CityLights Help Back to the app
Help centre

Website builder

Build your booking website's home page and extra pages from sections, preview them, then publish.

What this page is for

The website builder lets you design your booking website without a designer or a developer. A page is a stack of sections: a big opening picture (the hero), text, your featured listings, a picture with text, a photo gallery, features, guest reviews, places, your location, a call to action, questions and answers, and your contact details.

You add, remove, reorder and fill in sections, check the result in the live preview, and publish when you are happy. Until then guests keep seeing the published version.

Each theme (chosen on Branding) comes with a ready-made layout. For example the Apple style theme starts with a big centred headline and picture, a grey band of listings and a black feature band; the Sereno theme starts with a rounded photo with the search bar on it, places as round buttons, soft listing cards and a navy footer. You then replace the example wording and pictures with your own.

Who can use it

People with the Build the booking website pages permission (by default Admin) and the account owner. The preview is only shown to them; guests never see drafts.

How to build your home page

  1. Go to Branding and choose a Booking website theme, then select Save themes.
  2. Select Build the website pages. The home page opens with the theme's layout as a draft.
  3. Open a section (select its title) to fill it in. Type your own heading and text, upload a picture, and select Save section.
  4. Watch the Preview of the draft on the right. It reloads after every save. Use Phone to check how it looks on a phone.
  5. When you are happy, select Publish. Guests see the new page straight away.

How to add, move, copy or remove a section

All of these change the draft only, until you publish.

How to start again from a theme's layout

  1. Under Start this page from a theme's layout, choose a theme.
  2. Select Use this layout. The draft sections are replaced by the theme's layout with example wording. Your header and footer wording is kept.
  3. Preview and publish, or select Discard changes to go back to the published page.

How to make another page

  1. Select New page, type a title (for example "About us") and, if you like, an address (for example about-us).
  2. Select Create page. It opens in the builder with a heading and a text section.
  3. Build it, then select Publish. It is then at your website address followed by /p/ and the page address.
  4. Link to it from a button with @page:about-us, or from the footer by adding a normal content page on Booking platform, Website.

To delete a section-built page, open it and select Delete page. Its photos are deleted too.

How to change the header and footer

On the home page, open Header and footer (every page) at the bottom: an announcement line above the header, the header button, a line about you in the footer and the small print. These are published together with the home page.

Fields and columns

Sections

Section What it shows Main fields
Hero The big opening of the page Small line above, heading, text under it, two buttons, picture or video, layout, height, search bar on or off
Search bar The search box on its own band Heading, text
Text A heading and paragraphs, such as your story Small line, heading, text, alignment, button
Featured listings Cards of your featured places to stay, with prices Heading, text, how many (3 to 12), grid or sideways row, wording of the "see all" link
Picture and text A large picture beside text Heading, text, picture, picture on the left or right, button
Photo gallery Up to 12 photos Heading, photos, grid or mosaic
Features Reasons to book or amenities Heading, text, columns (2, 3 or 4), items with an icon, a title and a line of text
Guest reviews Quotes from real guests Heading, items with the quote, name, detail and stars
Destinations The places you have stays in Heading, text, cards or small round buttons
Location Where you are Heading, text, address, map link, picture
Call to action A band with a message and buttons Heading, text, two buttons
Questions and answers Questions that open to show the answer Heading, items with a question and an answer
Contact Your email, phone, WhatsApp and address Heading, text. The details come from the booking website settings.

Hero layouts

Layout Looks like
Centred, picture below A large centred headline with buttons, and a wide picture underneath (Apple style)
Text on the picture, full width The photo fills the screen with the text on it; the header can sit on top of it
Text on a rounded picture A rounded photo panel inside the page, with the search bar on it (Sereno)
Text beside the picture Text and search on one side, a tall photo on the other

Look of each section

Field Meaning
Background Page background, a soft band, a dark band or a band in your brand colour. Text colours adjust so they stay readable.
Space around Compact, normal or generous space above and below
Name for links (#) Optional. A button with the link #name scrolls to this section.
Show this section Untick to hide it without removing it

Links on buttons

You type It goes to
@search The search page
@home The home page
@contact The Contact section on the same page
@page:about-us The section-built page with that address
#name A section on the same page with that name
/stays/search A path on your own website
https://... Another website (opens in a new tab)
mailto: or tel: An email address or phone number

Anything else, such as a javascript: link, is refused.

Text rules

Pictures and videos

Kind Rules
Pictures JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 8 MB. Wide photos at least 2000 pixels across look best. Hidden location data is removed and smaller copies are made for phones.
Video (hero only) MP4 or WebM, up to 20 MB, a short silent loop. The picture is shown while it loads.

Where a section needs a picture and you have not uploaded one, the photo of your first featured listing is used.

Statuses and automation

Settings that change this page

FAQs

Can I make the site look exactly like another website? You can match the layout and style closely: choose the theme nearest to it, pick the hero layout, order the sections the same way and set the backgrounds. Use your own wording and photos; copying another company's text, logos or pictures is not allowed.

Will my old home page change when I pick a theme? With the Classic theme nothing changes until you publish a page here. With any other theme, the home page uses that theme's ready-made layout until you publish your own.

Can I undo a publish? Not automatically. Change the sections back and publish again, or use the Change history to see what was there.

Why is the review section hidden? Reviews start hidden so the site never shows invented reviews. Type in real reviews, tick Show this section and publish.

Do guests see the preview? No. The preview is only for staff who can build the website, and search engines are told not to index it.

Troubleshooting

Problem What to do
"Choose another address" when creating a page The address is empty, used by another page, or a word the website already uses (search, checkout, manage). Pick another.
A button link is refused Use one of the forms in Links on buttons.
The picture upload is refused Use JPG, PNG or WebP up to 8 MB.
The preview says the booking website is off Ask your account owner to turn on the booking website module. You can still build the pages.
A section does not show on the website Check Show this section is ticked, it has content (galleries need photos, reviews need items), and that you published.
Guests still see the old page Select Publish, then reload the website.

Related pages