New URL masking Guidelines

Please Read

When creating your CNAME you will be masking the cname.travelnow.com part of the url of your affiliate site, but you still need to include “templates/CID” in all your links (even the home page) for your affiliate site to work properly.

Due to EAN system upgrades, pointing your CNAME to the travel.ian.com domain will no longer work starting August 23rd. It is absolutely imperative that your CNAME record points to cname.travelnow.com before the deadline. Partners who do not update their CNAME could experience link breakage and consequently decreased revenue. Please refer to the EAN URL Masking Guide for details as to how your CNAME should be configured.

The Destination Guides pages reside on a different server and no changes are needed for CNAME records pointing to the dg.ian.com domain at this time.

This is solely an administrative change within your DNS settings – so long as your existing CNAME alias remains the same the links on your site will not require modification.

40 Responses

joey
Q: I use godaddy for my domain and hosting. I have set up a subdomain for the affiliate site and will use the main TDL.com to funnel traffic to the subdomain where the affiliate white label site will live; book.travvl.com

how do i do a CNAME for this?

Here are the options at godaddy:

Complete the following and then click OK:

Enter an Alias Name — The subdomain name for the alias assignment.
Points to Host Name — Your domain name.
TTL — How long the server should cache the information.

tia
September 9, 2010 at 2:51 pm
- Jose Truchado
  HI;
  
  Here are the steps you need to follow in Godaddy
  
  * Log in to your account at http://www.godaddy.com.
  * Open the Domains tab and select My Domain Names. You’ll be directed to the Domain Manager page.
  * Click the on the domain you use for your affiliate site
  * Click More Settings in the domain Dashboard.
  * Click Manage under Total DNS/MX.
  * Click Add New CNAME Record. If you’ve already created a CNAME record for the address, click the marker icon under the Actions column next to the existing CNAME record.
  * Enter an Alias Name: here you need to enter the subdomain you are using for your affiliate pages (without including your domain, i.e.: for travel.your domain.com you only need to enter ‘travel’)
  * Points To Host Name: enter cname.travelnow.com.
  * Leave the TTL value to the default selection.
  * Click OK. In the Review and status box, you can see the results of your updates.
  
  Updates may take 24 hours to show, so you should check with http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/ that the redirection is working correctly after a day.
  September 9, 2010 at 3:42 pm
joey
understood. but i have an ISSUE/Question.

I already set up a VALID subdomain book.travvl.com

So when i try to do a CNAME like so:

Alias: book
Points To Host Name: enter cname.travelnow.com

I wont work..gives an error.

I changed it to books and it did work.. So do i need the original subdomain i created or not?

thanks for your speedy reply btw!
j
September 9, 2010 at 3:57 pm
- Jose Truchado
  Hi,
  
  You don’t need the original subdomain, but make sure that any affiliate tool (search box, merchandising widgets, etc) or link that you are using uses the new subdomain.
  
  Thanks
  September 9, 2010 at 4:01 pm
qingrenjies
would you choose probable to translate your web site into spanish because i’ve got difficulties of speaking to language, and seeing that there are not many pictures on your website i would like to read more of what you’re really writting
November 23, 2010 at 9:53 am
Jan
My provider doesn’t allow CNAME changing, however they do allow DNS IP change ( A level). On my other white label sites this is no problem. Is it possible with expedia? Where to forward it? Thanks.
June 3, 2011 at 8:12 am
- Jose Truchado
  HI;
  
  I’m afraid that we can’t do that type of Masking. As a solution you can move your domain to a registrar that allows it such as Godaddy.com
  June 3, 2011 at 11:30 am
  - Jan
    Hi Jose, Thanks. Now I have my domain installed with cname.travelnow.com
    
    travelxhotel.com –> cname.travelnow.com
    http://www.travelxhotel.com –> cname.travelnow.com
    
    However if you go to travelxhotel.com you don’t see my domain but the general travelnow.com website. How to solve this? Or is it only possible to put it on a subdomain and not on a main domain. Let me know.
    June 7, 2011 at 1:37 pm
joeynegros
is there a simpler way to do this with Chameleon? or do you still have to do all this extra complex steps to make Chameleon work with my domain?

jn
June 23, 2011 at 6:52 pm
- Jose Truchado
  HI, because the domain DNS is controlled by your registrar, there is no way to do this through our control panel, you will always have to create the CNAME DNS records through them
  June 24, 2011 at 2:16 pm
eugenio
Hi,

is it possible to remove the templates showing in the url??

I’ve tried the guide for the cname masking but without the templates/cid it didn’t work well. /index.js keeps issuing different cid and also it goes to the travelnow website.

Thanks..
June 28, 2011 at 6:27 pm
- Jose Truchado
  Hi, no, you can’t remove the /template/CID part of the url as this is the part we use to identify that the bookings made on your site come from you.
  June 29, 2011 at 10:49 am
Ernest
Hi,

Is it possible to have the entire domain masked as the affiliate website? If so, am I only required to add cname? What about nameservers?

Thanks
July 6, 2011 at 5:15 am
wenpo
I have a top destination widget carousel and the link generated is http://merchandising.expediaaffiliate.com/campaign/page/?campaignId=25751&cid=358163&page=2

Can we actually hide the “expediaaffiliate” or replace the above link to http://www.mywebsite.com/top destination?

I tried to refer my website to my friend and they noticed of the expediaaffiliate as a result they visited expedia website for a cheaper bargain (they assumed) rather than using my affiliate link. Could you please advise?
July 22, 2011 at 3:46 am
- jjhuman
  Hi Wenpo, currently we have a bug with URL masking on these widgets. The fix should be released in one of our future releases. Once this is done you should be able to use URL masking by entering your domain in the CNAME field (it is on the page where you entered the hotel criteria).
  July 22, 2011 at 3:52 pm
salvador
Hello. I’m desperate, I have two weeks trying to mask my url does not work.

My page is redirected to a page with another CID Travel now and not mine.

Please help me …

Thank you.
July 28, 2011 at 7:26 pm
- Jose Truchado
  Hi;
  
  Bear in mind that your CNAMEd subdomain won’t link to your site unless you add the templates/YOURCID parameters, so your url shoud be something like:
  
  http://yourCNAME.YourDomain.com/templates/YOURCID
  
  Otherwise our system won’t be able to identify your affiliate site and it will be redirected to our default site
  August 1, 2011 at 3:39 pm
  - JS
    Now I’m really messed.
    
    Trying to use chameleon white label.
    
    @Jose: you can’t use slashes in CNAME (travel.mydomain.com/template/xxxx). I can only use “travel.mydomain.com”.
    Which means – anybody going to my domain travel.mydomain.com won’t actually land on my affiliate page.Instead they need to follow travel.mydomain.com/template/xxxx in order to get there.
    
    Please provide proper guide for that.
    
    I struggled for half day to setup chameleon and it wont work for me. Also the caching time after you make changes in the admin are too long.
    August 2, 2011 at 5:16 pm
    - Jose Truchado
      Hi,
      
      Sorry I didn’t explain myself correctly, what I mean is that in order to access your affiliate site you need to use the directories /templates/YOURCID after your CNAME, otherwise our system won’t recognise your site and will redirect the user to the default CID.
      
      For example in our Exampletravel.com site the CNAME is travel.exampletravel.com and the affiliate site is http://travel.exampletravel.com/templates/310453/
      August 2, 2011 at 5:38 pm
      - Dave
        Hi Jose,
        Can you please clarify this? Do you mean that the cname should be cname.travelnow.com/templates/361xxx ? I was under the impression that you couldn’t use / in a cname?
        August 28, 2011 at 8:50 am
        
        Jose Truchado
        Hi;
        
        Yes, your CNAME will be the url that will substitute cname.travelnor.com so it will be something like: cname.yourdomain.com (where you replace “cname” and “yourdomain.com” with your own values), but your affiliate url will be cname.yourdomain.com/templates/CID. If you use just your CNAME url our system won’t be able to track your bookings and they will be assigned to the default CID.
        September 7, 2011 at 9:17 am
Jorge
I do not know if someone can help me, I have been trying weeks to mask the address. My domain is with Nettfirms, their technicians even when I have send them the masking guide they say they not have idea how to do it. If I do
reservations >>> cname.travelnow.com it takes me to a generic travelnow.com page but I I do reservations >>> cname.travelnow.com/templates/xxxx It does not work. At this point I have not idea what to do. Can Anyone help me please!!
August 3, 2011 at 6:52 pm
- Jose Truchado
  Hi Jorge;
  
  Here is how you create a CNAME in Netfims:
  
  To create a CNAME record, please refer to the following:
  
  Login to your Netfirms Control Panel.
  Click Domains.
  Click Domain Manager.
  Click on the “+” button next to the domain you wish to use.
  Click the Sub-domain tab.
  Enter a sub-domain name in the Enter a Sub-domain field. (for example: res)
  Click the CNAME check box.
  Enter the CNAME of your host in the Hostname field. (this is where you enter cname.travelnow.com)
  Click Add.
  
  With this you will have created a CNAME pointin res.yourdomain.com to cname.travelnow.com, so the masked url of your affiliate site will be:
  
  res.yourdomain.com/templates/YOURCID
  August 4, 2011 at 9:13 am
wenpo
Hi Jose,

My Cname is now working finally. How can I change the website design similar to http://www.travelnow.com? I checked the visual theme in my account but only 1 available and cannot choose a different visual theme.
September 20, 2011 at 4:53 am
M M
Hello.
How do you add your url mask to the default search widget?
Currently when a user clicks on a hotel search from my site it will go to travelnow domain.
November 25, 2011 at 12:19 am
Christopher Lehman
Hi Jose, I have had good luck so far masking my domain mammothresorthotels.com. I have hit a road block with Google Adwords-they suspended my account. The masking works great until the customer gets to the booking process then the travelnow.com url appears in the string. having this url change is a violation of Google-Adwords. I’m out of business until I get this resolved. Any ideas on how to mask the url through the entire booking process? Thanks for your help.
Chris
December 6, 2011 at 3:12 am
Carl
How and where do I add the specific ‘CNAME subdomain parameters’ on Godaddy?

I’ve already added the ‘Hotels’ for host and ‘cname.travelnow.com’ for the points to part.

Thanks
December 9, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Ryan
I have uploaded header and footer and it looks good. When you do a search for a hotel, the list come up, however, when you click “Select” to book the room an error page comes up stating “Service is Temporarily Unavailable” and gives this:
Service Temporarily Unavailable
We are sorry. Our service is temporarily unavailable.
Please try one of the following options:
Go back to the Hotels page
Send us your feedback
Now with reviews
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
FAQ

How can this be solved?
January 26, 2012 at 7:09 pm
ceyhun
hi..can you help me about masking.
my domain and hosting companies are different.
1.do i have create a subdomain.
2.where i have to create the cname.in the domain company or hosting company.

i create a cname record…name=res cname=cname.travelnow.com
on the host company.

thanks
February 6, 2012 at 11:38 am
Bill
How do you create aCNAME using siteground.com hosting
February 17, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Sebastián E.
Hi, I have a question.

I have masked the url correctly with the explanations of this page. My domain is tombooking.com/templates/CID

What’s the way to, when people go to the url: tombooking.com they go to my affiliate page?

Thanks!!
February 21, 2012 at 8:22 am
Ronny O
Hi I have been trying to mask my URL for the longest time. I am using jumpline.com

Every single time I try it fails.

Can some one please help.

Thanks,

Ronny O
February 26, 2012 at 2:58 am
Ronny O
Hi Jose,

Can you please provide us the instructions of mapping Chameleon on WordPress as the host.

Thanks,

Ronny O
February 29, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Dexterious
The link is not redirecting correctly. When cname.travelnow.com is used as the record, it works perfectly. But when any other used, it doesnt work. Most of the time, it goes to the expediaaffliate.com. What should i write as a record to connect to a campaign made in the chameleon?
March 7, 2012 at 8:41 am
Ludwig L
hello Jose,
i am trying to do it on my domain which is with webnic.cc , can you guide me the procedure. I bought an expensive domain for this program
March 27, 2012 at 4:02 pm
- Martin Macdonald
  Hi Ludwig,
  
  sorry, but the instructions vary for almost every domain registrar – and there are thousands of them! The company which has sold you the domain (in this case webnic.cc) are the best placed to help you.
  
  thanks
  Martin
  April 2, 2012 at 10:38 am
Frank
Dear Ean,

I’m pretty much finished my website, and I’m thinking it rocks. I’ve created a CNAME record as according to your instructions, so that reservations.holidaysamerica.com, now points to cname.travelnow.com.

However, everytime I use the form, the form redirects to a 404. Can someone take a look and tell me what I am doing wrong?

cheers

Frank
April 16, 2013 at 3:45 am
Vlad B.
I’m hosted at godaddy
August 11, 2011 at 11:03 am
Jose Truchado
HI, to create a CNAME in Godaddy follow this:

Log in to your account at http://www.godaddy.com by clicking the My Account tab.
Under the Domains header, find the domain you’re using with Google Apps. Click (Advanced Details) to the right of this domain.
Under the DNS Manager header, click Launch.
In the CNAME (Alias) section, click Quick Add. If you’ve already created a CNAME record for the address, you can click anywhere in the existing CNAME record’s row to edit.
In the new row that appears, enter the following information:

Host: enter the CNAME you want to create, for example for hotels.yourdomain.com enter hotels
Points to: Enter cname.travelnow.com
TTL: Leave the TTL value to the default selection

At the top or the bottom of the page, click the Save Zone File button.
Click OK in the pop-up.
August 15, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Fabian
Hi Jose,

I need some help, I create the cname (travel.mydomain.com) pointing to cname.travelnow.com and on the widget I modified the url (travel.mydomain.com/template/cid) and it works.

but when the users change the url from “travel.mydomain.com/template/cid” to “travel.mydomain.com” this is redirected to an unknown template and customer id.

I have been trying to solve this problem, but I don’t know how to do it.

You have an idea?
January 19, 2012 at 9:34 pm