FareHarbor Customer Service — Complete Expert Guide for Operators

Overview: What FareHarbor Support Covers

FareHarbor provides support for two distinct audiences: operators (tour and activity providers who use the FareHarbor dashboard) and guests (customers who book experiences). Operational support focuses on reservation management, calendar synchronization, payment processing, and integration troubleshooting. Guest support focuses on booking confirmation, refunds, cancellations, and logistical questions such as meeting location and accessibility.

Since FareHarbor joined Booking Holdings in 2018, its support model has expanded to include global coverage and integrations with major OTAs (Online Travel Agencies). Most operational issues fall into a predictable set — booking visibility, payment reconciliation, calendar sync, and promo code or pricing errors — which allows support teams to follow documented, repeatable remediation steps that minimize downtime and lost revenue.

Contact Channels and Hours

FareHarbor offers a multi-channel support stack so operators can choose the fastest avenue depending on urgency: phone, email/ticketing, in-app chat, and an extensive online knowledge base. Operators typically receive phone and chat support for high-priority incidents and ticketed email responses for lower-priority or audit-trail requests. Guest-facing support often routes through the same systems but with different SLAs.

The primary official web resources are the company homepage and the support center: https://www.fareharbor.com and https://help.fareharbor.com. For time-sensitive operational outages (calendar or payment system down), begin with phone or in-app chat; for reconciliation, billing questions, or documentation requests, a ticket is preferable so there’s an audit trail.

• Key contact options: in-app chat (fastest for active shifts), phone escalation for outages, and help.fareharbor.com for self-service articles and ticket creation.
• When contacting support have at hand: Reservation ID, Account ID, date/time of affected bookings, screenshots of dashboard errors, and payment transaction IDs (if billing-related).

Common Issues and Step‑by‑Step Solutions

Operators encounter a small set of recurring problems that have efficient fixes when handled systematically. Examples: bookings not appearing in the dashboard, double bookings, mismatched payment settlements, and calendar sync failures with Google Calendar or external PMS (Property Management System). A disciplined troubleshooting sequence reduces time-to-resolution.

The following checklist is a practical step-by-step triage that support teams expect you to run before escalation. Running these steps and including the results in your initial ticket reduces back-and-forth and shortens resolution time.

• Checklist: 1) Record a Reservation ID and timestamp. 2) Confirm user account permissions under Admin > Users. 3) Check Filters and Visibility settings on the Reservation page. 4) Inspect booking logs (Activity Log) for errors. 5) Verify payment gateway transaction status and last four digits of card. 6) If third-party calendar sync: confirm webhook delivery and last successful sync timestamp. 7) If unresolved, open ticket with screenshots, logs, and list of attempted fixes.

Onboarding, Training and Admin Best Practices

FareHarbor assigns a dedicated onboarding specialist for new accounts; standard onboarding sessions are structured as a series of 60–90 minute training calls over the first 2–4 weeks, plus account configuration. During onboarding you should configure at minimum: locations, employees, pricing grids, cancellation policies, and the payment processor. Operators who invest 4–8 hours in configuration up front typically see 30–50% fewer support tickets in the first 90 days.

Best-practice admin controls include role-based permissions, strict naming conventions for items and resources, and a single-source-of-truth calendar. Use test reservations frequently (FareHarbor supports test cards in sandbox mode) to validate workflows after changes. Maintain a written change log for any pricing, promo codes, or cancellation policy changes to expedite support diagnosis if issues arise.

Billing, Refunds and Dispute Handling

FareHarbor’s billing and payment flow typically separates platform fees and payment processing. Platform fees and commission structures vary by contract — range examples commonly seen in the industry are platform fees of 2–6% and payment processing 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction, but you must confirm exact rates on your merchant agreement. Refunds are processed through the payment gateway and may take 3–10 business days to appear on a guest’s statement depending on the bank.

When opening a billing dispute, include the FareHarbor invoice number, booking reference, merchant settlement report line, and any communication with the guest. For chargebacks, FareHarbor’s support team can provide the merchant receipt, booking metadata, and evidence packets (cancellation policy, signed waivers if applicable) to help you contest the case. Keep a copy of waivers and guest correspondence centralized to shorten dispute timelines.

SLAs, Escalation Paths and Metrics to Track

Operational SLAs vary by contract tier; a typical structure is immediate acknowledgement for critical outages, response within 15–60 minutes for high-priority tickets, and 24–48 hours for standard operational queries. Escalate incidents that affect revenue (lost bookings, payment gateway downtime) through the phone channel and mark them as high priority in the ticketing system. Document the business impact (e.g., estimated $X/day revenue at risk) to help prioritize escalation.

Track these KPIs internally to keep support interactions productive: average ticket response time, median time-to-resolution, percentage of incidents resolved without escalation, and monthly chargeback rate (aim for <0.5% of transactions). Regularly review support transcripts for recurring root causes and convert repeat fixes into an internal SOP or knowledge base article to reduce future incidents.