Icalviz vs Hotel Booking Calendar – Optimand

Icalviz connects to any public iCal feed and displays your availability day by day on any page or post, using a simple shortcode. Works with Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Nextcloud, and any service that exposes a public .ics link. Each day is automatically classified: 🟢 Free — no events scheduled 🟡 Partial availability — some time slots are taken 🔴 Fully booked — your entire working hours are covered Visitors can click any day to see occupied time slots in a clean timeline modal. Optionally display a call-to-action button (e.g. “Book this slot”) that links to your booking system. Why Icalviz? Stop copy-pasting your schedule into a webpage. Connect your Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, or any iCal-compatible calendar — Icalviz reads your public iCal feed and updates automatically, every 30 minutes. Use cases 🏢 Meeting room & shared space booking — Display a room’s availability calendar so your team or clients can instantly see open slots, without logging into any system. 📅 Show your public availability as a freelancer or consultant — Let potential clients see when you are free before they even reach out. Display months of availability from your Google Calendar, Outlook or any iCal feed in seconds. 🎓 Training sessions & open office hours — Show students or participants which session slots are still open. Mark them as full automatically when your agenda is blocked. 🏡 Seasonal rental & short-stay property — Display your gîte, studio, or vacation rental availability directly on your WordPress site, synced live from any iCal-compatible calendar. 🚗 Fleet & equipment availability — Track and display the availability of a shared vehicle, camera kit, or any bookable asset — simply by blocking time in Google Calendar, Outlook, or any other iCal calendar. Key features Zero configuration — Paste your iCal URL, copy the shortcode, done. No API key required — Works with any public iCal feed: Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Nextcloud, and more. Responsive — 2 columns on desktop, 1 on mobile. Navigation arrows for multi-month views. Timeline modal — Click a day to see occupied time slots in a visual hourly timeline. Call-to-action button — Add a custom button (e.g. “Request a slot”) inside the modal, linking to your booking page or contact form. Custom labels — Rename “Free”, “Partial availability”, “Fully booked” to match your vocabulary. Dark mode — Built-in light and dark themes. Booking window — Limit how many days ahead users can see (e.g. next 90 days only). Onboarding wizard — Step-by-step setup guides you from iCal URL to ready shortcode in under a minute. Inline iCal tester — Paste a URL and instantly see whether it connects, how many events it contains, and what the next upcoming events are. Debug panel — One-click diagnostic report covering WordPress environment, plugin version, cache status, iCal feed health, and slot calculation trace. Designed for quick support. How it works Get your public iCal URL (.ics link) from your calendar app: Google Calendar: ⋮ → Settings and sharing → Make available to public → Public address in iCal format Outlook: Calendar settings → Shared calendars → Publish → ICS link Apple Calendar / iCloud: Calendar settings → Public Calendar → Copy link Any other app: look for “Subscribe”, “iCal export” or “public ICS link” In WordPress: go to Settings → Icalviz, paste your iCal URL and follow the 3-step wizard. Copy the generated shortcode and paste it into any page or post. Shortcode reference Basic: [icalviz url=”https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/…/basic.ics”] All options: [icalviz url=”…” start=”9″ end=”17″ months=”3″ days_ahead=”90″ show_titles=”0″ disable_modal=”0″ legend=”1″ theme=”light” lbl_free=”Available” lbl_partial=”Limited availability” lbl_full=”Fully booked” cta_label=”Request this slot” cta_url=”https://your-booking-page.com”] url (required) — Your public .ics iCal link (Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc.) start (0–23, default: 8) — Start of your working day in hours end (1–24, default: 18) — End of your working day in hours months (1–12, default: 2) — Number of months to display days_ahead (0–730, default: 0) — Days ahead to show; 0 = unlimited show_titles (0 or 1, default: 0) — Show event titles in the modal timeline legend (0 or 1, default: 1) — Show colour legend below calendar theme (light / dark, default: light) — Colour theme lbl_free (text, default: Free) — Label for free days lbl_partial (text, default: Available) — Label for partially available days lbl_full (text, default: Fully booked) — Label for fully booked days cta_label (text) — Text for the call-to-action button in the modal cta_url (URL) — Link for the call-to-action button disable_modal (0 or 1, default: 0) — Disable day-click modal; show only availability colour Privacy Icalviz connects only to the iCal URL you provide. No data is sent to any third party. The iCal feed is cached locally in your WordPress database for 30 minutes. If show_titles is set to 0 (default), event titles are never exposed to visitors. Requirements WordPress 5.8 or higher PHP 7.4 or higher A public iCal URL (.ics link) from Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Nextcloud, or any iCal-compatible service Your WordPress timezone must be set correctly (Settings → General → Timezone)

The Optimand plugin is a dedicated booking interface designed specifically for the hospitality industry. It provides a powerful, local tool to streamline the room reservation process directly from your WordPress site. The core feature is the Smart Calendar: a high-performance availability and rate search tool. This plugin is fully functional and includes all layout templates, custom translations, and granular design options. It allows guests to select dates and room requirements on your site before being redirected to your Booking Engine (BE) URL to complete the reservation. The plugin supports automatic configuration for 16 major booking engines (Bedzzle, Blastness, Bookassist, Bookingexpert, D-Edge, Ennismore, Ericsoft, Ermes, Guestline, Little Hotelier, Mirai, Sabre Synxis, Simple Booking, Travelclick, Verticalbooking, Web Hotelier) and allows manual configuration for any custom booking URL. Key Features: * Fully Local & Functional: All styling, templates, and settings work directly within WordPress. * Smart Redirect: Acts as a bridge, sending guests to your Booking Engine with pre-selected dates and guest information. * Visual Configurator: Match the calendar design to your theme by adjusting colors and layouts without touching any code. * Multi-language & Currency: Built-in management for international guests with customizable text strings. * Dual Integration: Use the provided shortcode or trigger the calendar from any existing button via CSS selectors. * Multiple Presets: Create and manage up to 2 different calendar configurations for your site.