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What the Bukavilla extension does
What the Bukavilla extension does
The extension is a small piece of software that runs inside your Chrome browser. It piggybacks on the OTA sessions you're already signed into — Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO — to automate seven jobs you'd otherwise do by hand.
Why a browser extension, not a server?
Airbnb and Booking.com both make automated server traffic difficult — they detect it as scraping and block accounts. By running inside your own browser, requests to Airbnb come from your IP with your normal cookies at human-paced volume. This is the only way to keep these integrations reliable without putting your accounts at risk.
You stay in control. The extension only acts when you click it or on its own gentle schedule. You can pause it any time.
Channel sync at a glance
Channel sync keeps one calendar and one set of prices across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and your own Bukavilla booking page — so a date sold on any channel closes on all of them, and a price you set once shows everywhere. It works in two directions:
- In — Airbnb → Bukavilla. The extension pulls your Airbnb nightly prices and your booked/blocked dates into Bukavilla. Airbnb stays your single place to manage rates; Bukavilla mirrors it.
- Out — Bukavilla → every channel. When a guest books directly on Bukavilla, the extension blocks those dates on Booking.com, VRBO, and Airbnb. If that booking cancels, it reopens them. Your Bukavilla prices can also be pushed out to Booking.com.
The double-booking guard. Calendars can never be perfectly live, so Bukavilla adds a safety net at the one moment it matters most: the instant a guest tries to book. Before confirming any direct booking, Bukavilla re-checks that villa's live calendars on Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO and only lets the booking through if the dates are still genuinely free. So even between syncs, a guest can't grab a date another channel just took.
When each sync runs
| Sync | How often |
|---|---|
| Pull Airbnb prices + calendar into Bukavilla | Automatically once a day, or instantly when you click Sync Airbnb prices. Not on every popup open. |
| Push booked dates out to Booking.com / VRBO / Airbnb (and reopen on cancel) | Within ~2 minutes of a booking confirming or cancelling. No clicking. |
| Pull Airbnb reviews | About once a day, when you open the popup. |
| Push prices to Booking.com | When you click the button — run it after you change prices. |
| Re-check all channels at booking time | Every direct booking attempt (this is the double-booking guard above). |
One thing to know: the extension's automatic jobs run inside your browser, so they only happen while Chrome is open and you're signed into those channels. If your laptop is closed when a booking lands, the outbound blocks push the next time you open Chrome — nothing is lost, just delayed. (The booking-time guard above is server-side, so it protects you even when your browser is closed.)
Reading the popup
Click the Bukavilla icon in your toolbar to open the popup. It's built to be glanced at, not managed:
- The status line at the top tells you everything in one look. "✓ Everything's syncing" (green) means there's nothing to do. If something needs you — say you've been signed out of a channel — it turns to "⚠ … needs attention" and names the villa and the fix.
- "Sync now" (next to the status line) runs every sync at once on demand: it pulls the latest from Airbnb, then pushes your prices and blocks out to every connected channel, then refreshes reviews. Use it any time you want everything brought current immediately instead of waiting for the daily run.
- Two sections — "Pull from Airbnb" and "Push to OTAs" — group the individual syncs. They stay collapsed when all is well; tap to expand and see per-villa detail or run a single channel on its own.
- Hover the ⓘ next to any item for a plain-English description of exactly what it does and how often it runs.
- Only the channels you actually use are shown. If you're not on Booking.com or VRBO, those rows simply don't appear — an Airbnb-only owner sees just the status line and the Airbnb section.
Keep the popup open during a manual sync. A big sync runs in the background worker; closing the popup mid-run can pause it (the popup shows a "keep this open" banner while it's working).
The seven jobs
1. Pull Airbnb pricing into Bukavilla
If you set seasonal prices on Airbnb, you don't have to set them again on Bukavilla. The extension reads your Airbnb calendar and copies per-date pricing into your Bukavilla listing.
Where the prices appear: /dashboard/villas/[villa-id]/pricing, as per-date overrides on the calendar. Synced Airbnb prices are the source of truth for those dates — they replace any per-date price you typed by hand on Bukavilla, so make price changes on Airbnb and let the sync carry them over.
2. Pull Airbnb bookings and blocks into your calendar
The same sync also reads which dates are booked or blocked on Airbnb and blocks them on Bukavilla. A guest who books on Airbnb can't double-book the villa through your Bukavilla site, even before the slower iCal feed catches up.
3. Push Bukavilla prices to Booking.com
One click — Push prices to Booking.com in the popup — writes your Bukavilla nightly prices for the next 12 months into your Booking.com calendar. Combined with the Airbnb pricing pull, this completes the chain: change a price on Airbnb, pull it into Bukavilla, push it to Booking.com, and all three channels show the same rate.
The push writes your Standard Rate; rates Booking.com derives from it (like a non-refundable discount) update automatically. You need to be signed into the Booking.com extranet and to have opened the villa's calendar page once in that browser session, so the extension has fresh credentials.
4. Push Bukavilla bookings to Booking.com
When a booking confirms on Bukavilla — a guest checkout or a manual booking you record — the extension blocks those dates on your Booking.com listing. Reverse on cancellation: if the booking cancels, the Booking.com block is removed.
This now happens automatically within about two minutes, with no clicking, as long as your browser is open and you're signed into Booking.com. (If the browser was closed, it catches up when you next open Chrome.)
This protects you from double-bookings caused by the slow iCal cadence Booking.com uses.
5. Push Bukavilla bookings to VRBO
VRBO's iCal import is unreliable — it often refuses our calendar feed outright, which leaves your VRBO calendar open on dates you've already booked elsewhere. To close that gap, the extension writes your Bukavilla direct-booking and owner-block dates straight into your VRBO owner calendar, the same way it does for Booking.com.
This runs automatically within about two minutes of a booking confirming or cancelling, the same as Booking.com — no clicking, as long as your browser is open and you're signed into VRBO. Before it writes, it reads your existing VRBO calendar and skips any night VRBO already has booked or blocked, so you never get duplicate blocks. You can also run it on demand with Push direct bookings → VRBO in the popup. You need to be signed into VRBO and to have opened the villa's owner calendar page once in that browser session, so the extension has fresh credentials.
Cancellations are handled automatically. If a Bukavilla booking later cancels (or you remove an owner block), the next push removes the matching block from VRBO — you don't have to clean it up by hand. The extension only ever removes blocks it created itself, so any block you set directly on VRBO is left untouched. The popup result line shows both counts, for example "3 blocked · 2 removed". As with the create step, VRBO needs to be open in your browser so the extension has a session to act with — if it isn't, the removal waits and retries on your next push.
6. Push Bukavilla bookings to Airbnb
Airbnb does import your Bukavilla calendar through the iCal feed, but on its own schedule — anywhere from an hour to several hours later. That delay is a double-booking window: a guest could book the same dates on Airbnb before the feed catches up. To close it, the extension blocks your direct-booking and owner-block dates straight onto your Airbnb calendar within about two minutes of a booking confirming — the same fast path it uses for Booking.com and VRBO.
Before it writes, it reads your Airbnb calendar and skips any night Airbnb already has booked or blocked, so it never tries to re-block a sold date (Airbnb refuses that anyway — that's expected and not an error). You can also run it on demand with Push direct bookings → Airbnb in the popup. You need to be signed into Airbnb in the same browser.
Cancellations are handled automatically. If a Bukavilla booking later cancels (or you remove an owner block), the next push reopens the matching dates on Airbnb — you don't have to free them by hand, and you no longer wait on the slower iCal import. The extension only ever reopens dates it blocked itself, so any block you set directly on Airbnb is left untouched. The popup result line shows both counts, for example "3 blocked · 2 reopened". As with the block step, Airbnb needs to be open in your browser so the extension has a session to act with — if it isn't, the reopen waits and retries on your next push.
7. Pull Airbnb guest reviews
Your Airbnb reviews are imported into Bukavilla and shown on your villa page next to direct-booking reviews, and your listing's star rating and review count stay current as new reviews land. Runs automatically when you open the popup (at most once a day), or force it with the Pull Airbnb reviews button.
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't push prices to Airbnb. Pricing flows one way: Airbnb → Bukavilla → Booking.com. Change prices on Airbnb and the syncs carry them through the chain. (Booked-date blocks do now push to Airbnb — see job 6 — but rates do not.)
- It doesn't mirror your Airbnb inbox. Guest conversations that happen on Airbnb stay on Airbnb — reply to them there.
- It doesn't store your Airbnb or Booking.com passwords. The extension uses cookies that are already in your browser from when you logged into those sites yourself.
- It doesn't act when you're signed out. If you log out of Airbnb, the next sync fails quietly and the extension surfaces a "you appear to be signed out" notice in the popup.
- It doesn't run on mobile. Chrome on iPhone and iPad doesn't support extensions. You need a laptop or desktop running Chrome / Edge / Brave.
- It doesn't share data with third parties. Everything moves between Bukavilla's servers, your browser, and the OTA you've authorized.
How often things run
| Job | Triggered by | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Pull Airbnb pricing + bookings/blocks | chrome.alarms daily + you can force from popup |
Once a day, or manual |
| Push prices to Booking.com | The Push prices to Booking.com button | Manual — run it after your prices change |
| Push bookings to Booking.com | Automatic background alarm after a booking confirms or cancels + popup open + manual button | Within ~2 minutes (browser open), or on popup open, or manual |
| Push bookings to VRBO (and remove blocks on cancel) | Automatic background alarm after a booking confirms or cancels + popup open + manual button | Within ~2 minutes (browser open), or on popup open, or manual |
| Push bookings to Airbnb (and reopen dates on cancel) | Automatic background alarm after a booking confirms or cancels + popup open + manual button | Within ~2 minutes (browser open), or on popup open, or manual |
| Pull Airbnb reviews | Popup open (24-hour guard) + force button | At most once a day, or manual |
Block pushes to Booking.com, VRBO, and Airbnb now run automatically within about two minutes of a booking confirming or cancelling on Bukavilla — as long as your browser is open and you're signed into those OTAs. You don't need to open the popup or click anything. The popup open and the manual buttons remain as fallbacks for when the browser was closed at the moment of the booking. The background check is cheap when nothing's pending — it only touches an OTA when a real booking event left work to do. All three channels now both block on confirmation and reopen on cancellation.
If your browser was closed when a booking happened, the push runs the next time you open Chrome (and the popup), so nothing is lost — it's just delayed until your browser is back.