FareHarbor reviews

Excellent service and product

Opmerkingen: Overall, I really like Fareharbor - I like the way it looks when people book.

Pluspunten:

The customer service is amazing and fast On a day to day basis, it is easy to use and you can add all the information you need to for all your guides.

Minpunten:

I sometimes struggle with set up and amending items. We usually have to get Fareharbor to do some or all of the set up as we get some things wrong. Saying that, all you need to do is reach out to their service team and they usually sort it out in minutes.

Great fit for a medium sized tour operator

Opmerkingen: Overall FareHarbor is our source of truth for all things about our reservations, our scheduled tours and our guide assignment. I now use one of the FarHarbor reports as the basis for guide compensation, so it is fully integrated into our business operations. My interactions with their support organization have been very satisfying.

Pluspunten:

We do almost 2,000 bookings for over 6,000 guests each year, I can't imagine doing that volume of transactions with a system that is not as complete as FareHarbor. The speed of the hosted environment keeps up with our check-in flow, and the system seemlessly integrates with our website for online booking. Fully 2/3rds of our bookings and over half of our passengers book online, so that is critical.

Minpunten:

I think that FareHarbor could invest in improving its reporting capabilities, other than basic quantitative reports I see very little in the way of insightful reporting coming out of the application. It is flexible and does allow me to export into excel where I can do further analysis, but in general I view the reporting capabilities as rudimentary. There are some dimensions that are impossible to report against, although there are workaround using dashboard views.

Great option overall

Pluspunten:

FareHarbor is an extremely user friendly platform for our business. We take daily reservations for scheduled times, and this program makes it easy to set capacity limits, collect custom information, and process payments. One aspect that is very helpful is the ability for administrators to make changes to all aspects of the experience listings without having to submit a ticket and wait for approval. The customer service is available 24/7 and the representatives are always knowledgeable or willing to find the answer. They will also walk you through the steps to make changes so that you know how to do it in the future.

Minpunten:

Having come from another system, there are a few things I would have liked to have seen in FareHarbor. One is the ability to see abandoned carts. This was a good way to convert sales in our old system, and I feel that loss with FareHarbor. I would also like more control over emails sent out and the ability to cancel automated emails for a particular client or date.

Does not preserve ticket purchases during the check-out (cart) phase

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, quick response time, can handle large user volume.

Minpunten:

Tried to book Niles Canyon Train of Lights. The cart accepted my purchase of 10 tickets. Entered my credit card information to complete the purchase (maybe 1 minute to do that step). Fareharbor "said" purchase could not be done. It would not longer accept my ticket purchase, and then the train was sold out. FareHarbor failed to hold onto my ticket purchase, during the purchase phase. Very poor!

Pay as you go

Opmerkingen: Fareharbor was the perfect solution for us over the last years but with increasing direct sales, the commission fee is getting now out of control. We will change therefore sooner or later again to Bokun, which is kinda sad. For comparison:
Bokun Pro = 588USD/Year (1.5% Fee on 100.000USD Sales = 1.500USD)
Total: 2.088USD/Year Farharbor = 6.0% Fee on 100.000USD Sales = 6.000USD)
Total: 6.000USD/Year

Pluspunten:

The pay-as-you-go function, as we have changed from Bokun to Fareharbor during Covid. I think this is the only business model that is fair, as both sides have the same reasoning to develop sales in that case.

Minpunten:

- The Marketplace is very weak - No option to cover the booking fees for customers (this doesn't make sense to me, especially no with Google Business integration, as customers can see that tours are cheaper on other OTA platforms like GYG or Viator). - The bookings fees of 6,00% is very high, 4.00% would be much more reasonable

Highly Recommended Software for Tour Operator

Pluspunten:

The integration with other platform is great, user friendly, simple step to add/edit/archive items. I can add 2 separate bank accounts for different services in one dashboard. The customer support is awesome, however different time zone sometimes makes it not practicable to solve the problems in 24 to 48 hours. This software is suitable for day tour operators.

Minpunten:

Not suitable for multi day tour. There's no options to let the booking fees take by the operators.

Well structered and efficient online booking management platforms

Opmerkingen: Due to the world wide partnerships it is a great and profitable Booking Software, offering a large range of Reports and management tools.

Pluspunten:

FareHarbor system helped us creating a website and due to their world wide partnerships, the system increased the number of bookings and consequently made our revenue grow, by letting customer browse our Tours and easily book online. Being free of charge for the company. Efficient checkout experience. It really offers excellent features for tour and activity operators.

Minpunten:

Website designed in a very basic and unappealing way, considering that if it were improved it would guarantee an excellent and growing source of income for the company. The website handling is strict and not allowed. Poor training - only one session (viewable for a year) and in short videos. Difficulties in spoken communication with Support. Any time you want to change anything in your dashboard, from product to prices, you need to spend time emailing support and wait for a response.

Fareharbor 2022/2023

Opmerkingen: Fareharbor have been great to deal with and the system easy to use

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, especially the app when out and about, bookings and payments are easy as are cancellations and refundsDashboard is easy to see availability Manifests are detailed and handyGreat customer Service from our accounts manager, help desk and the team is fast and efficient The reports and invoice are great

Minpunten:

Waiver forms don't always show on printed out manifest which can lead to some double handling.

Great Booking Software

Opmerkingen: Great! Highly recommend any tour or business needing reservations/ticketing to integrate FareHarbor.

Pluspunten:

Customer service is amazing, they're kind, quick and smart. Usually able to help and solve your problems within 24-36 hours.

Minpunten:

Some of the booking restrictions get funky on some of our items. Maybe some more resources and explanation on how to use resources.

Thank You FareHarbor!

Opmerkingen: Customer service is awesome and they are always trying to improve your business.

Pluspunten:

Easy and pays for itself many times over!

Minpunten:

I do not think there is anything I do not like about Fareharbor - I wish I did it sooner!

Strong customer service and easy to use software

Opmerkingen: Its certainly cut out any of the occasional blips I used to have with my previous custom built booking system so it has given me peace of mind. I initially was concerned that customers would be put off by the booking fee but I haven't noticed a drop in purchases.
The site has been robust and customer service has been top notch with one exception when Fareharbor took a long time to deal with a GDPR request. I have been assured that this will not happen again.
So overall I would recommend Fareharbor.

Pluspunten:

It feels pretty intuitive and is targeted towards the tour industry so pretty much all of the features I require are already here.

Minpunten:

Very little to be honest. Occasionally something comes up but their customer service department helps out pretty swiftly.

I can's say enough about Fare Harbor

Opmerkingen: People had to call to book before and I think I lost a lot of clients because of this. Now they can just browse and buy

Pluspunten:

There are so many things to like about this software. 1. No out of pocket expenses. Taking a booking fee gives FH an incentive to help you make more money. At first I was leery about charging the booking fee to my clients, but no one have complained about it (or frankly even noticed). 2. Ease of use (and when it's not, customer service will do it for you)! 3. Works on phone, not an app, but with a mobile browser which work great. Not sure I need an app, most of my work is on a laptop anyway. 4. Customer service is always on and ready to help and quick to get done what you need. 5. Putting it online was seamless and pretty easy. I got out of the box with the basics and was able to add on as I went! 6. Feedback from my clients about the simplicity of the check out process. Like I said, so many great things! So happy with my decision.

Minpunten:

Nothing so far! I may find some as I grow, but at this time none!

Excellent

Opmerkingen: So easy. I run two businesses using the FareHarbor platform. They are constantly adding new features and making it better!

Pluspunten:

Amazing customer service. Real people on the phone to help 24/7. Easy program to learn with lots of custom options.

Minpunten:

It costs the person who books online 6%, which can be quite a lot when a private charter is a couple thousand dollars.

Perfect product

Pluspunten:

Costumer care and price are the best things

Minpunten:

Nothing so far is everything perfect....

Super helpful and friendly staff; this software solves so many problems for us!

Opmerkingen: Online bookings 24/7 is huge for us. Fewer phone calls and a greater ability to focus on providing the product rather than selling.

Pluspunten:

It has tremendous functionality. It can be used with very simple business models, as well as very complex ones. I use it for three different companies. One is very basic, bare-bones. The other two are extremely complex, so I have been digging into the myriad of features and functionality over the past three months as we launched it for the two more complex companies. There is a lot to learn for the more complicated businesses (as expected), but once I figured it all out, it all makes sense and I am able to really maximize the functionality. The staff is very responsive and always there to help with questions, problems, and even assigning tasks to them. In addition to providing booking software, they also designed new websites for me for free, which increased the company's visibility online, so our sales have increased. The also have a free online call center (I haven't made use of this yet). They are constantly rolling out new and better upgrades. I am extremely happy with this product and with the staff behind it.

Minpunten:

FareHarbor charges the customer 6% of the gross for online bookings (the customer isn't charged this 6% if they call in and book directly over the phone). I'd like to have the option to absorb that 6% on our end so the customer doesn't pay it. The closest we can get is to offer a 6% online booking discount, but I would prefer the option of allowing us to absorb a portion or all of that 6% on the back end instead. That being said, until I started typing this review, I've never thought of asking them if they would be willing to implement an option like this! I'll be asking tomorrow. Knowing they are constantly improving the product and they do take customer suggestions seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if they consider doing this in the future.

Lightyears beyond Bookeo

Opmerkingen: Everything related to booking and reservation management, payment processing, etc.

Pluspunten:

Very deep, extensive functionality. It blows me away how much you can do with this software. The level of customization is mind boggling. We were formerly with Bookeo and it was alright, especially considering the low price, but it was quite simplistic and that caused us some frustrations. It was also pretty outdated in the user interface appearance. Fareharbor booking interface looks very slick and it's a lot quicker for customers and reservationists to make bookings. The software on the backend is very powerful and well thought out. You get complete functionality on mobile and iPhone app that you do with desktop. Bookeo was frustrating how watered down their mobile version was. And they said they had zero interest in making an iPhone or Android app. Fareharbor is a "full service" solution the likes of which I have never seen. They have a department that will create a new Wordpress website for you, a dept that works to set up affiliate access so third parties can book through the system without calling you. They integrate seamlessly with Viator/Expedia/etc. They have several teams of people that specialize in different areas. You get a ton of attention as a new customer and they take care of almost all the setup work. If you are the type that doesn't want to learn how to do any of this kinda stuff yourself or you don't have the time to, Fareharbor is a great solution. I was skeptical that any booking software could be THAT much better than another, but it really is.

Minpunten:

I was very excited to hear about all the many impressive features they offer. What I didn't realize is that it takes a lot of effort to set them all up. Granted they can do ALL of the work for you, so you're in no way left on your own with any of it. But it does take time. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person; Bookeo was 100% do-it-yourself and I was fine with that. I'm the type of person that doesn't like asking for help or asking other people to do something for me. I want to figure it out and customize it myself. ...Fareharbor is NOT a do-it-yourself system. You will absolutely need their help for a lot of the features to get set up properly. I tried exploring on my own to set up some customization and there's no way you'd be able to figure out most of the feature setup on your own. To be fair, their software isn't designed to be that way, though. It's not a Squarespace/Wix/Bookeo style product. It's very customizable, and as such, you need their help. It takes some time, dozens of phone calls and emails over the course of weeks (and months, as you fine-tune the deeper features). And there is a learning curve. But the depth of functionality and the extensiveness of their software is worth it in the end. Tech support team is great, always taking calls 24/7 (email response time is kinda slow though). Can't imagine anyone else being better. I see why they have so many customers.

Fareharbor Prioritises Marketing Itself above its Customers

Opmerkingen: Fareharbor offers a great booking service aside from the limitations mentioned.

Pluspunten:

Customer service was excellent for installation and has been great for trouble shooting ongoing issues. Backend of the software is quite intuitive.

Minpunten:

We selected and installed Fareharbour over Rezdy but one of the big disadvantages I see with Fareharbor relates to branding. Our website has a dark theme and Fareharbor currently does not have any flexibility to move beyond its white background booking windows (Rezdy does). This means our customers are jolted into a new environment once they click the book now button. The other issue is the only chance given to brand the pages is on the initial booking landing page, all subsequent booking pages are branded by Fareharbor logos and there is no option even to co-brand. I raised this with their developers and the response was sorry, its all hard coded. I then asked if I could have the fareharbour branding removed from the booking pages. Same deal, sorry, its all hard coded. For me this is not service orientated, we are the client and we should at least be able to choose if we want their logo presented, even if we have to pay a different rate. This would be important if you think that Fareharbor software gives your business a competitive advantage and you dont want to advertise to your competitors who provides your booking software. Bottom line seems that Fareharbor cares about their brand more than yours. That sux! Fareharbors booking calendar cannot manage multi-day bookings very well. Our business runs courses that span over 4 weeks. The Fareharbor calendar can only publish a workaround that presents all dates as text on the course start date. Clunky!

Remarkably flexible. Does everything I need it to do. Support people look for ways to help my biz.

Opmerkingen: I wrote a review for software that I use. I don't know what Capterra really does, but I might look to see if I can find a substitute for QuickBooks accounting software here.

Pluspunten:

Cleverly flexible. Has configurable settings to do all sorts of customizing of available time slots, staffing, pricing, etc. I never run into something I wish it would do that it doesn't already do. I know there are portions I am not even using that would probably benefit me even more. Easy to populate initially. I really don't remember much about that process because the FareHarbor people did most of it for me. The support team calls me from time to time to check if they can help me configure my upcoming seasonal schedule or anything else. Sometimes they contact me to notify me of new features I might be interested in. They spread non-competitive information about their other customers' experiences that might benefit me with regard to managing reviews, working with affiliates, working with concierges, etc. Integrates with Viator and Expedia and other resellers. Has never ever been unavailable.

Minpunten:

It can't be both endlessly configurable/customizable and fast/simple at the same time. So I feel like there are a lot of clicks to get done what I need. I can't think of how to eliminate clicks though without eliminating features. Beyond that, I am reaching for ideas. Perhaps if there were some sort of integration with our QuickBooks accounting software that would be helpful. Because I am on it all day every day, perhaps an android app would be better than accessing it from the browser on my phone, but I am not sure how beneficial that would be. I am unsure how they could do it, but they as a company don't have any web presence that drives visitors to their vendors. Back when Zozi was around, they had a website that steered people to their customers but that was a different business model. I can't complain about the cost. I pay them so little that I wonder how their business model works. But I really have to get creative to think of any shortcomings. None that are software related.

Life Changing!

Opmerkingen: My husband and I co-own our tour and have been open for about 10 years. We currently have about 5-7 additional guides, depending on the season. As our tour grew, as well as our number of employees, it was impossible to stay on top of everything that needed to be done. Thanks to FareHarbor, we have been able to free up time, and begin to grow our tour again! Outside of our outstanding guides, nothing has helped us to grow and manage our tour as much as Fareharbor!

Pluspunten:

Easy to edit tours. Updating tour times and dates is simple. Guide assignment, helps us and the tour guides keep track of their schedule. Tour guides can check people in, and we can see it in live time. Cost is low and very much worth the money. Clean web integration, and it blends nicely within our website. Customer information is easily available and easy to change, rebook, refund, etc. Very easy to track past reservations and customer info. Top notch customer service; they have actually taken the time to create items specifically for our company.

Minpunten:

On the cons, there are only a few items that honestly are tailored more to just my specific needs. I wish there were more restrictions for tour guides. I would like to prevent them from changing certain settings, especially the ability to change and see other tour guide info. My other request is for a wider range of reporting. I would specifically like to be able to see the monthly breakdown by: the tour guides who led the tour, as well as the number people on the tour, and the method of payment broken down by cash/cc. In other words, we need to see how much money the tour guide collected for one month and how many people attended their tours. A small amount of tech experience is helpful but not required.

Good Product - Poor Quality Control

Opmerkingen: Good product. The product could be even better with more effective business training and the implementation of a formal quality control process.

Pluspunten:

It allows businesses to setup and online reservation system making it easier for customers to book a tour.

Minpunten:

As the product continues to evolve and grow it has become harder to use--particularly for small businesses with limited staff resources. Quality control is a major concern for this product. When we first integrated the system with our website it became clear that the company did not perform any quality checks to ensure everything was setup correctly. This is a major concern as there are a myriad of ways that mistakes can be made. Mistakes cause problems for us and for our customers. Most recently, an integration error with an affiliate resulted in a trip cancellation and loss of significant revenue. When problems like this happen, the burden is on us as the business owner--not Fareharbor. This product would be a much greater benefit and quality if more effort was spent on business training and quality control.

Great reservations system from the first season

Opmerkingen: Implementing Fareharbor as a new program went really well, thanks entirely to the exceptional customer service support (shout-out to Raleigh and Mikaela). They were always available by phone and email and training went very smoothly. I was thoroughly impressed that Mikaela was involved and aware of events occurring within our department, and sent her condolences and her support. Because of this, Fareharbor feels more like a partnership than a "client" type relationship.
The actual program is very user-friendly which was a significant selling point for me. It is also easily implemented across other departments at our resort. Overall, I have been very satisfied with the functionality and overall performance of Fareharbor.

Pluspunten:

It is very user friendly for front-end staff Mobile version is great Customer service is EXCEPTIONAL and they have a thorough knowledge of the program. Permissions are easily customized across users. This was a huge bonus, and has been very helpful so we can limit access to those who do not need it. Affiliate set-up is easy, and has a very fluid application. I have been very pleased with how we are able to implement partnerships with this program. They are consistently working to update the program.

Minpunten:

Discounts are not easily implemented. We consistently have to find "work arounds" The automated emails do not allow for customization. Different departments use the automated confirmation email, but the resort address and contact information HAS to remain the same across departments. It makes it difficult for guests to contact us. Smartwaiver is minimally integrated. Our last reservation system automatically imported name, height, and weight from the waivers. This was a huge perk, and did not come with Fareharbor. We were promised that programming would work on it, but we have not seen results. There were not P2P Card readers for the desktop version of Fareharbor. Because of this, we had to purchase 3 iPads and use the mobile app in order to be PCI compliant for customer credit card security. Invoicing has to be done manually. It cannot be scheduled to happen automatically each month.

FAREHABOR IS HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THE COMPETITION

Opmerkingen: We vetted about six of the top online tour booking companies for our walking tour business in Manhattan and FareHarbor stood out far and above the rest. We immediately signed on after the conference call and looked no further. We were so impressed with FareHarbor’s customer management system which met all the criteria we were looking for including the flexibility of being able to use the system for cash on the spot sales, all the bells and whistles related to communicating with our customers with customizable booking confirmation and reminder e-mails, alert e-mails for weather, customer database, less clicks till purchase, fast and easy, good calendar layouts, etc. Cost was extremely important to us and FareHarbor had the lowest processing rate out there. It was an intuitive decision that we would be happy working with FareHarbor but we have been really blown away by what a uniquely smart company FareHarbor is. Since we spoke to many of their competitors we could easily see the difference in how FareHarbor operates. We come from a Fortune 100 company background and FareHarbor embraces the same attributes of continuous improvement, flawless execution and outstanding customer service that are hallmarks of a great company. FareHarbor gets a ten in the trust department. We trust the folks at FareHarbor to do the right things fortheir customers and continue to keep ahead of the curve and upgrade technology and services as they become available in the future. We value this company as a strategic partner going forward to grow our business. The company culture is outstanding and we know they mean it when they say “we do well when you do well”. They get this symbiotic relationship between our business and their business in a way that their competitors do not in our opinion. And the biggest bonus is that FareHarbor has the absolutely nicest people working for them. It is just a pleasure to deal with all the folks at FareHarbor.
Kathleen Kavanagh
NYC Street Smart Tours

Pluspunten:

FareHarbor is a great company to partner with if you have a tour or activity business. Customer support is outstanding. Good customer feedback on ease of use. Excellent database. Easy and flexible system. Allows us to do cash sales on the spot. Flawlessly connects us to our customers. We really appreciate their low processing cost.

Minpunten:

So far we have not found any cons

Best Reservation Software + Awesome Customer Support Team!

Opmerkingen: There is tremendous support from the FareHarbor team to ensure that things are operating properly and moving forward. They value a tour business no matter how small or large. There are team members who have specific expertise in the online digital world(ex. SEO specialist, partnerships). The Support Team members are friendly, knowledgeable and always willing to help resolve an issue before ending the call. Customer Support is open 24/7 /365!!! My website was created and is hosted by FareHarbor— all at no charge. What an amazing perk! I love having control over editing my website. It’s a HUGE plus to not pay a developer to do the edits. FareHarbor rocks the booking reservation software world!

Pluspunten:

FareHarbor is the #1 booking software in the tourism industry! It is the absolute BEST company for tour operators to partner with for reservation software. They are on the cutting edge of reservation technology and have experienced astonishing growth since launching in 2013. I've been onboard with Fare Harbor for almost two years now. My sales have increased ever since I joined. My Account Manager is so supportive of me and my business and gives me strategic advice based on a Google Analytics report.

Minpunten:

One task in particular could have fewer steps: changing the date of a tour.

Great Booking Software!

Opmerkingen: FareHarbor was wonderful! We are an Escape Room in Pennsylvania. We began our business using Bookeo, as that is what almost every escape room in the area and ones we'd been to used. FareHarbor contacted us, gave us a demonstration, and we fell in love. They completely set everything up for us so we didn't lose any bookings in the process since our service was never down. They then incorporated into our website for us. It was great and their customer service has always been great even now!

Pluspunten:

They truly have some of the best customer service around. They are available 24/7 to call or email and return your calls or emails within the same day. Sometimes they will even set it up for you which is wonderful when I'm in the middle of working a busy day. Then I can always give them a call to ask how it works or how I can adjust it that way I can learn when I get a break. Both the customer view and the behind the scenes view is extremely clear and easy to work with. Rarely do we have customers confused on how to book/reserve something, unless they truly don't know how to use a computer to begin with.

Minpunten:

I wish they would incorporate something that would allow customers to immediately book another room/service/tour/etc. Maybe even just a link. It would be really awesome if you could add another thing to your "cart" per say and pay all at once instead of making multiple bookings. Another thing that would be nice is almost an employee area like a scheduler system. This way employees could request time off and see large sections of times that they are working. Currently, you can assign them to a reservation but it would nice to have them be able to look and see they work 11am-4pm rather than see they are assigned to a 11:30am, 12:00pm, and so on appointments.

friendly software

Opmerkingen: perfect they help me also with my website

Pluspunten:

you can adapte to every kind of needs. They offer me a lot of solution to share my tours lso with my uppliers

Minpunten:

they are not so clear at the beginning but probably I do not understand well