Price previews for online booking

Price previews can be enabled by users with Director-level permissions or any user with the Edit prices of items, availabilities, and custom fields permission enabled. This permission can be enabled for a permission group under Setup when editing the permission group or creating a new permission group.

To enable price previews:

1. Navigate to your Dashboard Settings.
2. Click the cog icon in the top right corner of your screen to access your Advanced company settings.
3. Select Pricing from the Advanced company settings menu.
4. Check the Automatic online price previews box.
5. Click Save changes.

Additional price preview options include:

• Show no price as “Free”.
• Enable price previews on small calendars.
• Enable price previews on availabilities.

Note: To include booking fees or taxes in price previews, contact Support or your Account Manager.

Feature overview

How prices are determined

For detailed information on how prices are determined for price previews and where they appear in the booking process, refer to the Price preview locations and display logic help page.

Price previews are based on the current price sheet, but the enabled settings and context in which the price preview appears will determine which price is displayed:

• Item grid & descriptions: Displays the price of the next bookable availability.
• Small Calendars: Displays the lowest price across all availabilities for each day. All items are factored in when viewing multi-item calendars or multiple items in a search by date view.
• Search by date view: Displays the lowest-priced availability for that specific date.
• Specific availabilities: Displays the lowest price across all selected customer types.

Note: Prices are localized, not converted, based on the customer’s browser settings or manual language selection. If the item's currency differs from the viewer's local language, a notice appears (for example: "From US$72.80"). Learn more about translation and online booking.

Hiding price previews on specific items

There may be circumstances in which you’d like to hide price previews for specific items. For example, this is helpful when working with items that have different customer types added to different availabilities throughout the same day. Price previews can be hidden per item by any user with Director-level permissions.

To hide price previews on an item:

1. Navigate to Items.
2. Select the relevant item.
3. Click Listing.
4. Select Basic info.
5. Check the Hide automatic online price previews for this item box.
6. Click Save changes.

Note: If small calendar price previews are enabled at the company level, price previews will still appear in the small calendar for all items in the associated booking flow.

Important notes and limitations

• Retail Items: Previews are strictly for bookable items and are not supported for retail products.
• Availability Limits: Items with more than 30 availabilities in a single day will not show previews.
• Item Status: Previews are hidden if an item is set to Closed & Call to book or Closed & hidden.
• Search Threshold: For the search by date view, the system searches the next 30 availabilities starting at midnight of the selected date.

Note: This page offers general information on price transparency laws. This does not constitute legal advice. Regulatory requirements vary by jurisdiction, industry, and business model. You are responsible for determining which price transparency laws apply to your business and how to comply with them.

In certain jurisdictions, regulators have adopted requirements related to transparent online pricing. In many cases, these rules require that mandatory fees or taxes be included in the initial price shown to the customer.  

Check your local laws and regulations to identify what mandatory fees and/or taxes are required to be accurately reflected in the prices displayed on your website and during the online booking process.

FareHarbor does not determine which fees or taxes apply to your business and does not guarantee that enabling any particular feature will result in compliance with Price Transparency Laws. 

Examples of regulatory developments affecting online price display

If you operate in the following areas, ensure you have enabled "Include fees/taxes" in your Advanced company settings:

Note: Requirements differ significantly depending on jurisdiction, sector, and enforcement protocols. The examples below highlight regulatory requirements in certain regions and are not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive summary of applicable laws

When taxes and fees are enabled for your price previews, the price display changes from a range (for example: "$30–$65") to a “Starting from" format (for example: "From $39") to account for the mandatory additions.

Booking fees

If Include fees is enabled, the system adds the percentage or flat fee defined in your Online Booking Fee settings to the displayed price. If you have any mandatory priced custom fields, for example a mandatory national park fee or cleaning fee, these will be automatically added to your price preview when the setting for including fees is enabled.

In addition to the order summary, booking fees are also included in custom field and customer type card prices:

Mandatory priced custom fields

When automatic price previews are enabled and configured to include fees, mandatory priced custom fields are added to the customer type price throughout the booking process. For example, if your item includes a one-time flat fee, such as a cleaning fee, customers will see this cost included in the price preview.

Best practices

To reflect pricing inclusive of fees and/or taxes, you may consider the following  operational best practices:

• Ensuring the prices listed on your website match the final pricing displayed in the FareHarbor booking experience.
• If you are using price previews, ensure that the proper fees and/or taxes are included in the prices being displayed to adhere to local regulations. Contact Support or your Account Manager to apply taxes and/or fees to your price previews.
• If you are not using price previews, ensure any pricing manually added into your Dashboard is inclusive of the fees and/or taxes that you determine must be displayed according to applicable price transparency laws.
• Reviewing mandatory priced custom fields and making them optional if they aren’t truly necessary

Why is an item showing no price preview?

There are a number of reasons why some items might not display price previews.

• The automatic price preview feature is not enabled in your Dashboard; follow the instructions in the Enabling price previews section of this help page to enable it.
• The item has Hide automatic online price previews for this item enabled. Review the Hiding price previews on specific items section of this help page for more information.
• You have over 30 availabilities in one day. Try shortening the online booking cutoff to allow more availabilities to be bookable that day or lower the amount of availabilities within one day.
• The item has no bookable future availabilities or all of the future bookable availabilities have a change status of Closed & Call to book or Closed & hidden. Try changing the status to Auto close so more availabilities will be bookable online.
• The item is a retail item.
• A custom field determines the pricing of the item and no pricing is added to the customer type. Pricing from a custom field will not be visible in price previews. Pricing from custom fields will be visible in price previews if including taxes and/or fees has been enabled on your Dashboard. To enable these options, contact Support or your Account Manager.

Note: Exclusive customer type prices will display in customer type-level price previews (visible when displaying an item’s details). Exclusive customer type prices will not be included in the item grid, availability, small calendar, or item-level search by date previews.

Why is the price preview different from the price I see when I’m booking?

If automatic price previews are enabled but total price previews are not, the price previews shown will not include taxes and/or fees. Please reach out to Support or your Account Manager to enable these settings. 

What if I don’t want to show a price for customer types that are free?

Customer types with no price will not show a price preview by default. To show them, check Show no price as “Free” in your Advanced company settings under Pricing.

What do I need to do to comply with regulations about displaying prices with mandatory fees?

Price transparency laws and regulations vary by region and industry. While FareHarbor endeavors to stay on top of governmental developments and reach out to you regarding  upcoming changes that may relate to our clients, we cannot provide legal advice regarding the application of laws and regulations that may apply to your business. If you have any questions about whether or not a price transparency law applies to you, and how to comply with it, please consult a legal professional.

I am affected by price transparency laws, but I do not want to use price previews in my items/Dashboard. What should I do to comply with the laws?

If you do not want to utilize the total price preview feature, pricing should instead be manually added to each item’s headline and description inclusive of any mandatory fees and/or taxes charged to customers by you. Check your local regulations to identify what mandatory fees and/or taxes need to be included to accurately reflect the prices displayed on your website and during the online booking process. We recommend that you consult with a legal professional to ensure your compliance with laws and regulations affecting you and your business.

Regulatory requirements may change over time. FareHarbor does not monitor or notify Providers of all legal developments in their jurisdictions. Providers are responsible for staying informed about applicable laws and regulations affecting their business. 

Important to remember:

• If you are using multiple price sheets, please use the lowest starting price to advertise in the item’s headline and description using wording such as: “From $X per person”.
• If price previews are disabled, you are responsible for updating the prices in item headline(s) and description(s) if your pricing changes.

The items in my setup have extra fees (fuel surcharge, entrance fees, taxes, etc.) that are required and added as a custom field. What should I do?

If you are already using the automatic price previews feature on your FareHarbor Dashboard, please take the following steps:

1. Check if price previews display the correct full price on your site
   • Please check that the pricing that displays on your site when customers are making a booking is the price that displays in the item listing for the corresponding item in the Dashboard.
2. After identifying any items with inconsistent pricing on your site and in price previews, please reach out to FareHarbor Support for guidance on next steps.
3. After the proper total price previews features have been enabled (and adjustments have been made to applicable items), please remove any manual pricing from the items utilizing the feature.

If you are not currently utilizing the automatic price previews feature on your FareHarbor Dashboard, please review your items in your Dashboard and update the manual pricing added to the headline(s) and description(s) in the item(s) listing to include any fees needing to be visible in pricing. This should include any required priced custom field(s) the customer must pay when completing a booking online.

If you would like to start utilizing the total price preview feature or need any additional support when making adjustments, please reach out to FareHarbor Support for guidance.

I am affected by price transparency laws, what updates do I need to make to my website?

If your website is a FareHarbor Site:

You can use FareHarbor’s Price Sync feature as a guide to help align pricing displayed on your website with pricing displayed in your Dashboard. Alternatively, you can manually update your pricing by following the steps on the How do I update a price for an activity page or item? help page. Update the pricing to reflect the appropriate pricing structure applicable to your business. .

If your website is NOT a FareHarbor Site:

Please consult with a legal professional to identify the needed updates for your website to ensure your compliance with laws and regulations affecting you and your business.

FareHarbor can assist with configuring product features, but cannot advise on legal interpretation or compliance strategy.

How can I tell if my business is affected by price transparency laws?

Price transparency requirements vary by jurisdiction, industry, and business model. FareHarbor does not provide legal advice. You are responsible for determining which price transparency laws apply to your business and how to comply with them. You should consult with a legal professional to identify the laws and regulations affecting you and your business.

If you are assessing whether pricing transparency rules may apply to your business, you may consider reviewing:

• Consumer protection or competition laws in the jurisdiction(s) where you operate
• Guidance published by your local, state/provincial and federal regulators (e.g., consumer protection, fair trading, or competition authority)
• Industry updates or trade publications discussing pricing transparency, hidden fees, junk fees, or drip pricing

These examples are provided for general informational purposes only and are not exhaustive. They may not address all laws or regulations that could apply to your business. As with all legal issues affecting your business, you should seek advice from qualified legal counsel familiar with your business and markets.