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Troubleshooting Pricing Sync Issues Between Hospitable and Booking Platforms

How to diagnose and fix pricing discrepancies between Hospitable and Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com

Written by Kelly
Updated in the last 15 minutes

Which article do you need?

If you use an external dynamic pricing tool and your price is incorrect there, reach out to your dynamic pricing software's support team for assistance.


This article outlines how to troubleshoot instances where your price is correct on Hospitable but appears wrong on your booking platforms.

Quick fix — try this first!

If your prices on a booking platform don't match what you see in your Hospitable calendar, ask Smarty, our AI bot to perform a force push of your pricing. This re-sends all calendar data to the booking platform and may help update your calendar. Just type something like "Can you force push my pricing for [property name]?" in the chat widget.


Before You Troubleshoot

Pricing discrepancies can have many causes. To find the right fix quickly, start by gathering these four pieces of information:

  1. Which channel is wrong? — Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com?

  2. Which exact date range? — Specific check-in/check-out dates where the price is wrong. If it's every date, share an example with Smarty, our AI bot.

  3. What price do you see in Hospitable for that date? — Open your Hospitable Calendar, click the date, and note the nightly rate and its source.

    You can see the source of your pricing in the right-side panel when you select a date or date range in your calendar.
  4. What price do you see on the booking platform for the same date? — Note the nightly rate (not the guest total) and the currency.

These details will help you use this toubleshooting guide to resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.

Important: Always compare the nightly rate in Hospitable to the nightly rate on the booking platform — not the guest total. Booking platform's guest-facing prices include service fees, taxes, cleaning fees, and possible discounts that Hospitable does not display. If the nightly rates match but the totals differ, the pricing sync is working correctly — the difference is taxes, fees, or discounts applied by the booking channel. Contact their support team if you need more help.


How Pricing Sync Works

When you set or update a price in Hospitable, whether manually, via a pricing rule-set, or through a dynamic pricing tool, such as Hospitable's integrated dynamic pricing or PriceLabs, Hospitable immediately pushes the nightly rate to each connected booking platform.

Key points:

  • Hospitable sends the nightly accommodation rate (price on the Hospitable calendar + any platform markups) — not the total guest-facing price. If you use markup rates in Hospitable, the platform adjusts the base rate by your specified percentage before sending it to the booking platform.

  • Cleaning fees, extra-guest fees, and other surcharges are managed separately within each booking platform's settings or within Hospitable's fee configuration. They are not part of the nightly rate sync. Learn more about fees here.

  • If a push to a booking platform fails (for example, due to a temporary API error), Hospitable will automatically retry until the push succeeds.

  • The rate guests ultimately see on the booking platform may differ from the base rate because each channel applies its own fees, taxes, commissions, and promotions on top of it.

  • Manual changes made to your Hospitable calendar will override your property's set base rate. If you'd like to reset your pricing back to your base rate, ask Smarty, our AI bot, to do that for you.

  • If you use an external dynamic pricing tool (PriceLabs, Beyond, Wheelhouse, DPGO, etc.), pricing flows in two stages:

    1. Your external pricing tool → Hospitable — Your tool calculates nightly rates and sends them to Hospitable via API.

    2. Hospitable → Booking channels — Hospitable pushes those rates to Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com.

    If the price is already wrong in Hospitable, the issue is in Stage 1 — see our dedicated article: Troubleshooting Pricing Discrepancies Between Hospitable and External Dynamic Pricing Tools. This article covers Stage 2 — when prices in Hospitable are correct but don't match what appears on the booking channel.

💡 What does Hospitable push for pricing? Hospitable syncs the nightly rate to booking platforms. Cleaning fees, extra-guest fees, pet fees, and taxes are configured separately — those fees are set either in Hospitable's fee settings or directly on each platform. When comparing nightly prices, always compare the accommodation rate in Hospitable + markups with the nightly rate before discounts, fees and taxes on the booking platform.

Markup Rates

Markup rates let you increase or decrease the price sent to a specific booking platform relative to your nightly rate in Hospitable. If you use markup rates in Hospitable, the price on the booking platform will intentionally differ from your Hospitable base rate. Make sure to account for your markup settings before troubleshooting further.

For example:

  • You have a 10% markup on Booking.com

  • Your Hospitable calendar shows $100 for the night

  • Hospitable will send $110 to Booking.com

Troubleshooting tips:

  • Go to your property's pricing settings in Hospitable and check whether a markup is applied for the affected channel. You will find this under:

    • Hospitable → Properties

    • Select the property in question

    • Go to Pricing on the left-hand panel

  • Remember that markups are applied per channel — a markup on Booking.com does not affect Airbnb or Vrbo.

  • If the booking platform price looks higher than expected, check whether a markup is active before investigating further.

    Markup rate configuration in Hospitable listing pricing settings

You can read more about markups here.


If your pricing isn't what you expect on the booking platform, jump to the correct troubleshooting section:


How to Resolve Pricing Issues on Vrbo's Calendar

This section covers the most common causes for pricing discrepancies on your Vrbo calendar.

Hospitable Is Not Yet the Ultimate Source of Truth For The Vrbo Calendar

Unlike Airbnb and Booking.com, Hospitable is not currently the ultimate source of truth for pricing on Vrbo. This means:

  • Hosts (or other tools) can freely change pricing directly on the Vrbo calendar, and those changes will stick — even after Hospitable pushes its prices.

    • For example, if you change your price on Hospitable and we push that change successfully to Vrbo, and later, you update your pricing directly on Vrbo's calendar, the pricing between Hospitable and Vrbo will be out of alignment. You should update your pricing on Hospitable instead.

  • If Vrbo is the Lead listing on your property, Hospitable will pull Vrbo's prices into your Hospitable calendar and then push those to other listings on the property (if Pricing Sync is enabled). Most users do not have Vrbo as their lead listing, so this is unlikely to apply.

  • Because of this, we strongly recommend making all pricing changes in your Hospitable calendar, not on Vrbo directly. Editing prices on Vrbo can cause discrepancies between platforms.

🔜 This will change with the upcoming Vrbo Official API integration, which will make Hospitable the source of truth for Vrbo as well — just like it already is for Airbnb and Booking.com.

Rate Limits

Rate Limit Issues on Newly Connected Listings

My Vrbo calendar isn't updating after connecting to Hospitable

Because Hospitable has not yet released its official integration with Vrbo, we use Vrbo's public API, which is subject to rate limits. This means Vrbo can temporarily block our pushes in rare instances if we send too much data at once.

This most commonly affects newly created Vrbo listings, since the initial sync requires pushing a large amount of calendar data.

What happens: Vrbo responds with a rate-limit error and blocks further pushes until the limit resets. Hospitable will retry, but subsequent attempts may also be blocked until Vrbo clears the rate limit.

Rate Limit Issues and Sync Delays on All Other Listings

Vrbo imposes rate limits on how frequently calendar data can be pushed. If you make many changes at once (including Dynamic Pricing updates for multiple dates), some updates may be rejected by Vrbo during our initial sync. As long as your listing remains live, we'll re-attempt pushes for all failed dates on a rolling basis, until Vrbo confirms the push was successful.

How to Resolve Rate Limit Issues:

  1. Check your Vrbo calendar directly. If prices appear incorrect or too low, update them manually on Vrbo to protect yourself from bookings at unintended rates while the sync catches up.

  2. Ask Smarty, our AI bot for a targeted force push. A force push for a specific, narrow date range is more likely to succeed than a push for the full calendar. For example, you can ask Smarty: Please force push pricing for the next 3 months for my property called [property name].

⚠️ Important: Do not leave your Vrbo calendar with incorrect or default prices while waiting for sync to complete. If your prices appear too low on Vrbo, update them directly on the Vrbo calendar as a temporary measure to avoid bookings at unintended rates.

Unlisted, Hidden, or Paused Listings

If your Vrbo listing is unlisted, hidden, or paused, Hospitable cannot push pricing updates to it. Any sync attempts during this period are skipped permanently — they will not be pushed again automatically when the listing goes live.

  • The push is skipped and never retried automatically.

  • Your Vrbo calendar will not reflect any pricing changes made in Hospitable.

🚨 Vrbo: Skipped pushes are permanent. If your listing was unlisted, hidden, or paused while a pricing sync ran, those pushes were skipped and will not retry on their own. After making your listing live again, you must update your pricing on Hospitable to force a new push, or ask Smarty, our AI bot, to run a pricing push for you. Try asking: "Hi Smarty, I recently made my Vrbo listing live. Can you please run a force push of pricing for my property called [property name] for the next 3 months?"

If your listing wasn't live, here's what you should do:

  1. Ensure your Vrbo listing is fully active and published (status = "Listed"). It may take up to 2 hours for this change to appear on Hospitable.

    1. To confirm this is updated on Hospitable, go to Properties > click on your property > check the Vrbo listing's status.

  2. Once re-listed, ask Smarty, our AI bot, for a force push to re-send all calendar data to Vrbo — this is necessary because the skipped pushes are not automatically retried.

💡Pro tip: Ask Smarty to force push a few months at a time, rather than the full calendar. Smaller pushes are more likely to be accepted by Vrbo's rate limits. Try asking: "Hi Smarty, I recently made my Vrbo listing live. Can you please run a force push of pricing for my property called [property name] for the next 3 months?"

Calendar Overrides on Vrbo

Vrbo has its own calendar where pricing can be changed manually or automatically via their dynamic pricing feature called MarketMaker. If you (or someone on your team) manually edit prices in Vrbo's Calendar, or you use MarketMaker, those changes can override what Hospitable sends.

Hospitable will overwrite Vrbo calendar overrides on the next sync, but until then, the prices may appear mismatched.

What you should do: Avoid editing prices directly on Vrbo. Make all pricing changes in Hospitable (or your dynamic pricing tool) and let Hospitable push them.

  • Check your Vrbo calendar for any manual overrides (ask your team if they have made changes directly on Vrbo's calendar).

  • Make sure you are only setting pricing through Hospitable (or your dynamic pricing tool via Hospitable), not directly in Vrbo.

  • Confirm whether you have MarketMaker, Vrbo's integrated rate automation, enabled. You can check for this and remove it by following the steps here.

External Dynamic Pricing Software + Vrbo

If you use an external dynamic pricing tool (PriceLabs, Beyond, etc.) with Vrbo, it should be connected directly to Hospitable, not Vrbo. Software connected directly to Vrbo can override what Hospitable pushes. Disconnect all dynamic pricing software from Vrbo. If you use a pricing tool, connect it directly to Hospitable.

Merge & Match

If you manage listings across multiple channels (e.g., Airbnb and Vrbo), make sure they are properly merged into a single property in Hospitable. If your Vrbo listing exists as a separate, unmerged property, pricing changes made to your main property will not reach Vrbo.

How to check: Go to Properties in Hospitable and verify that your Vrbo listing appears under the same property as your Airbnb listing (if applicable). If they’re separate, merge them.

PMS Conflicts on Vrbo

If you also use a PMS (Property Management System) on Vrbo, Hospitable cannot interact with your calendar. If a PMS is detected, your Vrbo listing will be flagged as "managed by another PMS" and Hospitable will be blocked from pushing pricing to Vrbo. This is a Vrbo-side restriction.

What you should do:

  • Check whether your Vrbo channel is connected to a property management software. If Hospitable detects it is, you'll see a "calendar restricted" notice next to the Vrbo channel on the Channel connections page.

  • If you have another property management software:

    • You should update your Vrbo pricing on their end.

    • If you want to manage pricing on Hospitable, you should disconnect from the other PMS first. Reach out to Vrbo and your PMS for assistance.

  • Review limitations when connected to another PMS.

Confirm Your Vrbo Channel is Connected

If your Vrbo channel becomes disconnected, Hospitable will be unable to communicate with the listings on your channel, including pricing. You should confirm your Vrbo channel is connected from the Channel connections page. A disconnected channel will show a yellow banner. If your channel is disconnected, follow the steps here to reconnect.

Pricing Mismatches After Reconnecting Your Vrbo Channel

While your Vrbo channel is disconnected, we cannot communicate with the platform at all, so prices cannot update. Your pricing will update automatically upon reconnection; however, if you have reconnected and you still notice discrepancies on Vrbo's calendar after reconnecting, you can ask Smarty to push a sync to get you back in alignment. Try asking: "Hi Smarty, I recently reconnected my Vrbo channel, but the pricing for [date] hasn't updated just yet. Can you please run a force push?"

Vrbo: Calendar Pricing Troubleshooting Checklist

Complete the following steps to ensure your pricing is accurate on Vrbo.

  • Confirm your listing is "Listed" — Hospitable cannot update your calendar if your listing is unlisted, hidden, or paused.

  • Ask Smarty for a force push — if your pricing isn't what you expect, ask Smarty, our AI bot, to force a push. Limit your request to a few months at a time for the best results. For example, ask Smarty to push the upcoming 3 months, then once those changes are reflected, ask for another push.

  • Is the Vrbo listing properly merged with your other channels in Hospitable?

  • Are you comparing the nightly rate (not guest total) on both sides?

  • Have you accounted for any markup rates set in Hospitable?

  • Check your Vrbo calendar directly — if prices are still wrong or too low, update them manually on Vrbo as a temporary measure. This avoids reservations at unexpected rates.

  • Check for manual overrides in Vrbo's calendar — ensure your team isn't changing pricing on Vrbo directly, and that you don't have dynamic pricing software (like PriceLabs) connected directly to Hospitable. Dynamic pricing software should be connected directly to Hospitable, not the booking platforms.

  • Confirm MarketMaker is disabled — Vrbo's rate automation will override Hospitable's pricing pushes.

  • Confirm pricing software isn't connected directly to Vrbo — remove PriceLabs or other pricing software if it's connected directly to the booking platform; it should be connected to Hospitable only

  • Check for discounts/promotions on Vrbo — remove any unwanted discounts

  • Confirm your Vrbo channel is connected — check the Channel connections page for a yellow banner.

  • Check for another PMS — look for a "Calendar Restricted" badge on the Channel connections page.

If Vrbo is the Lead Listing

  • Manual updates to your Hospitable calendar are always pushed to all listings immediately, regardless of your lead listing

  • If Vrbo is your lead listing and changes are made on your Vrbo calendar, these will be picked up during our regular 4.5-hour syncs and applied. If you recently made a change on your Vrbo calendar, it can take up to 4.5 hours for us to detect that change and display it on the Hospitable calendar.

  • There is no way for hosts to manually speed up this sync.

  • If you have recently made changes on your Vrbo calendar, and you want them reflected on the Hospitable calendar, you can ask Smarty to run a Force sync on your property (this will only work if Vrbo is the lead listing on the property!).


How to Resolve Pricing Issues on Airbnb's Calendar

Confirm Your Connection Type: Full vs. Limited

The type of connection between Hospitable and Airbnb determines whether pricing can be synced.

  • Full connection (PMS scope): With this connection, Hospitable is the source of truth. It pushes pricing, availability, and listing data directly to Airbnb. Hospitable will override prices on Airbnb.

  • Limited connection: Hospitable cannot push any calendar data to Airbnb, or sync it in from Airbnb. You will need to fully manage your calendar on Airbnb, with no sync between Hospitable and Airbnb.

    An Airbnb channel connection can be limited because:

    • You are using a different property management software (PMS) with your Airbnb listings. More here.

    • The Airbnb listing admin is not connected to your Hospitable account. More here.

    If your Airbnb listing is on a limited connection, pricing changes in Hospitable will not appear on Airbnb. You will need to upgrade to a full connection for pricing sync to work. Learn more here.

💡 How to check your connection type:

  1. Open your Hospitable account.

  2. Navigate to the Channel connection page.

  3. Look for the connection type indicator badge:

    1. It will say "PMS" (full connection).

      1. Even if your channel is on a PMS connection, you may be missing the listing admin for some of the listings you co-host. In this case, you will see a red button to "Invite host".

    2. "Calendar restricted" (limited).

This Airbnb channel is connected on a PMS scope, but is still missing the listing admin connection for some of its co-hosted listings.

Airbnb Smart Pricing

Airbnb has its own dynamic pricing feature called Smart Pricing. If enabled on Airbnb, it can adjust your nightly rate regardless of what Hospitable sends. This should automatically become disabled upon a PMS connection. However, in some rare instances, it does not get disabled and continues to try to set prices on your Airbnb calendar, overriding the prices sent by Hospitable.

What you should do:

  1. Ensure Smart Pricing is turned off:

    • Log in to your Airbnb account

    • Click Calendar and select the listing calendar you want to change

    • Click Price settings

    • Under Base price, click Smart Pricing

    • Disable Smart Pricing

    • Click Save

  2. If Smart Pricing was recently disabled, allow a short time for Hospitable's prices to take effect.

Airbnb Rule Sets

Airbnb applies certain discounts on its side after receiving the base rate from Hospitable. These include:

  • Length-of-stay discounts

  • Early bird discounts

These are applied on top of the base rate from Hospitable. They can cause the guest-facing price to differ from your Hospitable rate.

Check your Rule-sets on Airbnb. You can see that on the multi-listing calendar on Airbnb, here:

You can find your rule-sets on Airbnb on the multi-calendar view.

Airbnb Promotions

When you create a Custom Promotion on Airbnb, Airbnb creates a custom price based on a 60-day average price in your calendar. Any pricing updates pushed by Hospitable or any other source will be ignored for the promoted dates, as Airbnb will keep the prices set on the dates at the time the promotion was created.

If your price isn't what you expect, check for Custom promotions in your Airbnb calendar.

  • Log in to your Airbnb account

  • Click Calendar and select the listing calendar you want to change

  • Click Price settings

  • See if you have custom promotions applied to the date or dates in question.

  • If they are unwanted, remove them.

External Dynamic Pricing or Other Apps/Software

If you have PriceLabs, Beyond, Wheelhouse, or another external dynamic pricing software connected directly to Airbnb, or another app that can modify your calendar, it can override what Hospitable pushes. Disconnect all dynamic pricing and other software from Airbnb. If you use an external pricing tool, connect it directly to Hospitable.

Check for and remove any connected software on Airbnb with calendar access:

  1. Go to Airbnb

  2. Click on your Profile Pic

  3. Select Account

  4. Choose Privacy & sharing

  5. Toggle to Services toward the top

  6. Remove any other software with calendar edit access

Local Rule Rejections

In some regions, Airbnb enforces local regulations that can cap or adjust pricing (e.g., maximum nightly rates). If Hospitable pushes a price that violates a local rule, Airbnb may reject or modify it.

What to do: Check Airbnb’s listing dashboard for any regulatory notices. If prices are being capped, you may need to adjust your rates in Hospitable to comply.

Cleaning Fee Limits

Airbnb enforces a cap on cleaning fees relative to the nightly price. If your cleaning fee is above $700, then the nightly rate must be equal to or greater than four times the cleaning fee minus $700.


Example:​ If the cleaning fee = $800, then the nightly rate must be ≥ 4 × ($800 − $700 = $100) = ​$400​.

Batch Processing Limitations

Hospitable processes pricing updates in five-month date batches. If any single date in the batch violates Airbnb’s rules—such as a rate falling below the platform’s minimum requirements—the entire batch is denied. Ensure none of your dates are in violation of Airbnb policy.

Merge & Match

If you manage listings across multiple channels (e.g., Airbnb + Vrbo), make sure they are properly merged into a single property in Hospitable. If your Airbnb listing exists as a separate, unmerged property, pricing changes made to your main property may not reach Airbnb.

How to check: Go to Properties in Hospitable and verify that your Airbnb listing appears under the same property as your other listings (if applicable). If they’re separate, merge them.

Airbnb: Calendar Pricing Troubleshooting Checklist

  • Confirm you are on a full PMS connection

  • Have you accounted for any markup rates in Hospitable?

  • Ask Smarty for a force push of your pricing

  • Check for active rule sets, discounts, or promotions — length-of-stay, early bird, last-minute, and custom promotions can adjust the guest-facing price.

  • Are you comparing the nightly base rate (not the guest total with discounts, fees, and taxes)?

  • Check for connected apps/software and disconnect.

  • Confirm Smart Pricing is turned off on Airbnb.

  • If you use an external dynamic pricing tool: is the price correct in Hospitable first?

  • Check for Airbnb-side rejections due to local laws or policy restrictions.

  • Check your cleaning fee and lower it if needed.


How to Resolve Pricing Issues on Booking.com's Calendar

Booking.com: Parent and Child rate plans

On Booking.com, rates and availability are controlled by rate plans. Hosts can create multiple rate plans per listing, creating different offers and prices based on length of stay, cancellation policy, etc.

Hospitable only syncs with one rate plan on Booking.com per listing — the Parent rate plan. Other rate plans (called Child rate plans) derive their pricing from the parent.

Common child rate plans include:

  • Mobile rate (discount for guests booking on mobile)

  • Genius rate (discount for Booking.com Genius members)

  • Non-refundable rate

Each of these applies its own discount on top of the base rate Hospitable sends. This means:

  • The rate guests see on Booking.com may be lower than your Hospitable rate.

  • This is expected behaviour — it's Booking.com applying its own promotions, not a sync error.

What you should do:

  • Log in to your Booking.com extranet and check which rate plans are active.

  • Disable any automatic discounts or promotions you did not intend to apply.

  • If you see unexpected pricing, check whether a child rate plan or Booking.com-side promotion is causing the difference.

⚠️ You can also create multiple parent rate plans on Booking.com, but Hospitable will only control one of them. We do not recommend having multiple parent rate plans, as it creates pricing you'll need to manage manually outside of Hospitable.

Troubleshooting tips:

  • In order a child rate plan to get pricing from the parent rate plan, it needs to have a badge next to its name on the Booking.com calendar in list-view, saying "Not XML".

  • If your child rate plan does not have the "Not XML" badge, you need to connect it to the parent rate plan.

    Here is how to set the child rate plan so that it takes pricing and availability from the parent rate plan:

    • Log in to your Booking.com Extranet

    • Go to Rates & Availability

    • Select Rate plans

    • Click the down arrow on the child rate plan

    • Select 'Edit'

    • Click 'Edit' next to 'Price'

    • Tick the one which says 'Based on one of my current rate plans'

    • Make sure to select the parent rate plan

    • Click 'Save'

    • Click 'Apply changes'

  • Disable any automatic discounts or promotions on Booking.com which you did not intend to apply.

  • If you have a markup configured in Hospitable for Booking.com, verify the math: (base rate × (1 + markup %)) should equal the rate pushed to the Booking.com parent rate plan.

    • You can then calculate the price for your child rate plans, based on the rate pushed to the parent rate plan minus the percentage discount for the child rate plan.

Merge & Match

If you manage listings across multiple channels (e.g., Airbnb & Booking.com), make sure they are properly merged into a single property in Hospitable. If your Booking.com listing exists as a separate, unmerged property, pricing changes made to your main property may not reach Booking.com.

How to check: Go to Properties in Hospitable and verify that your Booking.com listing appears under the same property as your other listings (if applicable). If they’re separate, merge them.

Booking.com: Calendar Pricing Troubleshooting Checklist

  • Have you accounted for any markup rates in Hospitable?

  • Ask Smarty for a force push of your pricing.

  • Do you have child rate plans? If so, they will apply discounts or adjustments.

  • Confirm you have only one parent rate plan managed by Hospitable — multiple parent rate plans require manual management.

  • Disable any unintended discounts or promotions in the Booking.com extranet.


Good to Know

Muted Properties

When you mute a property on Hospitable, the listings on that property will no longer receive any calendar pushes or updates from Hospitable, and Hospitable will not pull in any calendar data from those listings.

  • When a listing is muted, no pricing updates are sent.

  • When you unmute a listing, Hospitable will push the calendar data in your Hospitable calendar out to the listings on the property.

Troubleshooting tips:

  • Check whether the affected listing is currently on a muted property in Hospitable.

    • Go to Hospitable > Properties

    • Open up the Muted properties tab on the left-hand side panel

  • After unmuting a property, Hospitable will perform a push to the listings on the property, which should align your calendars and pricing.

Nightly and Weekend rate settings

You can set pricing on your property using the Nightly and Weekend rate settings on the property’s Pricing page. You can read more about that page here.

Pricing set by the property’s Nightly and Weekend rate settings will be applied to all dates in your calendar that have not been manually edited. If your dates contain a rule-set with a pricing adjustment, the pricing adjustment will be calculated on top of the new price coming from the Nightly and Weekend rate settings.

If you expect your base rate to reflect those settings, but they have since been manually edited, ask Smarty, our AI bot, to reset your dates back to your original settings.

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