Website domains?

[johnandtahra]

Hey everyone,

How many of you have secured a dedicated domain for your holiday lets? I'm very tempted, as I can back it up with a decent website (as it's my day job, kind of) and we're keen to ensure that we get the web-based inquiries side of things nailed down early on...

thanks

[greenbarn]

I suspect the answer is "most of us". After all, why wouldn't you?

[johnandtahra]

OK, done. Second question: if you run your own website, are you handling your payments online or offline?

I've built card integrations before and have no plan to go 'all out' and deal with PCI compliance and all that just for a holiday let, but perhaps there are intermediaries that I could use for the booking process so that those who prefer to simply pay there and then can do.

Or is this just too much work?

[kevsboredagain]

Probably most people on here have one. It's probably the cheapest advertising you'll do. Even if you don't have a website for a while, it's worth it just to have a more professional email address.

[johnandtahra]

OK, I've secured the .com, the .uk and the .co.uk for our preferred domain.

Which one do you think we ought to use? The others will simply redirect.

Also, I'm thinking of using a subdomain for the website, to leave open the possibility of hosting multiple property websites should we either add to the (cough) portfolio, or perhaps 'sub-let' space to other properties. Any pros/cons you are aware of (from a letting point of view; I'll cover the SEO separately).

[newtimber]

If your property is in the uk, then you should use the uk or .co.uk domain. That's why the country codes were invented!

I wouldn't bother using a subdomain now - you can always move things around later.

[johnandtahra]

Too late! I've gone with .com as it's the most instantly recognisable TLD. I'll opt for a subdomain now, as to move it later might have a negative SEO impact, and there's value in having (say) the village name in the URL. Though I'm not sure if...

mydomain.com/village

...is actually worse in practice than

village.mydomain.com

I used to know all this stuff, but I've been away from it for a bit so things have changed a bit...
I've also got the 'proper' email setup - i.e. info@mydomain.com rather than mydomainorwhatever@freeemailofchoice.com - if you get my drift. Looks much more professional IMHO.