Should I publish prices or say “on request”?

Publish them, even as a “from” per week and season. Half the people who write only want to know whether you are in their budget, and they are the ones you never hear from again.

Is it worth integrating a booking engine?

With one or two boats, a calendar and a request are enough. With a fleet, an engine pays for itself in the messages you stop writing by hand.

The ones your season speaks. In the Mediterranean, English first and then German, French and Italian; in the River Plate, Spanish and Portuguese.

A charter website: boats, dates and prices

One page per boat

Length, cabins, berths, year, refit, engine, sails, draft, water and fuel capacity, and the extras that change the week: tender, paddleboards, air conditioning, watermaker.

Photos of the deck, the cockpit, each cabin and the galley, plus the layout plan. The plan answers the question every family asks: who sleeps where.

What is included and what is not

This is where most enquiries come from, so answer it on the page: skipper or bareboat, fuel, final cleaning, insurance and deductible, port fees, tourist tax, food and drink, the security deposit.

With or without skipper, and what the skipper costs per day.
Fuel: included, by the hour or by consumption.
Port fees on the base and on the route.
Deposit, and how it is returned.

What you charter is not the boat: it is the week and the coves.

Dates and price

A calendar by weeks, with the season each one belongs to and the price per day or per week. Minimum stays and changeover day if you have them. “Price on request” loses against the boat next door that publishes it, even when yours is better.

The request, in one step

A short form: boat, week, how many people, with or without skipper. WhatsApp beside it. Then your answer with the total, the deposit and what you need from them, including the licence if it is bareboat.

The anchorage at dusk is the photo people send to whoever is coming along.

Routes and photos that sell the trip

Nobody charters a boat: they charter a week. Two suggested itineraries with the coves, the anchorages and the time between them sell more than another photo of the hull, and they are what people share with the friends who are coming along.

What you say when the weather does not cooperate

On a charter, half the hard questions are about wind. Put it on the page: what happens if you cannot sail, whether the date can move, whether the route gets shortened, who decides and on what forecast. One honest paragraph there prevents arguments on the dock and builds more trust than any photo.

Who decides whether you sail: the skipper, and on which forecast.
What is offered if you cannot: a new date, a different route or a partial refund.
What happens to the deposit if the client cancels on their own.