How to charter your pivate boat or yacht

Many people ask how to put their private yachts into charter. First, to tell them is, that chartering is not a get-rich-quick scheme, especially in today's environment of astronomical insurance rates, fuel prices, etc., but is useful either to defray the costs of yacht ownership or to finance a healthy, outdoors lifestyle. There are worse ways to earn a living, let's face it.

Fitting out for yacht charter
The first thing you need to address is the boat. Fitting it out for charter is important, ensuring you have all the required safety and emergency equipment, changing furniture, coverings and carpets with heavy duty and hopefully water-resistant materials and basically making sure that everything works and has a back-up.

The vessel itself, depending on the flag, will have to be legally documented for yacht charter. Charter insurance, as opposed to recreational insurance is also a must, is more difficult to obtain and is more expensive.

Charter management, promotion and marketing
Next on the list is to look for a Clearing House or a Management Company that will accept your boat, these terms can be synonymous but there are some differences. A Clearing House basically holds the boat's calendar, lists your boat on its website as well as on recognized industry databases, distributes hard copy brochures, and generally acts as a secretarial service while your boat is out on charter. A Management Company performs all the above and additionally may offer promotional and marketing services, manage your boat, perform maintenance, hire a crew on your behalf, provision for yacht charter, and many other functions not offered or performed by Clearing Houses. You can expect to pay a monthly fee and/or a % of the value of the charter to the Clearing House.

Your own charter yacht web page
You should then create two web-sites for your boat. Both sites can be identical and provide nice pictures of people having a great time on your boat, menu selections, testimonials, packages, special offers and a very basic spec sheet. The nicer the pictures, the more chance you have getting customers. The difference between the two sites is that one will have your contact information and the other will be anonymous or "broker-friendly". This broker-friendly site is important so that yacht charter brokers can point their customers to your boat web-site without the fear of you "stealing" their customer.

OK, let's stop for a minute to breathe. Take a step back ... Where are your charter customers going to actually come from? They will come from the following sources:

From Yacht Charter Brokers.
... your own advertising and promotional efforts.
... your website.
... existing and satisfied repeat customers.

Let's talk about charter brokers for a minute. This is the next link in the marketing chain. Yacht charter brokers are like a cross between travel agents and mortgage brokers. There are probably 400 to 600 active brokers worldwide. They have their own marketing networks, do their own advertising, for example on Yacht World, have existing customers that trust them, have access to all major databases, clearing houses and management companies. When a broker gets an inquiry, he or she will either go to an industry database, like Nemesis Marketing, (www.centralyachtagent.com) or Charter Index, (www.charterindex.com) or MYBA (www.mybamembers.com), or, they may go directly to a Clearing House or Management Company if they have an idea of what yacht would be suitable.

You may note that the broker nearly always goes to the Clearing House or Management Company, and rarely to the yacht owner directly until the later stages. This is because the Clearing Houses carry the yacht calendars and have the availability at their fingertips. Brokers don't like to spend time and money calling a dozen yacht owners, most of which are out on charter anyway.

You will pay the yacht broker 15% to 20% sales commission depending on the circumstances so you must price your charters accordingly - look at your competition and also bear in mind that there are brokerage fees and clearing house expenses to pay. Clearly, if you don't use a yacht broker, you "save" 15 to 20% so you should maximize the number of direct charters to try and get a nice "mix" that will fit your particular charter business.

Many people ask us how many charters to expect each year. As with all businesses, there is a ramp-up. The first year you can possibly expect 5 to 6 charters. The second year, perhaps 10 to 12, and after a few years, when your boat and crew are well known to the brokerage community and you have a number of repeat customers, you can achieve up to, perhaps between 25 and 30 charters a year. This is very exhausting however and many charter yacht owners prefer to remain at the 20 to 25 level.

All the above will appear to be very daunting, but it pays to keep everything straight and once you have hooked up with a good Clearing House or Management Company you'll find them to be an excellent source of advise.

Article Source: http://www.freetextarticles.com

About the Author: Tony King is an experienced yacht charter agent, for further information and resources visit Florida Yacht Charter

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