Have you ever wondered how your listing is ranked on FishingBooker? Have you had a cancellation you weren’t sure how to handle? Or maybe you received a message you didn’t know how to respond to?
Whether you’re new on FishingBooker or a long-time partner, we get that there are things you’re not 100% sure about. That’s why we’ve lined up to answer your most burning questions from the past year.
Our list includes everything from ranking and booking-related issues to policies and who we are as a company. Just click the question below to find out the answer!
- Why is completing trips good for me?
- How do I rank better on FishingBooker?
- What do I do if I can’t take a trip?
- How does canceling trips affect my listing?
- Why aren’t my Instant Messages sending?
- I blocked off a trip with the custom setting. How come someone booked an overlapping trip?
- Where does FishingBooker pay taxes?
- How do I contact FishingBooker?
- How do I get the green “Verified” badge?
Why is completing trips good for me?
Accepting and completing trips makes a huge difference to your visibility on FishingBooker. Just like you, we’re committed to helping people go fishing, and we want to make this a smooth and enjoyable experience.
That’s why a strong history of completing trips when the conditions allow will give you the chance to rank well and get more bookings. Accepting and completing trips build up your reliability score, which is a key ranking factor for your listing.
How do I rank better on FishingBooker?
Ranking on FishingBooker is determined by an algorithm that looks at how your listing is set up and how you’ve handled trips in the past. It doesn’t look at how long you’ve been with us! Instead, it’s based on how likely it is that customers will have a great time with you.
That’s why a good track record of fulfilling customers’ expectations is crucial. Taking customers out and earning great reviews are the best things you can do for your ranking. If you want to give it that extra push, you can also invest a higher commission. Here’s what has the biggest impact on how you rank on FishingBooker:
- Reliability score
- Having Instant Book
- Positive verified reviews
- Commission percentage
- Being fully verified
Check out this article to learn more about each of these factors.
What do I do if I can’t take a trip?
Sometimes things come up and you and the customer aren’t able to go out. To make sure that the booking gets processed quickly and correctly, log in to your profile as soon as possible to make the necessary updates. Here’s how you can do this:
The good news is that you don’t need to lose the customer! Instead of declining or canceling your trip outright, you can always try to make a booking change request. If you cancel or decline, you’ll lose the customer’s contact details. Change it, and you’ll be able to reschedule and arrange everything together with them smoothly.
Changing bookings instead of canceling also boosts your realization rate. Not only will you earn yourself an extra trip, but you’ll also give yourself a better chance of winning the prestigious Angler’s Choice award!
How does canceling trips affect my listing?
There are times when canceling (or declining) a trip is the only option. Whether or not your listing will be affected will depend on why the trip can’t take place.
- If you cancel or decline a booking due to an avoidable reason such as inaccurate availability, your reliability score will be affected. If this happens regularly, your listing will drop in the rankings.
We value customer experience above all else, just like you. That’s why we always want customers to see captains who are most likely to actually take them out. Keep your calendar up to date to give yourself the best chance of realizing bookings!
- If you can’t go because of something that’s genuinely out of your hands, that’s completely fine. Our system is built for the fishing industry and it understands that there are things you can’t control.
When there’s bad weather and you need to cancel, your reliability score won’t be affected. Just let us know in the notes when you cancel and we’ll process the booking accordingly.
Why was my Instant Message declined?
Instant Messaging works differently when a customer has a confirmed trip coming up compared to when they don’t. When there’s no upcoming booking, our system automatically blocks messages that look like you’re inviting them to book outside of the FishingBooker platform.
Your message may be declined if it contains:
- Your contact information. Sending your phone number or email address, or asking customers to call you, can trigger the system’s filter.
Tip: Let customers know in an Instant Message that they’ll get your details as soon as the booking gets confirmed. This will make it more likely for your booking to go ahead, as well as avoid getting messages declined. Encourage them to book even more by sending a special offer.
- Links to other websites or social media. If you try to show customers photos on social media, or ask them to follow your page, your message may get declined.
Tip: Keep your FishingBooker listing and fishing report photos up to date, so customers can see your latest photos. If you get a question about licenses, feel free to explain the procedure, but try to avoid sending links at this stage. Once the customer books with you, you’ll be able to share a link for purchasing licenses.
- Specifics about your departure point. The messaging filter picks up anything that looks like you’re trying to arrange a meeting before the customer books.
Tip: Feel free to include general details about your location in your listing description or messages. Keeping your location pin up to date on your listing should give customers a good idea of where you are. Once the customer books with you, you can agree on the specifics.
- Information encouraging customers to rebook a canceled trip directly. If a booking is canceled, the same rules about sharing contact details apply as above.
Tip: Suggest an alternative date through Instant Messaging, rather than canceling and rebooking. This way, you’ll keep your customer’s contact details and will be more likely to successfully take them fishing.
I blocked a trip with the custom settings. How come someone booked an overlapping trip?
Custom calendar settings allow you to block individual trips rather than full days. This is really useful if you want to offer a particular type of package on certain days.
Let’s say you only want to offer afternoon trips one day. To make sure that people can’t book overlapping trips, you’ll need to block ALL the trips that can happen in the morning. For example, instead of blocking a Half Day (AM) Trip only, you’ll need to block trips like the Full Day and ¾ Day, as well.
Get the latest version of the Captain App to make calendar updates quickly and easily.
Where does FishingBooker pay taxes?
FishingBooker is an incorporated US company with its headquarters in Virginia. The US has some of the best fishing in the world, which is why we work particularly closely with this market.
We also base our operations in Serbia, Europe, where our founder is from. If you were wondering, that’s close to some of the world’s top Bluefin Tuna fisheries, as well as some amazing freshwater fishing grounds, too!
This two-front setup means that FishingBooker pays taxes in both the US and Serbia. Why do we work this way? We’re not a big corporation, and we’re more or less the same team we’ve always been. We don’t have lots of big external investors pulling strings, and that allows us to meet our customers’ and captains’ needs more efficiently!
As some of you may know, up until the pandemic, we were spending a few months a year visiting captains in our top markets in the US. We can’t wait for travel to get back on track, so that we can start visiting and fishing with you again!
How do I contact FishingBooker?
Getting assistance from FishingBooker is easy – you just need to visit the Contact Us page. If you have general questions about how to set up your listing, or want to know more about some of FisingBooker’s features, you can now get instant answers, right on your screen.
On the other hand, if you need immediate help with a booking or a cancellation, you can still get on the phone and talk to one of our booking experts. Now that less-sensitive inquiries can be resolved right on the website, you won’t need to wait in line to get help for your most pressing issues.
Here’s how you can contact us when you need to talk about changing a booking, for example:
You can reach us over the phone from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST on weekdays, and 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST on weekends. If you need assistance outside of these hours, send us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we’re able to!
How do I get the green “Verified” badge?
You can check whether or not your listing is verified by going to the your credentials dashboard. If you’re not verified yet, or your documents have expired, you’ll see that here.
In case your documents have expired, you’ll need to upload your current ones to keep your verification badge. When listing on FishingBooker for the first time, you’ll need to verify in order to become visible to customers.
In case you’re not sure which credentials you need to upload, here’s a rundown of what’s needed for your state in the US. If you’re from outside of the US, you can find the list of documents per country here.
Last but not least, make sure to check your notifications so you don’t miss a beat when one of your documents expires.
Ask Us Anything!
And that covers it – we hope that you’ve found these answers useful. If there’s anything we missed, or you have any more questions about one of the topics we mentioned, don’t hesitate to drop us a comment below!
