4 min read
Owning your website versus renting one
What ownership means for a vacation rental website, how to check whether you own yours, and why it matters when you switch platforms.
Most rental owners don't own their website. They have one, it works, and it has their name on it. But the domain, the hosting account or the site itself belongs to someone else, and that only becomes a problem on the day they want to leave.
The three things to own
A website is three separate things: the domain name, the hosting account the site runs on, and the site itself. Owning one of them isn't enough. If the domain is yours but the site lives inside your booking software, changing software means rebuilding. If the site is yours but the domain is registered to an agency, they control your address.
How to check
Look up who your domain is registered to. Log in to the hosting account, or ask for the login if you've never had it. Then ask what happens to the site if you cancel the monthly plan. If the answer is that it stops working, the site is rented, whatever the contract calls it.
Why it matters for rentals
Owners switch property management software more often than they expect, usually because of price, a feature they need or a change in who manages the home. A site that belongs to you survives that switch. You swap one booking widget for another and keep everything else, including the search ranking the site has built up.
Every site I build is handed over on accounts in the owner's name, which is the whole point of building it once.
Jack Murray
Nearly a decade marketing luxury real estate, now building direct booking websites.
Let’s look at your listing together.
Thirty minutes with me. Bring your listing link and you’ll leave with a fixed price, a start date and an honest answer on whether a direct booking site is worth it for you.
Jack Murray
Founder. You deal with me from first call to launch day.