.rest

Overview

.rest is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) proposed for the restaurant and hospitality industry. The string was applied for by Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable and is intended to provide an intuitive, restaurant-focused namespace for businesses, reviewers, directories and consumers. The registry is listed as CentralNic and the applicant became the registry operator through an ICANN Registry Agreement.

History

• Applied for as part of ICANN's New gTLD Program (reveal of applied-for strings: 13 June 2012).
• Registry Agreement signed (registry operator role granted) on 20 December 2013 to Punto 2012.
• .rest was delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 2 April 2014, completing the successful application.

Usage and Audience

• Intended audience:

  • Restaurants (single-unit and groups)
  • Restaurant guides, critics, bloggers and chefs
  • Restaurant associations and industry services
  • Sites and services for restaurant employees and related businesses
  • Consumers searching for restaurant information, menus, reservations and ordering

• Use cases described by the applicant include websites, email, online applications, transactions, social media and directories.

• Market context and applicant-cited usage statistics (as reported in the application):

  • The restaurant and hospitality industry was noted as a significant global market (application cited a projection of US$2.1 trillion by 2015).
  • Consumer online behavior cited: about 6 in 10 adults have used the Internet to visit a restaurant website or view a menu; 36% have placed dine-in, carry-out or delivery orders online; 27% have made reservations online; 27% have posted or read restaurant reviews; 53% of adults (68% of 18–34 year olds) indicated interest in placing orders online in advance.

Registration Rules

• Registration policy intent:

  • The applicant stated registrations should be open to all parties for legitimate purposes and chose not to impose validation criteria.
  • Because the string is descriptive of restaurants, the applicant expected most registrations to come from the restaurant/hospitality sector but did not restrict registrations by use.

• Character and script support:

  • The application highlighted support for ASCII and extended Latin IDN scripts to allow registrations in local languages.

• Restrictions and periods:

  • No specific minimum/maximum registration periods, or detailed restrictions, are described in the provided source.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Applicant claims and positioning:
  • .rest was promoted as offering simple, easily identifiable and intuitive domain names that help consumers find restaurant-related sites more easily.
  • Expected benefits included reduced consumer confusion, improved user experience, and a designated namespace that signals restaurant relevance (a "digital signpost").
  • The applicant also argued .rest could reduce costs associated with acquiring valuable names on the secondary market and provide a platform for innovation and local-language registration.

Notable Examples

• The provided source does not list specific launched sites or notable real-world examples using .rest.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       REST

organisation: Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
address:      Sierra Mojada 405, Nivel 3 Oficina B,
address:      Col. Lomas De Chapultepec III Sección,
address:      Miguel Hidalgo
address:      Ciudad De México 11000
address:      Mexico

contact:      administrative
name:         CEO
organisation: Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
address:      Sierra Mojada 405, Nivel 3 Oficina B,
address:      Col. Lomas De Chapultepec III Sección,
address:      Miguel Hidalgo
address:      Ciudad De México 11000
address:      Mexico
phone:        +52.5585895544
fax-no:       +52.5552505187
e-mail:       info@punto2012.com

contact:      technical
name:         Francisco Obispo
organisation: Tucows.com, Co.
address:      96 Mowat Avenue
address:      Toronto Ontario M6K3M1
address:      Canada
phone:        +1 (416) 535-0123
e-mail:       trs-ops@tucows.com

nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.COM 2620:57:4001:0:0:0:0:1 64.96.1.1
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.INFO 185.159.198.3 2620:10a:80ab:0:0:0:0:3
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.NET 2620:57:4002:0:0:0:0:1 64.96.2.1
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.ORG 185.159.197.3 2620:10a:80aa:0:0:0:0:3
ds-rdata:     50905 13 2 a417bf8770704c9fe539aacd4c60d0d1f06b64e6367ba2130af2b60c96508adf

whois:        whois.nic.rest

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.register.rest/

created:      2014-03-06
changed:      2025-05-15
source:       IANA