I made on Booking.com before connecting aren't in Smoobu

Smoobu only syncs bookings made through the channel: manual bookings and blocked periods you created on Booking.com are not imported, and neither are bookings whose stay dates are already past. Add those in Smoobu yourself, or you risk an overbooking. Genuine bookings with current or future stays arrive with the connect-time import, so if one of those is missing, or you want past-stay bookings imported for your records, see My Booking.com bookings or availability aren't syncing.

Opening all my availability at once caused a double booking

If you open or push all your availability at once, either in Smoobu or by opening dates in the Booking.com Extranet, over dates that already hold a booking Smoobu doesn't know about, those dates reopen for sale and can be booked again, which causes a double booking. This bites hardest with manual or direct bookings and with bookings made before you connected, because Smoobu never imported them and so treats those dates as free. Before you open or push availability in bulk, enter every manual, direct, and pre-connection booking into Smoobu first, and don't bulk-open date ranges that may still hold bookings Smoobu can't see.

Still stuck?

If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:

  • Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
  • The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
  • The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
  • The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
  • A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
  • Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
  • Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.

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