Connect your own domain

Your booking site always works at its Santara AI address, yourname.book.santara.ai. If you own a domain, you can put the site on it instead — for example www.yourvilla.com or book.yourvilla.com. Guests see your name in the address bar, with the padlock, and search engines index your domain.

It takes about five minutes of your time. The HTTPS certificate is issued and renewed for you.

Before you start

• A domain you own, and a login to the place that manages its DNS — usually where you bought it (GoDaddy, Namecheap, PA Vietnam, Mắt Bão, Niagahoster, Cloudflare…).
• Pick the address for the site. Use a name with a prefix, such as www.yourvilla.com or book.yourvilla.com. A bare yourvilla.com needs an extra step — see Using the bare domain.
• If www.yourvilla.com already shows another website, choose another prefix (book., stay.) or that website stops showing once you point it at us.

1. Add the domain in Santara AI

Booking Site → Setup → Custom domain. Type the address (for example www.yourvilla.com) and press Connect domain. Santara AI shows two DNS records made for your site.

2. Add the two records at your DNS provider

Open the DNS settings for your domain and add both records exactly as shown. Use the copy buttons.

Type	Host / Name	Value / Points to
CNAME	www (your prefix)	edge.book.santara.ai
TXT	_santara-verify.www	santara-verify=… (the code shown in Santara AI)

• Host field: most providers want only the part before your domain — www and _santara-verify.www, not www.yourvilla.com. If your provider shows the full name next to the field, it adds the domain for you.
• TTL: leave the default (or 1 hour).
• Cloudflare: set the CNAME to DNS only (grey cloud). With the orange cloud on, Cloudflare answers instead of us and the check fails.
• The TXT record proves the domain is yours. The CNAME sends guests to your booking site.

3. Verify

Back in Santara AI, press Verify. New records usually appear within minutes, but some providers take up to an hour. If the check fails, the card says which record is missing or wrong — fix it and press Verify again.

4. HTTPS is set up for you

Once both records check out, the card shows Securing HTTPS while we issue the certificate for your domain — usually 5 to 30 minutes. You can close the page; it is not waiting for you.

When it shows Active, your site is live at https://www.yourvilla.com:

• Your Santara AI address (yourname.book.santara.ai) redirects to your domain, page for page, so old links and search results still land on your site.
• Search results, the sitemap and social previews use your domain.
• The certificate renews automatically. Keep both records in place — removing the CNAME takes the site off your domain.

Using the bare domain

Most providers cannot put a CNAME on a bare domain (yourvilla.com with nothing in front). Two ways round it:

• Forward it (simplest). Connect www.yourvilla.com as above, then in your provider’s settings forward yourvilla.com to https://www.yourvilla.com. Almost every provider has a “forwarding” or “redirect” option.
• ALIAS / ANAME / CNAME flattening. Some providers (Cloudflare, AWS Route 53, DNSimple) can point the bare domain at edge.book.santara.ai with one of these record types. Use that instead of the CNAME in step 2, keep the TXT record (host _santara-verify), and connect yourvilla.com.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
“No TXT record was found at …”	The TXT host must be _santara-verify.<prefix>. Wait a few minutes after saving, then verify again.
“is a CNAME to …, but it needs to point at edge.book.santara.ai”	Edit the CNAME’s value to exactly edge.book.santara.ai.
Check passes but stays on Securing HTTPS for over an hour	If your domain has CAA records, add one allowing amazon.com — our certificates come from Amazon. On Cloudflare, make sure the CNAME is DNS only. Then press Verify again.
“already connected to another booking site”	The domain is in use on another Santara AI site. Remove it there first, or contact support.

Change or remove the domain

On the same card, Remove domain puts the site back on its Santara AI address straight away; the certificate is removed for you. To move to a different domain, remove the old one and connect the new one. You can delete the DNS records at your provider afterwards.