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Beds24 cleaning schedule: from iCal to WhatsApp

· Readyby team · 4 min read

Beds24 is famously flexible. If you've spent an evening in its settings, you know there is a way to do almost anything, including a Beds24 cleaning schedule built from unit statuses, custom reports and auto actions. Whether you should is another question, especially when your cleaners would rather get a WhatsApp message than log into a control panel.

This guide covers what Beds24 offers for housekeeping, when a separate tool makes sense, and how to connect Beds24 to Readyby. Readyby has no direct Beds24 integration and no partnership with Beds24. It reads the iCal export link that Beds24 provides for each room. Direct channel manager connections are planned; today the connection is iCal.

What Beds24 already does for housekeeping

Beds24's wiki describes a full housekeeping toolkit:

  • Unit status. Each unit can carry a status, such as a cleaner's name or "Ready", plus a note. Statuses show on the calendar and on a housekeeping view of the dashboard.
  • Cleaner logins. You can add sub-accounts with "Cleaner" or "Cleaner Manager" roles and restricted access. A cleaner can mark a unit as cleaned.
  • Assignment by report. Assign a cleaner through a unit status or a booking info code, then build a custom report per cleaner, filtered by checkout date. Auto actions can set a status on checkout and email staff.

For a team that already lives in Beds24, this works. It also takes real setup time, and the cleaner still needs a login.

When Readyby helps

Readyby skips the control panel for cleaners entirely:

  • WhatsApp instead of a login. An AI coordinator sends each cleaner her plan, asks for confirmation and reminds her.
  • Her own language. Messages go out in the cleaner's language; her replies come back translated for you.
  • Web checklist with photos. She opens it from a link on any phone. No app to install.
  • Changes handled. If a checkout moves, the cleaning moves and the cleaner is told.
  • Owner photo reports and monthly CSV exports for your accountant.

In Beds24, go to Settings, then Channel Manager, then iCal Export. The calendar URL is listed there for each room. Copy it, and repeat for every room you want cleaned.

Beds24 offers a few variants of the URL. The basic public link leaves out personal data, which is all Readyby needs. The other variants use a secret token and add more detail; you don't need them for cleaning. Beds24 exports only active bookings, so a cancelled booking disappears from the feed, and Readyby cancels the cleaning.

By default Beds24 exports bookings as all-day dates. Its wiki documents a showtime parameter that adds check-in and check-out times to the feed. You don't need it for Readyby: when a feed has no times, Readyby uses the default check-out and check-in times you set per apartment.

Setting up the Beds24 cleaning schedule in Readyby

  1. Paste one link per room. Readyby checks each link every few minutes.
  2. Only the Beds24 link. Beds24 already collects bookings from your channels, so its export covers them. You don't need the Airbnb or Booking.com links too. Readyby won't double a stay that appears in two calendars, but one source is easier to check.
  3. Times and duration. Set check-out, check-in and cleaning time per apartment. Turnovers where the window is shorter than the cleaning are flagged.
  4. Add cleaners with name, WhatsApp number and language. Each confirms in WhatsApp before plans are sent.
  5. Review the first week before switching on automatic sending.

If you used unit statuses or auto actions to assign cleaners in Beds24, turn them off for the rooms Readyby handles, so each cleaner gets one set of instructions.

What iCal can't carry

iCal is one-way. Readyby reads Beds24's calendar but doesn't write unit status back, so a finished cleaning in Readyby won't mark the unit "Ready" in Beds24. The basic feed also leaves out guest counts and notes. Readyby stores only dates, guest count and booking source anyway, never guest names or contacts. For linen, set a default per apartment and adjust by hand.

Timing depends on two clocks: when Beds24's feed reflects a change, and Readyby's next check a few minutes later. For same-day surprises, a message still wins.

Languages and channels today

The coordinator works on WhatsApp. Cleaners can use it in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian or English now, with more languages coming. Viber and SMS are not available yet; see the FAQ.

In short

Keep Beds24 for channels, prices and bookings. Let Readyby read each room's iCal link and run the cleaner side: who cleans, when, in which language, with which photos. The integrations page has the current list, and Airbnb iCal and your cleaning schedule explains iCal-based scheduling in more depth.

Try a full day in the interactive demo, or start on the free plan with up to two apartments.