Connect your own domain

Connect your own domain

If you want guests to reach your booking site at your own address — for example booking.yourhotel.com — you can point a custom domain at Stayant. Before the site goes live on that address, Stayant asks you to verify that you own the domain. This protects you from someone else accidentally (or intentionally) pointing their domain at your site.

Why verification is needed

DNS is public — anyone can point any domain name at any server. Verification adds a proof step: only the person who controls the domain's DNS records can complete it, so Stayant knows the domain is genuinely yours.

Step 1 — Enter your domain

1. In the main navigation, go to Website → Website Settings (or /website/settings).
2. In the General card, find the Custom Domain field and type your domain — for example booking.yourhotel.com.
3. Click Save Settings.

The domain now shows a Pending verification badge. Nothing changes publicly yet; the domain won't serve your site until verification is complete.

Step 2 — Add the DNS records

Log in to your domain registrar or DNS provider and add two records. Stayant shows the exact values on the settings page — copy them from there.

TXT record — ownership proof

Field	Value
Type	TXT
Name / Host	_stayant-challenge (at your domain, e.g. _stayant-challenge.booking.yourhotel.com)
Value	The unique code Stayant shows you

This record proves you control the domain. It has no effect on email or other services.

CNAME record — routing traffic

Field	Value
Type	CNAME
Name / Host	Your domain as Stayant shows it (e.g. booking.yourhotel.com) — some registrars want just the prefix (booking)
Value	The target Stayant shows you (e.g. sites.stayant.co.uk)

A CNAME record works for subdomains (anything with a prefix, such as booking.yourhotel.com or www.yourhotel.com).

Using a root / apex domain? If you want to use a bare domain (e.g. yourhotel.com with no prefix), some registrars don't allow a CNAME at the apex. In that case Stayant shows A records (IP addresses) to use instead. Add all of the A records listed — most registrars accept one per line.

DNS propagation: changes to DNS records can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to be visible worldwide. If verification doesn't succeed immediately, wait a short while and try again.

Step 3 — Verify

Once the records are in place, go back to Website Settings and click Verify now next to the domain.

• If both records are found, the badge changes to Verified and your site will begin serving at the custom address (as long as the site is published).
• If verification fails, the page tells you which record is missing or incorrect so you can fix it and try again.

Stayant also checks pending domains automatically in the background, so if you'd rather not click Verify now yourself, it will verify on its own once DNS has propagated.

HTTPS / SSL

Verifying your domain proves ownership and switches on routing — it does not turn on HTTPS by itself. Setting up the SSL certificate for a custom domain is a separate step handled by the Stayant team. Once your domain shows as Verified, contact support if you need HTTPS enabled and we'll provision the certificate for it.

Once your domain is verified and serving over HTTPS, it becomes your site's main address for search engines, and visits to your old stayant.co.uk address are permanently redirected to it. Links in guest emails keep working. See How search engines find your booking site.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
TXT record not found	Confirm the host name is exactly _stayant-challenge.<your-domain> and the value matches Stayant's shown code exactly (no extra spaces)
CNAME not found	Check the host name at your registrar; some add your domain automatically, others need the full hostname
Apex domain not resolving	Use A records instead of CNAME if your registrar doesn't support CNAME at the root
Still pending after hours	Try Verify now; if it still fails, use an online DNS lookup tool to confirm the records are visible publicly

For further help, contact Stayant support.