Taking day charter and boat hire bookings online

Plenty of crew come ashore and stay on the water: a day boat, a RIB, a fishing charter, a few jet skis. The boat handling is the easy part. The bookings are where the evenings go.

One calendar per boat

If you run more than one boat, or one boat that does both half-day and full-day trips, each needs its own availability. Bookings taken by phone and WhatsApp work until the day two families turn up for the same slot. Set up each vessel or trip type as its own bookable item with its own rate and rules. Airflow describes the approach in boat hire and charter, and the same applies to watersports and equipment hire.

Take the deposit when they book

A charter with no deposit is a charter that cancels when the forecast looks average. Take a deposit at the time of booking, straight into your own payment account, and set the balance to fall due before the day. Then you are not handling cash on the dock.

Block the days you cannot run

Maintenance, haul-out, crew days off, a week of mistral. Close those dates once and nobody can book them. It sounds obvious. It is also the first thing that goes wrong on a paper diary.

Tell guests what to expect

Where to meet, what to bring, what happens if the weather turns. Send it automatically when they book and again the day before. It cuts the phone calls in half and the late arrivals with them.

See what each boat earns

Fuel, berthing and maintenance are per boat. Income should be too. When each charter is recorded against its vessel you can see which boat is paying for the other, and each booking can be passed to your accounts as a draft invoice.

Work with the properties around you

Villas, lodges and guest houses want something to offer their guests. If a property near you already uses a booking system, your trips can sit alongside their rooms, which is one of the reasons Crew HQ has partnered with Airflow. Members who link an Airflow account with an active listing get one month of Premium Membership free, and their boats will be promoted to the Crew HQ community. Read more on the Crew HQ and Airflow page.