Publishing your website
When you are ready to publish your website, you have two different options:
You can use a free "My Direct Stay" built-in domain, which will only take you a few minutes to activate, or you can use a custom domain to keep your current URL.
For further information on publishing with a free domain, see Free "My Direct Stay" built-in domain.
If you already have a domain, you will need to update your domain's DNS settings.
For further information on publishing with a custom domain, see: Custom domain.
Using a free "My Direct Stay" built-in domain to publish your website
You can publish your site in minutes using a free domain provided by the Website Builder (mydirectstay.com). If you choose this option, your site address will look like "examplehotel.mydirectstay.com".
To publish with a free built-in domain:
Click the green Publish Site Button in the bottom frame of your Website Builder, or on the Dashboard. You have the options to Connect with a free domain or Connect your custom domain
Select the left option Connect with a free domain and click Continue
You can now customise the name you would like to be part of the domain. The domain will end in ".mydirectstay.com"
When you are happy to proceed, click Publish and your website will be published within a few minutes
Domain forwarding
When you are moving from your current domain to a domain provided by the Website Builder, we would advise you to set up domain forwarding with your current domain provider.
This allows visitors and search engines to recognise your new domain location and retain your points.
In most cases, you will need to login to your domain host and look for " domain forwarding or URL redirection ".
Please find below a list of detailed articles with the step-by-step guides related to domain forwarding with the most popular domain hosts:
If you need more assistance, please reach out to your domain provider's support.
Using a custom domain to publish your website
If you wish to publish a custom domain, then you must reconfigure the DNS settings of your domain Provider to point your domain name to the new website. Please be aware that once you have published with a custom domain, you cannot restart the process with the free "My Direct Stay" domain.
Note: The DNS settings you need to change are those for your web hosting only. Please ensure you do not make any changes to your email hosting settings. Making changes to your email host settings might prevent you from receiving any emails.
To publish with a custom domain:
Click the green Publish Site Button in the bottom frame of your Website Builder, or on the Dashboard. You have the options to Connect with a free domain or Connect your custom domain
Select the right option Connect your custom domain and click Continue. This will open the Publish Site Wizard :
First Step : Enter your domain name in the provided field and then reenter the domain name in the second box by typing (Copy-pasting will not work for this field). Click Continue
Second Step : Log in to your domain account and locate the DNS settings. Once you have done this, tick the checkbox and click Continue
Third Step : In your domain's DNS settings, locate where you can edit the A records. Change the A record to the values displayed in the Publish Site Wizard. Once you have done this, tick the checkbox and click Continue
Fourth Step : In your domain's DNS settings, locate where you can edit the CNAME records. Change the CNAME record to the values displayed in the Publish Site Wizard. Once you have done this, tick the checkbox and click Continue
Last Step : Click Publish Site to start the publishing process. Depending on the the domain provider, this may take up to 72 hours
Checking the DNS configuration
When you go back to the Website Builder's Extranet after completing the wizard, a pop-up window will display both the A and CNAME records which are required to publish the website, along with what the record is displaying on the DNS provider side.
If the records are correct , the pop-up window will say no action is required , and the site should go live soon.
If the records are incorrect , it will show you which record is incorrect (Current data) and what the value needs to be (Required data). Once you have made the necessary changes in your domain's DNS settings, please tick the checkbox in this pop up and click "Refresh". This will trigger another system search to check the records and if correct will change to reflect this.
The pop up window will disappear once the domain is live.
Finding your Website Builder domain settings
The Website Builder domain settings will need to be passed on to your domain provider in order to connect your domain to your new website. Once you have completed the wizard, you cannot go back and access it again, but you can access the same domain information from the Advanced Settings tab.
In the website builder, click Advanced Settings
Click DNS Settings. The DNS settings for your property will be displayed here
Instructions for common domain providers
Below are instructions for the most common third-party domain providers directly from their respective websites:
Need more help?
If you need further help, please contact your domain provider. As every provider is different and our Support team cannot log into your account even with explicit permission, we can only provide limited assistance in modifying your DNS settings.
What to do after the website is published
It is advised to go to Google Indexing to submit your website to Google. This will improve your web page ranking in Google Search.
It is also a good idea to update your website to have a good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), as this increases the chances your website is found online.
After the launch, you can continue to improve your website content by going through this list of tips to make full use of the Website Builder features.