Newbook: a booking engine that runs on your own domain

Newbook says it’s built for holiday and caravan parks, RV parks and campgrounds, glamping, hotels, motels, lodges and vacation rentals, from single parks to multi-park groups, in the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

1. 01

   The WordPress plugin

   Newbook’s official plugin adds the booking engine to a WordPress page with one shortcode. You get the API key from Newbook support.

2. 02

   The booking file on your own site

   On other websites, the booking engine runs on a page that includes Newbook’s booking file. That needs a web host that runs PHP. Newbook doesn’t support putting the booking engine in a frame.

3. 03

   Your own search with a link

   Newbook documents link parameters for dates, guests, pets, promo codes and even a specific site type, so a search bar or site-type page can hand off with everything filled in.

With the plugin or the booking file, booking happens on your own domain. That keeps the guest, the trust and your analytics on your site. If your host can’t run PHP, Newbook can build a copy of your site’s look on its own newbook.cloud address instead.

Newbook documents available_from and available_to (YYYY-MM-DD), adults, children, infants and animals, plus promo_code and options like force_category_id to show one kind of site. Add them to the address of your booking page.

API. Newbook has a REST API that can pull availability and pricing and create bookings. Developers register with Newbook, and credentials come from Newbook support.

Payments. Newbook Payments, which connects to Stripe.

Newbook lists connections to big travel sites, vacation rental sites, outdoor and camping sites and Google.

Big travel sites

• Booking.com
• Expedia
• Agoda
• Tripadvisor

Vacation rental sites

• Airbnb
• Vrbo

Outdoor and camping

• Hipcamp
• Glamping Hub
• Pitchup
• Outdoorsy
• The Dyrt
• Spot2Nite

Google

• Google Hotel Ads

Newbook runs its own channel manager. Hipcamp is set up as a third-party booking channel, and Hipcamp’s team builds the listings.

Run the booking engine on your own site with the plugin or booking file, and link each kind of site, like full-hookup pull-throughs or tent sites, straight to the booking page with that site type already picked. The whole booking stays on your domain without a custom build.

Either way, your own pages are what Google and AI tools read and recommend, so that's where the work pays off. I build direct booking websites around the booking software you already have, and I can move a site out of your booking software, redirecting every old page so your rankings carry over.