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Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has officially launched the Contract for the Web, a set of principles designed to “fix” the internet and prevent us from sliding into a “digital dystopia". He calls for more responsibility when sharing the infromation. We look into how the internet is slowly turning from a reliable to a non reliable source of information and how it is open for everybody to use it the way they like it. 

You are looking for a family gulet cruise in Croatia in 2020. According to the latest figures published by ABTA, 85% of people turn to Internet for information search. The same report states people compare up to 14 diffrenet companies before they decide on their final decision. We look into some website with a large amount of boats displayed i.e. they act as a large boat database. 

  • Unusually good deal? Charter prices are decided by yacht owners, and the charter fee advertised should be the same for all reputable brokers. So, if you have spoken with a few brokers who gave you the same charter rates but a few gave you a massive discount ask these brokers if this discount has been approved by the owner? Some of these ‘cowboy brokers’ will try to offer a heavy discount just to lure you in, once you confirm the week, then they go back to the owner asking for a deal. Some of the owners might not approve this and they might turn the broker down – if this is the case, you will be told the boat has been booked in the meantime or whatever excuse they can come up with and will try to offer you a substitute boat. The worst brokers will confirm that the boat that has been booked is in fact available, proceed with the booking and in the very last minute they will say the owner has sold the same week to someone else and they might offer you something else. Some brokers will tell you the owner does not have any weeks booked and they will push him into giving you a deal as a result. This situation also puts the client in a driving seat who is under the impression that he can ‘skin the cat to the bone’ and get the cheapest possible deal without realising that a heavy discount will affect the level of the service as well as the quality of the charter. The owners calculate the prices based on the maintenance, crew cost, the cost of furnishing, the equipment, licenses, taxes, insurance etc. and they need a certain amount of money to run the boat properly. An early booking discount from 5% to 10% is totally acceptable and it is the industry standard but 27% or 35% discount is not.

    This is why is important to look for a broker who has:

  • Professional Indemnity Insurance, all top broker associations in the world ask the members to have Professional Indemnity Insurance. 80% of the ‘online brokers’ do not have it. They also do not belong to any of the reputable broker’s associations such as MYBA, CYA, CYBA etc. These organisations adhere to the highest levels of professionalism and code of conduct. Misleading customers, providing with inaccurate information or dealing with a customer in an unprofessional way is not acceptable.
  • Reputable brokers compete on their service and care for the clients. Look into their testimonials – genuine testimonials – ask the broker if you can speak with the guests who chartered the boat. Unfortunately, a number of large yacht databases have fake testimonials. We have access to boat booking calendars where you can see the name of the broker and the name of the client booked for a specific week. Some of the large yacht database website write testimonials for the weeks booked by others.