Keep your domain pointing at your old site until you are ready for guests to book, and do all testing on the staging address.
Why this works. Moving the domain early gains nothing. The HomeRunner plugin connects by API key and works the same under either domain. If the new site is under the real domain before launch, visitors see a holding page instead of your current live site.
Before launch day. Two steps ahead of time make the actual switch take only minutes on launch day.
- Add the real domain to the new hosting account and have the SSL certificate issued for it.
- If your DNS provider allows it, lower the TTL on the domain’s records a day or two before the switch.
On launch day.
- Point the DNS records at the new host.
- Update the WordPress site address from the staging URL to the real domain.
- Under the real domain, load the property search, one property page, and the checkout, and confirm all three work before announcing.
Once the switch is done, let support know so support can run a final check of the booking pages under the live domain.