diff --git a/lib/wayback_machine_downloader.rb b/lib/wayback_machine_downloader.rb
index ca2b63a..fe5721c 100644
--- a/lib/wayback_machine_downloader.rb
+++ b/lib/wayback_machine_downloader.rb
@@ -205,7 +205,8 @@ class WaybackMachineDownloader
       @directory
     else
       # ensure the default path is absolute and normalized
-      File.expand_path(File.join('websites', backup_name))
+      cwd = Dir.pwd
+      File.expand_path(File.join(cwd, 'websites', backup_name))
     end
   end