Additional information is available to FareHarbor employees.
Affiliate promo codes allow you to track and credit affiliates for bookings made through your website using a simple, customizable code. This setup is ideal for affiliates without a website or those who want to promote your tours without managing bookings directly. This page outlines how promo codes work, how they compare to discount codes, and how to set them up in your Dashboard.
What is an affiliate promo code?
A simple code that, once entered on your website, will tag the appropriate affiliate in your FareHarbor Dashboard.
An affiliate can use this simple code tied to them to make bookings on behalf of a guest or they can give out their affiliate code and receive credit for booking(s) when the code is used on your website.
For example:
A hotel could give out a coupon saying “Use code VIST and receive $5 off when you book the Sunset Boat Tour“. Your booking URL would be listed making it easy for the guest to make a booking.
Once the code ‘VIST’ is entered on your website, it can be used to take off a discount or solely for tracking purposes.
What does a promo code booking look like?
In your Dashboard, the booking will appear as an online booking; however, the affiliate name will be tagged. In the booking details, you’ll see the code used and if it provided a discount.
How does payment work?
Since an affiliate promo code will be entered on your website, any payment processed will flow directly to you.
If you will be paying your affiliate a commission, the commission will appear on the booking right under the Booking Notes section. In this example, the guest received a $5 discount by using the affiliate code and $7.50 is owed to the affiliate for referring a guest to book using their code.
How do I know if this is a good fit for my affiliate?
An affiliate promo code is most beneficial for affiliates who do not have a website or who want to resell your tours without having to make bookings for their guests. If the guest is making the booking, it will save time for all parties involved, and you will be able to receive the full payment at the time of booking, rather than waiting to be paid by the affiliate!
Promo codes vs discount codes
There are two different kinds of codes in FareHarbor: promo codes and discount codes. Both have the ability to tag an affiliate when used online, but there are some important differences to be aware of. Promo codes are highly customizable, while discount codes are simpler to create and manage. We recommend only having one of these features enabled to avoid customer confusion, but there are certain cases where they can work together.
Learn more about the use cases for these features here, and see below for more details about how they work for affiliates:
| Promo codes | Discount codes | |
| Can I track an affiliate? | Yes | Yes |
| Can I limit valid items, dates, maximum uses? | Yes | Yes |
| Can I set a minimum booking purchase? | No | Yes |
| What parts of the booking are discounted? | Customizable depending on placement of field. | Either the full booking, including all custom fields, or only the customer type costs, with no custom fields. |
| Where is the code redeemed? | Either on individual customer types or in whole-booking fields. | Underneath the booking total. |
| How is commission affected? | By default, commissions will be reduced proportionately to the discount rate. However, this is customizable. |
Commissions will always be reduced proportionately to the discount rate. For example:
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| Who is it best for? | Companies that use Groupon-style voucher codes or that work with affiliates whose commissions are affected in unique ways when codes are applied. | Companies who want to easily create and manage their own codes and have fairly simple setups. |
Voucher codes
Some affiliates, such as Groupon, use what we refer to as voucher codes. In this setup, the affiliate collects full payment from the customer in their own system and provides the customer with a one-time-use promo code. The customer then completes the booking through your website or via a unique booking link included in the affiliate’s confirmation email. Each voucher code discounts 100% of the cost for one person or customer type.
Note: This setup requires using the promo code feature rather than discount codes.
In some cases, the affiliate provides a list of one-time-use codes that we can import into FareHarbor for redemption. Alternatively, we can generate a list of codes with a predefined prefix.
If needed for reporting and invoicing purposes, we can set the net rate owed to you in FareHarbor. This amount remains unchanged even after the booking total has been reduced to zero.
How do I get this set up?
If you know of a potential affiliate that would benefit from this method, fill out the new affiliate request form and use the Notes/Comments section to provide details of the code you’d like created.
Our team will get it set up and let you know once it’s ready!
Click here to learn more about our affiliate booking options!