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Connect a domain like www.mybeachhouse.com to your Haven property page or multi-unit site for a fully-branded guest experience. There are two paths:
Once your custom domain is Active, treat it as the primary address for direct bookings — not a vanity URL you keep in reserve. Point your website Book now button, social bios, email signature, and printed materials to this domain so every guest lands on the same branded checkout flow.
If you have a separate marketing website, see Add Haven to your existing website for how to wire the button in. For the full launch checklist — bios, warm contacts, QR codes — see Launch your direct booking site.
Haven partners: your website, client portal, invite link and lead form go on your domain from the Domain screen of your partner console, not from this screen. See Partner Mode.
hygge.lakeandhighland.com) instead of bookwithhaven.com, with a switch back. Search engines index one of those addresses, not both. The page on the group domain (lakeandhighland.com/property/hygge) stays the indexed address until the subdomain is live, then sends guests to the subdomain. The site editor → Settings → Listing addresses can switch every listing at once. A domain Haven manages is connected for you. A domain you manage shows one CNAME per listing on Listing addresses. Each listing gets its own certificate, which usually takes a few minutes after the CNAME is in place.www.mybeachhouse.com or stay.mybeachhouse.com. If you enter a root domain like mybeachhouse.com, Haven connects it as www.mybeachhouse.com and the SSL certificate covers that name only, so the root itself needs a redirect rather than a DNS record. See Apex (root) vs. subdomain.Under the hood, Haven uses two managed pieces of infrastructure:
What that means for you:
Your first Haven-managed domain is on us for the first year — no card required to get started. Around 30 days before the free year ends we remind you (and, if you haven't added a card, prompt you to add one) so the domain can renew at $15/year; if no card is on file it simply lapses at the end of the free year. Any additional domain has no free year: it's $15/year billed right away, so we'll ask for a card on file before registering it.
Partners and their clients: whoever buys pays. If you are a Haven partner, or a client of one, the buyer needs a card on file before buying any domain, including the first. The first year is still free; the card is charged $15 when that year ends. A partner who buys a domain while switched into a client's account pays for it on the partner's card: the domain belongs to the client's account and the bill stays with the partner, also if the client later leaves, until the domain is cancelled. A client who buys on their own login pays on their own card. The reminder before the first charge goes to whoever pays. See Partner mode.
This is the fastest path: you pick a domain name, Haven registers it through its Cloudflare Registrar integration, and a background job (typically within a few minutes) configures the CNAME, attaches it to your property, and provisions SSL. You never log in to a DNS panel.
mybeachhouse or mybeachhouse.com). If you leave off the extension, Haven searches .com. Type .co, .net, or another extension to search that instead. Haven shows whether the name is available and the price.If you've already bought a domain at GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, or another registrar, keep it there and add the two CNAME records Haven shows you. See Option 2. That path is free and takes about 10 minutes.
If the domain you're connecting already has a website on it, Haven reads that site the moment you connect the domain — while it is still live and before you change any DNS — and maps every page it finds to the closest page on your Haven site. Once the domain is active here, each old address answers a permanent redirect (a 301) to that page, so the links and rankings the old pages earned carry over instead of turning into "page not found".
What happens automatically:
/photos page to your photo section, /rates to the booking bar, blog posts to the same article on your Haven blog, and so on.Review and edit the plan under Sites → SEO → Redirects from your previous site: change any destination from a dropdown of your Haven pages, turn a redirect off, add an old address the scan missed, or re-scan. Changes apply within a few minutes. Redirects only start serving once the domain shows Active on Haven, so nothing changes for visitors until you switch DNS.
Keep the old site up until Haven shows Active. The scan needs the old site reachable, and your visitors keep landing on it until DNS moves. If you already switched DNS before the scan ran, use Re-scan — Haven will read the archived copy instead.
If you already own a domain at another registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Squarespace, Route 53, etc.) and want to keep it there, follow these steps. You'll add two CNAME records at your registrar and Haven handles the rest.
www.mybeachhouse.com) and click Connect domain.Haven immediately shows you the two DNS records to add.
You'll see two CNAME records:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | CNAME |
| Name | www.mybeachhouse.com (or whatever you chose) |
| Value | A CloudFront routing endpoint like d123abc.cloudfront.net |
AWS owns this record. The exact name and value look random — that's expected.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | CNAME |
| Name | A long, random-looking name AWS provides |
| Value | A CloudFront-owned validation target AWS provides |
Copy both records from Haven exactly and paste them into your registrar. Some registrars auto-append your domain to the Name field; see DNS configuration by provider below.
You can click Verify now in Haven to trigger an immediate re-check, but it's not required — Haven polls automatically.
When the status flips to Active, your property is live at your domain. Any links you shared using the old .bookwithhaven.com subdomain still work, so you can update your business cards and Instagram bio on your own schedule.
Airbnb checks every outside link in a guest thread, and it treats a brand-new domain as a possible scam. Guests who tap one get a "This link appears to be up to no good" page instead of your guidebook.
So for the first 30 days after your domain goes Active, guidebook and guest-form links that Haven sends into OTA threads use your .bookwithhaven.com link. That includes the {{haven_guidebook_url}} value your Guesty or OwnerRez templates send. After 30 days they switch to your custom domain on their own. Your website, direct-booking emails, and share links use your domain from day one.
The Airbnb auto-send and Hospitable setup cards in the guidebook share dialog always give you your .bookwithhaven.com guide link. Whatever you paste into an Airbnb quick reply or a Hospitable template stays there, so it should be a link Airbnb never blocks. It opens the same guide.
Custom domains serve public, guest-facing pages only:
Host-facing and account pages (sign-in, host dashboard, reservation management, checkout confirmation) always run on www.bookwithhaven.com. If a guest navigates to one of those on your custom domain, Haven transparently redirects them to www.bookwithhaven.com so they stay signed in and never see broken pages.
This keeps your domain lean, fast, and focused on the guest-booking experience — and keeps the auth complexity at Haven rather than at your DNS.
www.mybeachhouse.com or stay.mybeachhouse.com) — this is what Haven serves. Standard CNAME, works everywhere.mybeachhouse.com — no www) — Haven connects this as www.mybeachhouse.com and the certificate it gets covers that name only. The root needs a redirect to https://www.mybeachhouse.com, not a DNS record.Do not add an ALIAS or ANAME record at the root pointing to Haven, even if your registrar supports one. It looks like it should work, and the domain will resolve — but Haven's certificate doesn't cover the bare name, so visitors get a security warning or an error page instead of your site. This is true at every registrar, Cloudflare and Route 53 included. If you already added one while setting up, delete it and replace it with a redirect.
Set the redirect to https://www.yourdomain.com, as a permanent (301) redirect. Where to find it:
| Registrar | Where the redirect lives |
|---|---|
| Namecheap | Domain tab → Redirect Domain |
| GoDaddy | Domain Settings page → Forwarding |
| Cloudflare | Rules → Redirect Rules |
| Squarespace | Domains → Website forwarding |
A Namecheap catch worth knowing about: their redirect only covers the http:// version of your domain. Namecheap's redirect server cannot answer https:// at all — buying an SSL certificate does not change that; only paying for Namecheap web hosting and setting the redirect up there does — so a visitor who types https://yourdomain.com — or whose browser upgrades the address automatically, as most now do — still hits an error.
If you run into that, the free fix is to move your domain's nameservers to a Cloudflare free account. You keep your domain registered where it is; Cloudflare just answers the DNS. Their Redirect Rules handle http and https together at no cost, and you can copy your existing records across during setup. Allow up to 24 hours for the nameserver change to take effect.
CraftedStays typically leaves A and AAAA records on the root host (@). Those rows keep the old Google-hosted site answering for anyone who types the domain without www — even after Haven marks www Active.
The Domains panel includes a Coming from CraftedStays? button. Pick your registrar there (or in Select your DNS provider) and the checklist uses that platform's labels — Namecheap URL Redirect Record, GoDaddy Forwarding, Cloudflare Redirect Rules, Squarespace Website forwarding, and so on.
The work is the same on every registrar:
@, blank, or the bare domain). Leftovers usually look like Google 216.239…, Google IPv6 2001:4860…, or Vercel 76.76.21.21.https://www.yourdomain.com. Prefer Permanent / 301 over Temporary, Unmasked, or framed.www CNAME pointed at Haven. Leave MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, google-site-verification, and any OwnerRez portal CNAME in place — those are mail, Search Console, and the PMS portal, not the old site.Namecheap hides some of these on purpose. A URL Redirect adds an A record that does not appear in Advanced DNS. An AAAA can remain on their nameserver after it disappears from the list. If the type filter is on TXT or A Record, AAAA will never show. If https://yourdomain.com still opens CraftedStays after every visible AAAA is gone, ask Namecheap chat to delete AAAA 2001:4860… on @.
Namecheap's URL Redirect is HTTP only. After leftovers are gone, http://yourdomain.com should 301 to www, but https://yourdomain.com often times out — their forwarder does not answer on port 443. Changing Unmasked to Permanent (301) does not enable HTTPS. Share https://www.yourdomain.com until you put HTTPS on the apex another way (Cloudflare in front, or attach the apex in Haven).
Until leftover IPv6 is gone, phones and Safari keep opening the old site on the bare domain. Share the www address in the meantime.
Different registrars handle the Name / Host field differently. Some auto-append your domain; others expect the full name. Copy the values from Haven and paste them in.
GoDaddy auto-appends your domain to the Name field.
www or the unique _abc123.www validation prefix).To send the bare domain to www: open Forwarding (above the records, or the domain's Forwarding page). Forward the apex to https://www.yourdomain.com, type Permanent (301). Forward only the root — do not forward www.
Namecheap auto-appends your domain to the Host field.
To send the bare domain to www:
@.https://www.yourdomain.com.Namecheap's URL Redirect is HTTP only. http://yourdomain.com can 301 to www; https://yourdomain.com often times out because their forwarder does not listen on port 443. Switching Unmasked to 301 does not fix HTTPS. Share the www address in the meantime.
If you are moving off CraftedStays, leftover A and AAAA rows on @ can keep the old site alive after www is Active. See Coming from CraftedStays?. Namecheap also hides the A record that a URL Redirect creates — that is expected.
Cloudflare auto-appends your domain and defaults to "proxy" (orange cloud). It is also the easiest place to redirect your bare domain, and the free plan is enough — see below.
To send the bare domain to www: Rules → Redirect Rules — the Redirect from root to WWW template, or if Hostname equals the apex, redirect to https://www.yourdomain.com, status 301. Delete leftover A/AAAA on @ first, then add A @ → 192.0.2.1 set to Proxied (orange cloud): Redirect Rules only run on proxied names, so without it the bare domain does not resolve at all. This covers both http:// and https://, which is why it is the recommended fix when another registrar charges for HTTPS forwarding. Do not use a CNAME-flattened record on @ pointing at Haven — it resolves, but Haven's certificate covers www only, so visitors get an error.
Route 53 does not auto-append.
www.mybeachhouse.com or _abc123.www.mybeachhouse.com).Route 53 has no URL Redirect record, and an A (Alias) to the CloudFront target does not work — Haven's certificate covers www only, so the apex would answer with an error rather than your site. To send the apex to www, use an S3 bucket configured for redirect, CloudFront Functions, or move the zone to a free Cloudflare account and add a Redirect Rule.
To send the bare domain to www: Website forwarding / Domain forwarding, permanent, apex → https://www.yourdomain.com. Delete leftover A/AAAA on @ first — do not leave CraftedStays' 216.239… / 2001:4860… rows and add a forward on top.
Once your Haven-managed domain is live, you can add professional email on it —
either a real mailbox you send and receive from at you@yourdomain.com
(your first mailbox free for a year, each additional mailbox free for 30 days, then $5/month) or free receive-only forwarding into an
inbox you already own. Haven configures all of the MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
records for you. Manage it under Settings → Domains & Email → Email. See
Professional Email on Your Domain
for the full walkthrough.
Haven immediately stops routing the domain. You can reconnect the same domain later at no cost.
You do not need to read records yourself. Open the assistant (the bar at the bottom of the host dashboard, or Help → Ask Haven) and say something like "my domain still shows my old site" or "why is lilnautinavarre.com waiting for DNS?". The assistant looks up your live DNS — the same checks an engineer runs — and tells you exactly which record to add, change, or delete at your registrar: whether www points at Haven, whether the SSL validation record is in, whether the root domain still points at an old website builder (Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy) and needs a forward to https://www., and whether a record name was doubled. It can do the same for email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) if a mailbox or sending address will not verify.
dig www.mybeachhouse.com CNAME
_abc.www.mybeachhouse.com.mybeachhouse.com)This happens when your registrar auto-appends the domain, but you pasted the full name. Fix by editing the record and removing the .mybeachhouse.com suffix from the Name field.
AWS reported a problem validating the certificate. Re-check that the Record 2 (validation) CNAME exists exactly as shown. Records 1 and 2 are both required — a missing Record 2 is the most common cause.
You do not have to be watching the Domains tab to catch this. When a domain reaches "Needs attention", Haven emails you what went wrong in plain words, the records that domain still needs, where to put them at your DNS provider, and a link to book a 30-minute call if you would rather we walked through your registrar with you. You get one email per problem — fixing the domain and hitting trouble again later earns a fresh one.
Usually means the certificate hasn't finished issuing. Wait a few more minutes and reload. If it persists past 30 minutes, remove and re-attach the domain.
www is Active but the bare domain still opens the old siteThis is leftover apex DNS, not a Haven routing failure. Delete A and AAAA on @, then add a URL Redirect to https://www.… set to Permanent (301), not Unmasked. See Coming from CraftedStays?. On Namecheap, ask chat to delete a hidden AAAA 2001:4860… on @ if Advanced DNS no longer lists it.
https:// after the redirect is setNamecheap URL Redirect only answers on HTTP (port 80). Browsers request https://yourdomain.com first and hang. That is their forwarder, not a missing Haven record. Changing Unmasked to Permanent (301) does not open port 443, and buying an SSL certificate does not either — a certificate needs a server to live on. The only paid route at Namecheap is a web hosting plan: point @ at the hosting server, install SSL there, and add the redirect in cPanel. It works, but it is a monthly bill and a server to look after for a single redirect.
The free fix is to move the domain's nameservers to a Cloudflare free account. Your domain stays registered with Namecheap — Cloudflare only answers the DNS — and its Redirect Rules cover http and https together at no cost:
_…www) and email DKIM records (…._domainkey). Without the validation record your site works today and fails when the certificate renews.www CNAME to Haven, and the validation CNAME, to DNS only (gray cloud).@ — including ones pointing at cloudfront.net addresses (that is an old ALIAS to Haven) and Namecheap's redirect address 162.255.119.x.@, IPv4 192.0.2.1, Proxied (orange cloud). The address is a placeholder; Cloudflare only applies Redirect Rules to proxied names, and the redirect answers before anything reaches it.concat("https://www.yourdomain.com", http.request.uri.path), status 301, preserve query string. Keeping the path means old links to yourdomain.com/anything still land on the right page.http://yourdomain.com and https://yourdomain.com — both should land on https://www.yourdomain.com.From then on, DNS changes for this domain are made in Cloudflare, not Namecheap. Share https://www.yourdomain.com in the meantime — your site is working there throughout.
www., stay., book.) for the simplest, most portable setup.New to Haven?
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