Yachts & Superyacht Stays

How yacht marketing is different

Start with the rules, because they shape the product. In the United States a yacht that carries passengers for hire with a crew is limited to six passengers if it is an uninspected vessel under 100 gross tons, or twelve above that; carrying more requires a Coast Guard inspected vessel. A bareboat charter, where the charterer takes the boat without a crew supplied by the owner, is limited to twelve people. Illegal charters draw civil penalties of up to $42,750 a day. The marketing has to describe only what the yacht can legally offer.

A dockside stay is a different product. The yacht stays tied up at a marina or a private dock, guests sleep aboard, and the boat does not move with them. Operators in Miami sell these as overnight stays priced below a cruising itinerary because there is no fuel and no navigation. What governs them is the marina's policy on overnight guests and liveaboards, the short-term rental rules of the city where the dock sits, and the owner's insurance. Miami Beach, for example, restricts most short-term rentals, while Fort Lauderdale registers them. Check both before listing a single night.

Once the rules are settled, the marketing splits. Charter guests book through brokers, advisors and the charter platforms, and they judge the yacht on its crew, its toys and its itineraries. Dockside guests book the way villa guests do, from a listing and a website, and they judge the yacht on the cabins, the deck, the marina and the city around it.

Where marketing money goes furthest for a yacht

For charter, the film and the brochure. A charter yacht is sold by brokers from a brochure and a walkthrough film, and the ones that book are the ones brokers can present with confidence: every cabin, every deck, the crew, the tender and the toys, the galley, and the yacht under way and at anchor. The brochure follows the format brokers expect; the film is cut for the broker portals, the charter shows and the site.

For dockside stays, the listing and the direct-booking site. A yacht at the dock is a waterfront villa with a crew, and the listing has to sell it that way: the master cabin, the saloon, the sun deck, the marina, what the crew provides overnight, and what is not allowed. A direct site with nightly rates and instant enquiry keeps the platform fee, and a Google Business Profile at the marina address puts the yacht on the map where guests search for waterfront stays.

Distribution to brokers and advisors. Charter brokers at the established houses, the luxury travel advisors who book yachts for clients, and the charter shows are where the peak weeks are sold. A yacht that is known to the right brokers, with a brochure they can forward and a crew they trust, is booked before the public sees it.

Who books yachts and yacht stays

Families and friends on a charter week. The core of the charter market: a family or two, a week in the Mediterranean in summer or the Caribbean in winter, booked six to twelve months out through a broker or an advisor. They compare the crew, the cabins and the itinerary, and they rebook the yacht that got it right.

Corporate and event charters. Companies hosting clients during the Monaco Grand Prix, the Cannes Film Festival, Art Basel Miami or the boat shows, booked by agencies and assistants with a fixed budget and a guest list that has to fit the passenger limit.

Dockside guests. Couples and small groups who want to sleep on a yacht in the marina for a night or a weekend: an anniversary, a birthday, a city stay with a view. They book like villa guests, on a listing or a direct site, weeks rather than months ahead, and they leave the reviews that fill the calendar.

Productions and brand events. Photo and film shoots, launches and private dinners aboard at the dock, booked through location agencies and event planners, paid by the day.

Yacht seasonality

The Mediterranean season runs from May to September, with the Monaco Grand Prix in late May, the Cannes festival and the summer school holidays the most contested weeks. The Caribbean runs December to April, with Christmas and New Year commanding the highest rates of the year, and the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands and St Barts at the center of demand. Many yachts cross between the two, and the marketing calendar follows the boat.

Dockside stays run on the city's calendar instead. In Miami that means the winter season, Art Basel in December, the boat show in February and the Grand Prix in May. A yacht based in a city with year-round demand can sell nights in the months between charters, which is the whole point of the dockside product.

The shoulder months belong to corporate charters, productions and repositioning trips. Each is a separate page on the site and a separate conversation with the brokers and agencies who book them.

Yacht charter and dockside economics

A crewed charter week is priced on the base fee plus the advance provisioning allowance, typically 30 to 40 percent of the fee, which covers fuel, berthing, food, drink and the guests' requests, with any unspent balance returned. Published Mediterranean rates for the 30 to 55 metre segment sit between $100,000 and $500,000 a week; Caribbean weeks are priced in a similar band, with the holiday weeks carrying a premium. Brokers take a commission from the owner's side, which is the cost of their distribution.

The costs are the boat: crew salaries, insurance, berthing, maintenance and the annual yard period. They run whether the yacht is chartered or not, which is why a few extra charter weeks or a run of dockside nights change the year. Dockside stays earn less per night than a charter day but cost almost nothing in fuel, and they use nights the yacht would otherwise spend empty at the berth.

Cavmir doesn't set your rates or manage the yacht. The work is to present the boat so that brokers can sell it and guests can book it, and to keep the marketing inside the rules the boat operates under.

Top markets for yachts and yacht stays

Charter demand concentrates where the cruising is and where the buyers already go. Dockside stays follow the cities with marinas in the center of things.

1. The French Riviera and Monaco
2. The Balearics: Ibiza and Mallorca
3. Sardinia, the Amalfi Coast and the Aeolian Islands
4. The Greek islands
5. The British Virgin Islands and St Barts
6. The Bahamas and the Exumas
7. Miami and Fort Lauderdale (charter and dockside)
8. Dubai Marina (dockside and day charter)

What it takes to earn 5-star reviews aboard

Charter reviews go to the broker; dockside reviews go on the platform. Both turn on the same things:

• The crew. Warm, discreet, professional, and able to read a group. On a charter the crew is the stay; at the dock the overnight host or steward is the difference between a hotel room and a yacht.
• Cabins that match the photos. Bed sizes, en-suites and headroom stated honestly. Guests measure a cabin against a hotel room, and the listing should help them.
• Clear rules stated up front. Shoes, smoking, guests aboard, noise at the marina, and what the boat will and will not do. Surprises write reviews.
• Working systems. Air conditioning, hot water, internet and shore power at the dock. A generator fault at midnight is the review that lasts.
• Food and drink at the level of the boat. A chef on charter; at the dock, a stocked galley or breakfast delivered from the marina.

The shot list for a yacht

A yacht is bought from the brochure and the film, and brokers need the set to be complete.

• The profile shots: the yacht under way, at anchor and stern-to at the dock, at golden hour and lit at night.
• The aerial over the yacht at anchor in clear water.
• Every cabin and every head, labelled by deck and name.
• The main saloon and the dining, set for dinner.
• The sun deck, the jacuzzi, the beach club and the aft deck laid for lunch.
• The galley and the crew at work.
• The tender and the toys in the water, in use.
• The marina and the city for dockside listings: the berth, the walk to the restaurants, the view from the deck at night.

Film a charter day and a dockside evening as separate cuts. The photography direction service plans the shoot with the captain around the yacht's calendar and the light.

Writing the listing for a yacht

For charter, follow the format brokers expect: the yacht's name and builder, length, year and refit, cabins and guest capacity within the legal limit, crew size, the tender and the toys, cruising grounds by season, the weekly rate and the provisioning allowance. Then the crew profiles and sample itineraries, which are what a broker forwards to a client.

For dockside stays, write it like a villa: the yacht's name, the marina and the city, the number of cabins and guests, the decks, what the stay includes, what the crew provides overnight, the rules, and the walk to the neighborhood. Say plainly that the yacht stays at the dock. Tag every amenity the platform allows and describe the rest.

Our listing optimization service writes both versions and keeps them inside the passenger and marina rules the yacht operates under.

Where a direct-booking site earns its keep for a yacht

Charter enquiries still come through brokers, and the site's job is to make the broker's work easy: the brochure, the film, the crew, the itineraries, the rate card and a person to email. Dockside stays are different. Guests book nights the way they book a villa, and a direct site with rates, availability and an enquiry form keeps the platform fee on every stay and builds the list of past guests who come back for the next event weekend.

The pages that matter: the yacht; the decks and the cabins with a layout; the crew; charter itineraries by season; dockside stays with the marina and the city; food and drink; the toys; rates and what they include; and the rules. A Google Business Profile at the marina address puts the yacht on the map for waterfront-stay searches, and search work around the city, the marina and the words yacht stay reaches the guest before the aggregators do.

Beyond the direct site, a yacht belongs with the charter brokers and on the charter platforms, on the boat-stay categories of the major booking platforms for dockside nights, and in front of the advisors and planners who book event weeks. Press and creator stays work when the yacht has a story to tell, and we run them through the influencer marketing service with the captain's rules in hand.