How to handle a UID of an ics calednar that will change every time I access it?

Question

I want to insert a memo on an Airbnb calendar on my PHP program. I wrote a program to get and synchronize iCal data of Airbnb in PHP.

<?php
$ical_url = 'https://www.airbnb.it/calendar/ical/2533404.ics?s=580a83c1bcbc0e8af72cfc62bcc2676d';
$ctx = stream_context_create(array(
'http' => array(
'method' => 'GET',
'header' => 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0; Touch; rv:11.0) like Gecko')
)
);
$ical = file_get_contents($ical_url,false,$ctx);
echo '<pre>'.$ical.'</pre>';

I can get the data of ical, but UID which is included in the event change every time I want to access.

This is the sample.

1.first access

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//Airbnb Inc//Hosting Calendar 0.8.8//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20150709
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20150708
UID:4q8n18b59vlt--a9biqyf1iwqq@airbnb.com
DESCRIPTION:CHECKIN: 08-07-2015\nCHECKOUT: 09-07-2015\nNIGHTS: 1\nPHONE: 
 \nEMAIL: (nessun indirizzo email alias disponibile)\nPROPERTY: CASA MANI
: Castellabate dal mare\n
SUMMARY:Marco Marcigliano (4PPN2S)
LOCATION:CASA MANI: Castellabate dal mare
END:VEVENT

2.second access

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//Airbnb Inc//Hosting Calendar 0.8.8//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20150709
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20150708
UID:-q0wzyk0t5hkw-7gujduyluxdt@airbnb.com
DESCRIPTION:CHECKIN: 08-07-2015\nCHECKOUT: 09-07-2015\nNIGHTS: 1\nPHONE: 
\nEMAIL: (nessun indirizzo email alias disponibile)\nPROPERTY: CASA MANI
: Castellabate dal mare\n
SUMMARY:Marco Marcigliano (4PPN2S)
LOCATION:CASA MANI: Castellabate dal mare
END:VEVENT

So I can't put memo to airbnb event.

Can I get iCal data without changing the UID? Or is there unique ID in addition to UID?

We are also facing the same problem. Trying to import from Airbnb calendars & everytime it gives a different UID when it's accessed. This is causing the events to be re-imported as our duplication check is based on the UID field for Google calendar. — tovishalck, Jul 13 '16 at 09:34

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '16 at 21:25

I'd suggest that this is an airbnb issue and not a google calendar issue.

Other iCal accommodation providers (eg homeaway.com) give consistent unique uids.

Exporting a google calender (calendar.google.com) twice also gives consistent unique uids.

The workaround i implemented was to use the airbnb booking ref from the summary -

SUMMARY:Marco Marcigliano (4PPN2S)

and ignore their uid.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 13 '21 at 15:06

This is what we received on 30 July 2016 from Airbnb support regarding the above issue:

The issue you are experiencing does indeed sound quite frustrating. I'm afraid though, that there is no clear solution I can offer. The issue appears to be with the Google calendar and how it is interacting with the Airbnb calendar.

I must reiterate that third party websites are not designed with our calendar in mind. If after following the steps to export the Airbnb calendar, you are encountering difficulties, there is little we can do.

Perhaps this is an issue which google need to resolve, and maybe this is something Airbnb should look into also. I'm going to pass on the information you have given to me and I'm sure the feedback will be taken seriously.

For now, I'm very sorry that I can't give you any concrete solution, but I will pass on this issue as something which needs to be investigated. Hopefully sometime in the future these problems will be dealt with.

Again, my sincerest apologies. If there is anything else I can do, do not hesitate to ask.

There doesn't seem to be a solution for this problem unless Airbnb take this feedback & works on making their 'uid' unique.

How to handle a UID of an ics calednar that will change every time I access it?

2 Answers2