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 website setup wizard

Review and accept terms and conditions

Select your website languages

You can support up to 8 languages on your booking website.

Enter your website name and domain address

If you already own a domain, instructions will guide you to connect it for brand consistency.

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.

Choose which properties to display

Select which properties to display and their order (if you have more than one property).

Publish your booking website

Click Finish to publish your booking website. Your personalized URL can be copied and shared right away.

Customizable Features

Step 1: Access your website customization dashboard

Once your booking website is live, return to either access path from Step 1 of the creation process to customize your website at any time.

Step 2: Customize your homepage

Select Homepage to customize the look of your booking website. You can add:

• A logo image
• A title
• Welcome text
• A header image
• Social media links

Add or update your logo

If you update the logo, it will appear on your direct booking website.

Add a title

Adding a title will display it over the header image on your website.

Add welcome text

The welcome text will appear beneath the main header image.

Upload a header image

When you upload a header image, it will be shown as the main image on your direct booking website. Please ensure the header image is no larger than 8 MB.

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.

Enable social media links

At the bottom of this page, you'll have the option to enable social media via the toggle. Add the link to each of your social media accounts one by one.

Step 3: Customize your properties display

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

Step 4: Add host information

To add information about yourself as a host, select "Your host" in the content area of the side panel.

• Enable the "Your host" toggle to make it visible for guests
• Write information about yourself as a host in the box provided
• Upload an image of yourself
• When you are finished with your text, select "Save"

Guests will find the "Host" area of your direct booking website prominently displayed on your homepage:

Step 5: Customize your design and layout

To customize the layout and theme of your direct booking website, click on "Design" and choose the layout you prefer.

Available design options include:

• Filter bar — Enable the filter bar toggle at the top of the page so guests can search for available dates
• Header image display — Choose how the header image is displayed
• Color theme — Pick the color theme that matches your brand

Step 6: Save your customizations

Click "Save", and your booking website customization is done. Come back any time to update your direct booking website.

Note: All content except your website name is automatically translated for visitors using the site in another language.

Step-by-Step to Customize

Updating your website address

Changed your mind about your website address? You can update it 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
• Email signatures

Note: If you already have your own website domain, that's a different setup. Check out the article on connecting your booking website to your own domain for instructions.

Making content changes

To update any of your customizations:

1. Go to Direct Bookings → My website & widget in your Holidu Host account
2. Select the section you want to edit (Homepage, Your host, or Design)
3. Make your changes
4. Click Save
5. Your changes appear on your website immediately

Customization best practices

• Keep your website updated with current information and photos
• Use high-quality images that represent your property accurately
• Write compelling host information to build guest trust
• Maintain consistent branding across your website, emails, and social media
• Review how your site looks on mobile devices
• Update your property descriptions to match what guests will find

Additional customization options

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).

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.

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, Holidu only supports 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

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.