How to create and customize your Direct Booking Website?

Your Direct Booking Website lets you accept direct bookings under your own brand — with calendar sync, secure payments, and your guest data managed from your Holidu account.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your Booking Website

Step 1: Access your Direct Booking Website

You can reach your Direct Booking Website setup from two places in your Holidu account — both lead to the same configuration:

• Direct Bookings → My website & widget in the left-hand navigation menu
• Properties → [your property] → Distribution Channels → My booking website, then click Activate channel (if not yet active) or My booking website configuration (if already active)

Use whichever you reach first.

Note: Available to primary account holders only — not secondary collaborators.

Step 2: Create your website

When accessing the Direct Booking Website for the first time, you will see a setup wizard.

First, choose your setup type:

• Create a new website — builds a complete Holidu-hosted booking website from scratch
• Add booking module to existing website — embed the Holidu booking engine into a website you already run

Note: You can do both — the booking module is also available after completing the website setup. See Step 5 for booking module instructions.

Step 3: Complete the setup wizard

1. Review and accept terms and conditions.
   
2. Select your website languages (up to 8 supported languages).
   
3. Enter your website's name and domain address. If you already own a domain, instructions will guide you to connect it for brand consistency.
   
4. Review your website configuration.
   
5. Choose which properties to display and their order (if you have more than one property).
6. Click Finish to publish your booking website. Your personalized URL can be copied and shared right away.

Understanding your website address: Your website address is made up of two parts:

• A name you choose (Subdomain name) — this is up to you. Most hosts use their property name (e.g. "myproperty")
• An ending you pick from a list (Subdomain ending) — Holidu gives you a few options to choose from, including general ones (like holiduhost.com) and ones matching specific countries (like ferienwohnungen.de)

Put together, that gives you something like: myproperty.holiduhost.com — this is the link your guests will use to find and book with you.

Tip: Picking an ending that matches your guests' country (e.g. a German ending if most of your guests are German) can make your site feel more familiar and trustworthy to them.

Customizable Features

Once your booking website is live, you can personalize it at any time to reflect your brand and provide an optimal guest experience.

Homepage Customization

From your Direct Booking Website dashboard, select "Homepage" to customize the look of your booking website. You can add:

• A logo image
• A website title
• Welcome text
• A header image

Social media links can be enabled via a toggle at the bottom of the page. Add the link to each of your social media accounts one by one.

Property Customization

Your properties will have default images and text that you can customize yourself. The description of your property is taken from your existing description text in Holidu. Guests can select "Details" to book directly.

Step-by-step to customize: Homepage elements

1. Update your logo: If you update the logo, it will appear on your direct booking website (position 1 in the layout). Your logo helps establish brand recognition with guests.
2. Add a website title: Adding a title will display it over the header image (position 2 in the layout). This is the main headline guests see when they arrive at your site.
3. Write welcome text: Your welcome text will appear beneath the main header image (position 3 in the layout). This is your opportunity to greet guests and share what makes your property special.
4. Upload a header image: When you upload a header image, it will be shown as the main image on your direct booking website (position 4 in the layout). Please ensure the header image is no larger than 8 MB.
5. Important: Use only your own images for your direct booking website. Do not use images from Google or other image platforms — you risk copyright infringement.

Host Profile Section

To add information about yourself as a host, select "Your host" in the content area of the side panel. This section allows guests to learn more about you and builds trust.

1. Enable the "Your host" toggle to make it visible for guests.
2. Write information about yourself as a host in the box provided.
3. Upload an image of yourself or a professional photo.
4. When you are finished with your text, select "Save".

Guests will see your host information in this dedicated area of your direct booking website:

Design and Theme Customization

To customize the layout and theme of your direct booking website, follow these steps:

1. Click on "Design" in the sidebar to access design settings.
2. Choose the layout you prefer from available layout options.
3. Enable the filter bar toggle at the top of the page so guests can search for available dates easily.
4. Choose how the header image is displayed — select from different display options to suit your preference.
5. Pick the color theme that best matches your brand identity.

Saving Your Customizations

Once you have made all your customization choices, click "Save" to apply your changes. Your booking website customization is complete, and your updates will be live immediately.

Come back any time to update your direct booking website. All content except your website name is automatically translated for visitors using the site in another language.

Step 4: Activate a direct booking discount (optional but recommended)

1. Go to the Discounts section in your Holidu Host dashboard
2. Activate a 5%, 10%, or 15% direct booking website discount
3. The discount appears clearly on your website and in the booking flow — giving guests a visible reason to book direct

Note: The discount stacks with most promotions (except the new listing promo).

Step 5: Add the booking module to your existing website (if applicable)

If you already have your own website, you can embed the Holidu booking engine so guests can book without leaving your site.

How to set it up:

1. Go to Direct Bookings → My website & widget in the left-hand navigation menu
2. In your website dashboard, click Booking module in the left-hand menu
3. Enable the Booking Module toggle and accept the terms and conditions
4. Copy the generated code snippet
5. Paste it into your existing website where you want the booking functionality to appear — compatible with WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and similar platforms
6. Select the preferred languages to match your website
7. Click Save — the module activates immediately, and availability, pricing, and bookings stay aligned with your Holidu calendar

Note: If you need help with the integration, coordinate with your webmaster or contact your account manager.

Step 6: Add Website Tracking (optional)

Want to see how guests use your Booking Website? You can connect your own tracking tools to keep an eye on visits and behavior.

1. Go to Direct Bookings in your Holidu account → My website & widget → Website Tracking.
2. For legal reasons, we only support two tools: Google Analytics (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
3. Just paste in your ID, and Holidu takes care of the rest — the tracking script gets added to your website automatically, no coding needed.

Finding your tracking IDs:

• Using Google Analytics? Find your Measurement ID under GA4 Admin → Data Streams → [your stream] → Measurement ID.
• Using Google Tag Manager? Find your Container ID in Tag Manager → Workspace, top right corner.

Note: Don't want a tool active anymore? Just leave its field blank to turn it off.

Important: Only use scripts from tools you trust — since it runs directly on your site, a broken or unsafe script could affect how your page loads.

Managing Your Website Address

Changed your mind about your website address later? You can update your address anytime under Settings in the Booking Website tool.

Important: Once you change it, your old address stops working. Guests can only reach you through the new one — so make sure to update the link anywhere you've shared it before (booking confirmations, welcome guides, social media, printed materials, etc.).

Already have your own website domain? That's a different setup — check out the article on how to connect your booking website to your own domain.

Best Practices Summary

• Use the Holidu direct booking website or module to grow direct revenue and build guest loyalty.
• Activate and clearly display direct booking discounts to give guests a reason to book direct.
• Promote your brand and website link across all guest touchpoints.
• Automate guest messaging, check-ins, and payments to cut admin time and improve the guest experience.
• Keep your site and Holidu property data updated for better conversion.
• Use testimonials, personal details, and a mobile-friendly layout to encourage repeat, direct bookings.