Introduction
The ref tag allows you to track the origin of bookings in your FareHarbor account by adding a custom parameter to your URLs. This guide explains how to implement the ref tag, view data in FareHarbor reports, and best practices for effective tracking.
What is the Ref Tag?
The ref tag is a URL parameter that passes custom reference information through your booking links. This information is saved with each booking, helping you track where customers come from and analyze marketing effectiveness.
How to Add the Ref Tag to Your URLs
1. Identify Your Base URL
- Website URL:
- FareHarbor Booking URL:
2. Add the Ref Parameter
- If your URL has no existing parameters:
- If your URL already contains parameters:
https://websiteurl.com/?existing_param=value&ref=your_custom_text
3. Customize the Ref Tag
- Replace “your_custom_text” with a unique identifier.
- Examples:
- Marketing campaign:
- QR code location:
- Influencer promotion:
Note: Use descriptive text without spaces. Use underscores _ or hyphens - instead.
How the Ref Tag Works
- Stored in the user’s browser for over 90 days.
- Remains active unless:
- User deletes cookies or local storage data.
- User accesses the site with a new ref tag (overwrites the previous one).
- Ensures future bookings are attributed to the original ref tag.
Use Cases
1. QR Codes
- Embed the ref tag in QR code URLs:
- Purpose: Track bookings from physical locations.
2. Influencer Links
- Provide influencers with unique URLs:
- Purpose: Monitor bookings from their promotions.
3. Concierge Bookings
- Supply concierges with personalized links:
- Purpose: Track referrals and manage commissions.
Viewing Ref Tag Data in FareHarbor Reports
Steps to Access and Filter Reports:
- Log In to FareHarbor
- Navigate to Reports
- Select a Report with the “Online Booking Reference” Column
- Filter by Ref Tag
- Set the filter to “contains”.
- Enter your ref tag (e.g., “spring_sale”).
Example:
- Filter: Online Booking Reference contains “spring_sale”
(You can insert a screenshot here showing how to apply the filter in the report.)
Best Practices
- Consistent Naming
- Use prefixes like “qr_”, “influencer_”, or “concierge_” for easy identification.
- Avoid Special Characters
- Stick to letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens.
- Monitor Overwrites
- Remember that new ref tags overwrite previous ones in the user’s browser.
Troubleshooting
Common Issues and Solutions
- Ref Tag Not Appearing in Reports
- Ensure the ref parameter is correctly added without typos.
- Multiple Ref Tags Recorded
- If multiple ref parameters are in the URL, all are recorded.
- Lost Ref Tag Due to Cookie Deletion
- Users deleting cookies will remove the stored ref tag.
- Overwritten Ref Tags
- New links with different ref tags overwrite previous ones.
Support
If you need assistance:
- Support Team: Contact through your FareHarbor account.
- Help Center: Access guides and FAQs within the platform.
Note: Replace “websiteurl.com” and other placeholder URLs with your actual website or booking page URLs.
How to Add the Ref Tag to Your URLs
1. Choose which website to use
Website URL:
2. Add the Ref Parameter
- If your URL has no existing parameters:https://websiteurl.com/?ref=your_custom_text
- If your URL already contains parameters:https://websiteurl.com/?existing_param=value&ref=your_custom_text
3. Customize the Ref Tag
Replace “your_custom_text” with a unique identifier.
Examples:
- Marketing campaign: https://websiteurl.com/?ref=spring_sale
- QR code location: https://websiteurl.com/?ref=qr_downtown
- Influencer promotion: https://websiteurl.com/?ref=influencer_jane_doe
Minimum Fee
There is no minimal threshold to be met to be part of the program, and no fee to participate. This means that the full 15% commission will be deposited into your bank account for bookings you generate.
Refunds
If a booking is canceled and fully refunded, no commission will be paid out for the booking. If the booking is partially refunded you will still receive the 15% commission on the unrefunded balance.
Links
The easiest and most versatile way to integrate in any website, page, QRCodes and e-mails. With these unique links you can add them to anywhere that it will be tracked.
Just visit our FHDN directory, choose the items you want to promote and click “Copy Referral Link”. This unique link will track any sales coming from it. If you want to customize any part of it you can use our Link Customizer. You can customize the Return Link or add a reference so you know the origin of the booking from different pages.
Calendar Link and Script
For times when you need to add a calendar to your website, we offer two options: a Calendar Link that can be attached to any button and a Calendar Script for integrating a detailed calendar.
Calendar Link
Visit our directory and copy the desired booking link, after you can customize using our Link Customizer.
Calendar Script
With the links you can copy on our directory, you can visit our Link to Calendar tool convert to a script which you can use on your website.
Embeds
In addition to book buttons you can also use a calendar embed or create a list of activities using our custom embed builder. Please keep in mind the embed builder requires using custom code on your website. We recommend keeping custom embeds to no more than 12 activities.
In this embed generator you can customize colour, font size and order.
You can find additional integration tools here – https://fhdntools.com/
Important Note: Lightframe API required
To get the customer to stay on your website and the booking process to be a “pop-up” overlay please follow the instructions below.
Once per page
Copy the code below and paste it right above your page’s closing </body> tag. This is required for the Lightframe booking overlay to function. Learn more ›
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://fareharbor.com/embeds/api/v1/?autolightframe=yes"></script>
FareHarbor Plugin
To have the code automatically added to your wordpress website, you can download and install our FareHarbor Plugin.
Setting up your Bank Account
Make sure to setup your bank account in order to get paid.
- Login into your dashboard
- Go to Settings
- Banks and Payments
- Add a Bank Account
Reporting
FHDN affiliates can report on bookings associated with their FareHarbor Dashboard. FHDN Report (located under Reports > Advanced) can be used to gather important insights, such as:
- Which experiences sell best on your website
- Which days your website generates more bookings
- An overview of your expected earnings
Reporting data will update in real time to provide the most accurate information available.
Depending upon which Report on option is selected when the report is run, a report can highlight different information.
- Last booked date or Booking created date will return data based on the day a booking was created.
- Availability date will return data based on the day an activity takes place. (We suggest running a report based on availability date to view your expected earnings.)
Understanding report results
Additional information about report results is included below. Use date range, filter, group by options, and booking columns to customize a report that works best for you.
- Booking ID: The booking’s unique nine-digit Booking ID. (Note: If a customer who booked on your website calls to ask if their booking was made, please direct them to the tour operator.)
- Created at: The date and time the booking was created.
- Canceled?: Whether the booking was canceled by the customer. (Note: If the booking was canceled and refunded, you will not receive commission.)
- Company: The name of the associated tour operator.
- Item Name: The name of the tour or activity associated with the booking. (Note: Item names are managed by the tour operator.)
- Availability Start At: The date and time scheduled for the booked activity.
- # of Pax: The number of customers associated with the booking.
- Online Booking Reference: A unique number or tag added to the book button for identification purposes. For example, an online booking reference can help identify which web page or campaign the booking was generated from.
- Invoice Total: Your expected commission for the booking.
- Payable to Affiliate: The outstanding commission amount expected for the booking. Once the invoice has been created in the provider’s Dashboard and the payment has been made, the amount will appear as $0.
Bookings can change at any time due to a variety of reasons, such as cancellations, refunds, rebooking, add-ons, etc. Expected earnings listed in the Payable to Affiliate column may not always reflect the final commission amount owed.
Your monthly commission report will always have the most up-to-date and accurate commission amounts.
Client Information
Due to privacy reasons, we cannot provide any personally identifiable information (PII), including customer name or contact information.
Google Analytics - GA4
Getting Started
You can track the sales that go through your website using our integrations with Google Analytics, you will receive data regarding the tour booked and the subtotal. To start receiving this information we need the GA4 Measurement ID and the list of companies which you are distributing.
Step 1 – Create a list of all the items you have integrated in your website
Step 2 – Setup your Google Analytics (GA4) and send us your GA4 Measurement ID.
*Do not know where to find the GA4 Measurement ID? Find it here
Step 3 – Send us the document with the list of items and GA4 ID using our contact form.
- What do you need help with? > Google Analytics > First Connection with Google Analytics
Step 4 – Setup FareHarbor Lightframe on your website, if you cannot setup FareHarbor Lightframe the tracking will not work.
Step 5 – We will connect your GA4 ID with every company on the list you send us.
Testing the integration
While on your Google Analytics go to Reports > Engagement > Pages and Screens. In the bottom you should be receiving information similar to the one bellow.
TIP: Use the search bar and search for the keyword “embeds”.
If you received a booking you can find it on Reports > Report Monetization > Ecommerce Purchases.
Google Analytics discrepancies with Reports
Sometimes there are some discrepancies between Google Analytics and our reports. Bellow there are a few reasons why, if you are not sure, reach out to us at through our contact form.
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Bookings can be rebooked, cancelled or refunded and therefore not be eligible for commission or for a lower one.
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There are custom-fields (also known as Addons) which are not commissionable, they are triggered on Google Analytics. Examples of these non-commissionable custom fields are Natural Parks Entry costs or fuel surcharges.
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Sometimes Google Analytics might not be well set up on your website, visit https://tagassistant.google.com to make sure the tag is on your website.
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Every time you add a new tour or experience we are required to add your GA4 ID to that company dashboard, make sure to reach us so it’s up to date.
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If you see that it is triggering twice per booking, let us know as your GA4 ID might have been added twice to the same company.
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In Europe, commission includes tax, while in the United States of America it is not inclusive. This discrepancy can make the numbers harder to read in Google Analytics. Some companies have set up tax to zero on their dashboard which creates confusion.
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When someone makes a test booking and has to log out from their dashboard, the unique identifier will be lost.
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To be able to track the client steps in FareHarbor pages you will need to activate Fareharbor Lightframe.
Once per page
Copy the code below and paste it right above your page’s closing </body> tag. This is required for the Lightframe booking overlay to function. Learn more ›
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://fareharbor.com/embeds/api/v1/?autolightframe=yes"></script>FareHarbor Plugin
To have the code automatically added to your wordpress website, you can download and install our FareHarbor Plugin.
FAQs
Getting Started
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You can copy the booking link from the FHDN Directory for an activity and place it on your website, social media post, confirmation emails or anywhere else you think someone might book an activity. When the link is clicked and a booking takes place, the commission is tracked via the link and you are tagged as the affiliate that generated the booking.
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Right-click on the Preview Booking button and select “Open link in incognito (or private) window”. If you open the link in your regular browser you will be prompted to log out of your FareHarbor dashboard, logging out can cause issues with the tagging in the links.
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No, by opting into the FHDN and agreeing to the terms and conditions tour providers have agreed that affiliates on the network can distribute their products.
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FareHarbor has clients all over the world, but not all have opted in to the FHDN to give commission on tour sales. Contact us and we can work with you to get more inventory on the network in your area. If you know a tour provider that is interested in joining the network, let us know! We are happy to reach out to chat with tour providers to make them aware of the network’s benefits and help answer questions they might have.
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Yes! The FHDN may be used concurrently with any of your existing arrangements and contracts. However, the value add is that with the FHDN, you don’t have to deal with contracting or invoicing, saving you time and money in the long run. You can have existing ASN buttons and FHDN buttons alongside each other on your website.
Payouts and Reporting
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As a FareHarbor Distribution Network (FHDN) affiliate, you are earning a 15% commission on all confirmed bookings you generate for a tour provider. Your commission will be transferred to your bank account every 10th business day of the month following the activity taking place.
Ex: In January, you generated a booking for an activity taking place in February. Your payout for this booking will be deposited on the 10th business day of March.
Please note: for canceled and partially-refunded bookings, you will receive your commission proportionally to the amount the tour provider has been paid.
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FHDN affiliates can report on bookings associated with their FareHarbor Dashboard. FHDN Bookings (located under Reports > Advanced > FHDN Bookings) can be used to gather important insights, such as:
- Which experiences sell best on your website
- Which days your website generates more bookings
- An overview of your expected earnings
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You can use GA4 to track the bookings that are generated through your website. Reach out to [email protected] with the list of companies and items you are selling along with your GA4 Stream ID and we can set up the connection for you.
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In most cases, it means that the booking was canceled. Reach out to [email protected] with the booking details you have and we can investigate.
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Due to privacy reasons, we cannot provide any personally identifiable information (PII), including customer name or contact information.
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There is no minimal threshold to be met to be part of the program, and no fee to participate. This means that the full 15% commission will be deposited into your bank account for bookings you generate.
-
If a booking is canceled and fully refunded, no commission will be paid out for the booking. If the booking is partially refunded you will still receive the 15% commission on the unrefunded balance.
Integrations
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Yes, you can use the content provided on the item page, as long as it’s clear that the content is the tour provider’s and not yours.
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You can either email [email protected] or you can use this tool to convert a book button to a calendar embed – URL to calendar script
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Make sure to integrate the Light Frame API, using one of these ways:
- Have a WordPress site? Download the free plug-in FareHarbor for WordPress and enable “Auto-lightframing.
- Otherwise copy the code below and paste it right before the closing <body> tag of each page that you integrate FareHarbor buttons or links on.
<!– FareHarbor Lightframe API – do not remove – see: https://fareharbor.com/help/website/resources/lightframe-api/ –>
<script src=”https://fareharbor.com/embeds/api/v1/?autolightframe=yes”></script>
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While not mandatory, we highly recommend it as it enables our Quality Control team to verify that everything is integrated according to best practices, and that your links are tagging you as the affiliate accurately. It also allows us to notify you if a tour provider leaves the FHDN or if there are any important changes to specific activities you are distributing.
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At the end of the URL there is “&back=BACKLINK”, change the “BACKLINK” to the desired URL, including “www”. If left untouched, the page will redirect to the URL the customer came from.
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