Moving off a booking tool like Picktime or Wix to your own site

Updated Oct 2026

Why people move

A ready-made booking tool is a good way to start. People usually move when they outgrow it:

• the monthly fee or the cut of each booking keeps rising as bookings grow,
• the tool can't handle the way they actually book (rooms and tours, seasons, deposits, packages),
• or they want the booking page to look and feel like their own business, not like the tool.

If none of these is true for you, staying put is fine. Moving takes some work, so do it for a clear reason.

Step 1: Save your data before you change anything

Your guest list is the most valuable thing in your old tool. Export it first, while everything still works.

• Wix: the site owner can export up to 50,000 contacts at once as a CSV file (a plain spreadsheet file): Contacts → Import / Export → Export. Only the site owner can do this, so if someone else set up your site, ask them now (Wix Help Center, "Exporting Your Contacts", checked Oct 18, 2026).
• Wix Bookings: your bookings can be exported as a CSV too: Booking Calendar → Manage → Export booking data. The "Booking List" report has session dates, client contact details, the service, and the booking and payment status for the dates you choose (Wix Help Center, "Exporting Reports on Bookings and Staff", checked Oct 18, 2026).
• Picktime: your customer contacts can be exported as a CSV: Customer → the three dots at the top right → Import/Export → Export Customer (Picktime Help, "How to export customer contacts", checked Oct 18, 2026). Picktime's help article covers contacts only, so write down or screenshot your upcoming appointments as well.

Also save: your photos, your page texts, your prices and seasons, your cancellation policy, and any reviews you want to keep. Put it all in one folder.

Step 2: Keep your web address (domain)

Your web address is what guests, Google and your old links know you by. Keep the same one if you can. When the new site lives at the same address, guests and search engines find you where they already look.

Two different things can happen to your domain, and it helps to keep them apart:

• Pointing the domain at the new site. This is what moves your website. Your domain can stay where it is registered today.
• Transferring the domain to another company (a "registrar"), so it's held in your own account whoever builds the site. This is optional, and there's one catch: by an ICANN rule, a domain can't be transferred within 60 days of being registered, of a change to the owner's contact details, or of a previous transfer. Wix says it can't change this, and that in the meantime you can keep the domain at Wix and point it to your new site (Wix Help Center, "ICANN's 60-Day Lock Policy", checked Oct 18, 2026).
• So if you plan a transfer, check your dates first. If you changed your contact details in the last 60 days, the transfer waits, but the new site doesn't have to: keep the domain where it is and point it to the new site meanwhile.
• Email on your domain: if you have an email address like you@yourfarm.com, make sure whoever moves the domain keeps your email working. Ask before anything changes.

Step 3: Keep the old tool until its bookings are done

Don't switch everything off on the same day.

1. Build and test the new site while the old tool still takes bookings. Make a real test booking yourself, on a phone, from start to finish, including the confirmation email.
2. Honour every booking already made in the old tool. Leave those guests where they are and don't ask them to book again. Keep the old tool until the last of those stays or visits is over, or move them across by hand.
3. Ask your old tool how refunds work after you cancel, for any deposits it took. Don't close the account until you know.
4. Switch the "Book now" buttons to the new site on a quiet week, not in peak season.
5. Update the places that link to you: your Google, Airbnb, Instagram and Facebook profiles, directory listings, and your email signature.

Step 4: Redirect every old page address that changes

Even when you keep your domain, some page addresses usually change (for example, yourfarm.com/book-online on the old site might become yourfarm.com/book on the new one). Each old address that changes should forward to the matching page on the new site with a permanent redirect (a "301"). Pages that keep exactly the same address don't need a redirect: just check that each one still opens on the new site. Google's advice for pages whose addresses change:

• Make a list of your old page addresses, mark the ones that will change, and decide where each of those should go. Don't send them all to the home page. Send each one to the page that matches it best (Google Search Central, "Site moves with URL changes", checked Oct 18, 2026).
• Use permanent redirects (301 or 308). Google says they "don't cause a loss in PageRank", so links pointing to your old addresses still count for the new pages (same source).
• Keep the redirects for at least a year, and longer if you can (same source).
• Expect it to take time. Google says a small to medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move, and larger sites take longer, depending on how many addresses there are and how fast the server is. It also says your visibility in search may go up and down during the move and settle over time (same source).
• Send Google your new sitemap (the list of your pages) in Search Console. It can help Google find the new pages faster (same source).

If you keep the same web address, you probably don't need Search Console's "Change of Address" tool. Google says that tool is for moving from one domain or subdomain to another. For pages that move within your site, Google says to add redirects and update your sitemaps as appropriate (Google Search Console Help, "Change of Address tool", checked Oct 18, 2026). If your address itself changes, ask whoever builds the site to handle this step.

Questions to ask whoever builds the new site

1. Will my site stay at the same web address, and who will own the domain?
2. Can you import my guest list and bookings from the CSV files I exported?
3. Will you set up a permanent (301) redirect for each old page address that changes, and can I see the list?
4. How will my email on my domain keep working during the move?
5. Can I test a full booking on my phone before the old tool is switched off?
6. Who updates my Google, Airbnb and social profile links, you or me?

A simple moving checklist

• Export contacts and bookings (CSV), and save photos, texts, prices and policies
• Decide whether you're only pointing your domain at the new site, or also transferring it. For a transfer, check the dates (no transfer within 60 days of registration, a contact change or a transfer)
• Build the new site at the same web address if you can, and test a real booking on a phone
• Keep the old tool until every existing booking is done, and check refunds
• Switch the "Book now" buttons in a quiet week
• Redirect every old page address that changes to its matching new page (301), keep the redirects 1 year or more, and check that pages keeping their address still open
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console
• Update your Google, Airbnb, social and directory links

Sources

1. Wix Help Center, "Exporting Your Contacts": https://support.wix.com/en/article/exporting-your-contacts (only the site owner can export; up to 50,000 contacts at once; regular, Google or Outlook CSV; checked Oct 18, 2026).
2. Wix Help Center, "Exporting Reports on Bookings and Staff in Wix Bookings": https://support.wix.com/en/article/exporting-reports-on-bookings-and-staff-in-wix-bookings (Booking Calendar → Manage → Export booking data; the Booking List report includes session date, client contact details, service, and booking and payment status; checked Oct 18, 2026).
3. Picktime Help, "How to export customer contacts from Picktime": https://support.picktime.com/en/article/how-to-export-customer-contacts-from-picktime-xtl31m/ (Customer → menu → Import/Export → Export Customer, CSV; checked Oct 18, 2026).
4. Wix Help Center, "ICANN's 60-Day Lock Policy": https://support.wix.com/en/article/icanns-60-day-lock-policy (no transfer within 60 days of registration, a registrant contact change or a transfer between providers; applies to transfers away from Wix; keep the domain at Wix and point it to the external site meanwhile; checked Oct 18, 2026).
5. Google Search Central, "Site moves with URL changes": https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes (map old URLs to new; permanent 301/308 redirects; "don't cause a loss in PageRank"; keep redirects "generally at least 1 year"; "a few weeks" for most pages of a small to medium site, longer for larger sites, depending on URL count and server speed; visibility "may fluctuate temporarily during the move"; submit the new sitemap; checked Oct 18, 2026).
6. Google Search Console Help, "Change of Address tool": https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220 (for moves from one domain or subdomain to another; for moves within a site, "just add redirects, and update your sitemaps as appropriate"; checked Oct 18, 2026).

Tools and their help pages change. Check the sources above before you start.