February 2025: Planned system maintenance
Last updated: January 30, 2025
We’re committed to continuously improving our services and providing a positive experience for you and your customers. That’s why on February 15th, 2025, from 07:00 to 07:30 UTC (see this in your timezone), we’ll be conducting a scheduled maintenance upgrade. Certain functionalities, such as accessing reports, and making or editing bookings, will be unavailable during this brief period.
Please see our Read-Only mode help page for more detailed information about Dashboard functionality during the maintenance window.
This upgrade is crucial for enhancing the performance of FareHarbor. We’ve strategically chosen this time frame for minimal impact, as it’s when FareHarbor experiences the lowest usage. Our team is working diligently to minimize disruption to your business as much as possible during maintenance.
This page includes answers to some frequently asked questions, but please feel free to reach out if additional clarification is needed.
Frequently asked questions
What will online customers see when they visit my website?
Your website will be available throughout the maintenance period, but customers attempting to book will receive a notification to reattempt booking after the upgrade.
Can customers still book online through third-party resellers?
Online booking via resellers like Expedia and Viator will be temporarily unavailable. Customers attempting to book via these methods will be advised to retry later.
Note: Bookings may still be received from third parties via email, fax, or other methods.
Will scheduled emails still be sent from FareHarbor?
Emails scheduled to be sent during the maintenance period will be sent as soon as the upgrade is complete.
Will this impact payouts to my bank account?
No, all payouts will run on their regular schedules.
What parts of my Dashboard will I be able to use?
You should be able to view manifests, bookings, and availabilities. However, functionalities such as processing payments, making new bookings, and running reports should be unavailable during the maintenance period.
Our Read-Only mode help page contains more detailed information about Dashboard functionality during the maintenance window.
Are there any steps I need to take before the maintenance?
You do not need to complete any additional steps before the maintenance period occurs.
What should I do if I encounter issues after the maintenance period?
Please contact our Support team if you experience any discrepancies after the maintenance has been completed.
Internal-only content. Don't copy and paste to anyone.
Communication schedule
- January 29: Product Marketing emails all FH admins, and notifies AM and Support management of affected clients.
- February 7: Tech & Product deploy Dashboard notification, email to clients, and update FareHarbor’s status page.
Maintenance communication guidelines
What we can tell clients
Planned maintenance reason:
FareHarbor is planning a database update to improve performance across our application.
Script:
We need to perform maintenance on FareHarbor’s database for about half an hour. During this time, the Dashboard will only be accessible in read-only mode and online booking will be temporarily disabled. This may disrupt operations if you are using the FareHarbor Dashboard during the maintenance period.
We should accurately convey the reason for maintenance while maintaining goodwill with our clients. This balance goes both ways: it builds trust when we tell clients what is happening, but it erodes trust when we are unclear.
Terms to use
“Planned maintenance”
Don’t use the word “outage”. It has a negative connotation that is usually associated with unplanned downtime.
“Engineering team” or “developers”
Don’t reference the Product team, as this is internal language and can be unclear to clients.
Instead, we can say:
Our Engineering team is performing maintenance.