How one of Scotland’s largest tour companies scaled up with FareHarbor

“We chose FareHarbor because it took care of everything we needed from a booking platform, so we can focus on what we do best—providing the best tours in Scotland.”

Michael Bremner
Owner

The business

Highland Experience is a tour company that takes its guests across the beautiful landscapes and historical sites of Scotland. They offer a wide-variety of single and multi-day tours, that all offer an authentic, tailored experience for every customer.

We sat down with Michael Bremner, Owner, and Clare Dolan, Head of Operations, of Highland Experience. Discover more about their business’s story and how FareHarbor has assisted in their success. 

A bit of backstory

Michael left his job with an investment bank in London back in 2005. When he changed the direction of his career path to pursue his passion to become a tour operator, little did he know how incredibly successful his tours would become.

As someone who had never written a business plan (where was ChapGPT in 2005?!), Michael studied the market and wanted to create a business model that was unique and would thrive in Scotland. 

“You get a lot of guides that say you must do this or you must do that. But you simply must do what the market tells you to do” Michael tells us.

A few things that set Highland Experience apart from the competition:

• Michael is from the Highlands. Although there are plenty of other similar companies in the area, not one other is run by a Highlander. 
• They went the road less traveled. Michael planned for his tours to go in another route than many others in the area. This meant that his customers got to enjoy the most popular destinations without the busy crowd.
• They found a sweet spot in the market.  While there were other tour companies in Scotland, Highland Experience offered something unique which supercharged their growth.

In the very beginning, Michael had only one bus and would go into town and pass out a basic brochure to market his tour. Over the course of the next decade, his popularity grew exponentially. One bus in 2005 to 35 in 2019 — although this achievement was undeniably fantastic for Michael and his business, unforeseen challenges would arise alongside the success.  

The challenges

As Highland Experience grew, Michael needed more staff and resources to support the business. In 2015, Clare joined the team and became an integral part of the company. She helped identify their challenges as well as the solutions which would eventually lead to them finding FareHarbor.

A few pain points:

• Existing Booking Software: Their current booking software could not scale with the business. The company could not push out the updates they needed fast enough and their pricing model was costing the business too much.
• Manual Processes: Manual entries of bookings slowed down the operations and made processes very inefficient. The staff had no time and were stretched very thin. 
• High Risk Transition: With the management team being at capacity with day-to-day operations, they had no time to onboard another booking software. 

Michael noted that “I can be a difficult person to convince on something this key to my business. If we got the decision wrong (about which booking software to choose) it would finish us”. 

Ultimately the business was too big and they were too busy to stop and dedicate the necessary resources to switch to an alternative booking software. That is, until Covid-19 hit. When the pandemic brought their business to an abrupt halt, it gave them the opportunity to breathe and focus on a meaningful transition. 

Why they chose FareHarbor

Clare started her hunt to find a booking software platform that would work for their enterprise-level business and hav the capacity to grow as they did.  After the FareHarbor demo (and some added persuasion of Michael), Clare was sure FareHarbor could help them in the next chapter of their business.

A few of the major selling points were:

• Customization to fit their business model. While other reservation platforms were hard to set up or did not have the capability to sell multi-day tours, FareHarbor could be tailored to accommodate their many tour options. 
• The unmatched support. With such a major, and potentially detrimental switch, Highland Experience needed a reliable team to guide them through and beyond the transition. 
• A high-functioning, intuitive mobile app.  As a tour company, Highland Experience employees are constantly on the go. Having an updated mobile app would keep the team connected and aware of their daily duties. 

The solutions and other added benefits

In 2020, Highland Experience made the incredible decision to join the FareHarbor family. Together, they were able to work on some of their primary business concerns.

To name a few of the solutions: 

• Powerful booking software. FareHarbor automated manual processes and optimized their online booking process for both single and multi-day tours. We streamlined everything from booking to post-booking communications and ensured their customers received all the necessary information regarding their bookings.
• Constant innovation. FareHarbor and Highland Experience were able to grow together. FareHarbor constantly introduces new features to the platform that support the growth rate and scale that Highland Experience requires. 
• Diversify sales channels. Joining the FareHarbor Distribution Network (FHDN) and setting up custom affiliate connections helped fill bookings and bring in more revenue.
• Competitive pricing. FareHarbor’s pricing model saved the business money. As time went on, the previous booking software was costing the company more and more. 
• World class service: FareHarbor took care of the daunting task of transferring all existing bookings to our system which also reduced the risk of onboarding to a new platform and saved an incredible amount of time. Our around the clock support also put their minds at ease that we would have their back and time of day or night. 

The results

As the world continues to recover from the pandemic, Highland Experience now has the opportunity to accelerate their growth once again and help more people experience the breathtaking country of Scotland. 

• “Saved so much time”. Moving from a more manual setup, they now have more time to focus their energy on growing and working on other aspects of the operation as well as providing a better guest experience.
• Increased efficiency by 2x. FareHarbor’s booking software helps them operate more seamlessly. From managing their API connections to the well-rounded support resources, the team gets valuable time back in their day. 
• Costs them less. The pricing model ended up saving them more money than their previous partner with our booking fees not affecting their conversion rates.
• Partner in growth: They can rely on FareHarbor to scale their business together. FareHarbor comes out with new updates and features that can benefit their business, help them expand, and increase revenue streams.

Highland Experience’s story proves that when a tour business has the right tools and support at their disposal, there is no limit to how fast they can grow, succeed, and bring more people to experience the wonderful world of travel. 

“[As FareHarbor is a larger company] you would probably think that they cannot spend as much time individually on us as a business. But that is not the case. They do what they say the day they come in. They understand your business, work with your team, and they improve things that need improving”.