Public Website Not Loading

Public Website Not Loading

Your public website is how renters find and book you. If it goes down — even for a few hours — bookings stop. Here is how to diagnose and fix it quickly.

Step 1: Confirm the Site Is Actually Published

The most common cause of a "missing" website is that it was never pushed live. Head to Settings > Website > General and check the status badge at the top:

• Published (green) — The site is live and should be reachable.
• Draft (gray) — The site exists but has not been published yet.
• Unpublished (red) — The site was taken down manually.

If the status is anything but Published, click Publish Now. Live sites go up in under a minute.

Step 2: Test the TrailerBase Subdomain First

Every site has a default TrailerBase subdomain, like yourbusiness.trailerbase.io. Try that URL in an incognito window. If the subdomain works but your custom domain does not, the problem is with your custom domain setup (keep reading). If neither works, the problem is with the site itself (skip to Step 4).

Step 3: Wait Out DNS Propagation

If you just added a custom domain (like rentfromme.com) in the last day or two, your DNS records need time to propagate across the internet. Realistic propagation times are:

• 15 minutes — Best case, for simple providers like Cloudflare
• 2-6 hours — Typical
• Up to 48 hours — Worst case, especially for brand-new domains or providers with long TTLs

You can check propagation at any DNS lookup tool (such as dnschecker.org). If your records appear on most of the servers around the world, you are ready — only the stragglers are delayed.

Step 4: Re-Verify Your SSL Certificate

If your custom domain loads but shows a security warning, TrailerBase's SSL certificate for your domain has either expired (we renew automatically, but renewals occasionally fail) or has not been issued yet.

In Settings > Website > Custom Domain, click Re-verify Domain. TrailerBase will re-check your DNS records and issue a fresh certificate. This usually takes 5-10 minutes. You will see a green "Secure" badge when it is done.

Step 5: Purge the Website Cache

TrailerBase caches your public site aggressively for speed. If you have recently made changes that are not showing up — a new trailer listing, a new logo, a tweaked hero image — the cache may be serving an older copy.

Go to Settings > Website > Clear Cache and click the button. Within 60 seconds, your site is re-rendered and the cache is flushed. Reload your site with Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to bypass your own browser cache as well.

Step 6: Look for Platform-Wide Issues

If your subdomain, cache, and SSL all check out but nothing loads, check status.trailerbase.io. If there is a platform incident, we will have an announcement and an ETA.

Still Down?

Email [email protected] with your domain and the exact error message or screenshot from your browser. Because a down website means lost revenue, we prioritize these tickets ahead of most others.