Chartering a catamaran today

The essential internet

There’s no escape from it... Internet is present in our daily lives, and of course even more so when choosing our next holidays. Nowadays, people can’t envisage choosing a charter company, a boat or a destination without having a look on the net (including of course your favorite magazine’s website) to gather information. It’s often even the first step taken when the idea of going on vacation in a boat comes into the head of a future charter customer. Where to go? How much does it cost? With whom? The best destinations, or what you need to know before chartering a boat – you will find everything (but also its opposite!) on the internet.

It’s essential to differentiate between the various players present on the net: the information sites, generally those of the magazines or travel guides, the official tourist office sites for the destinations, which are full of information but don’t have the necessary objectivity for making a judicious choice, and finally the sites offering boats for charter. Amongst these there are firstly the charter company sites. These are of course the ones to favor! The charter company knows the destination and the boats it charters, and is able to answer all your questions. Above all, it will be your contact once you are in the destination, when the actual charter begins. So it’s best to deal with the same contact throughout the process.

You will also find numerous sites belonging to agencies, which market the boats from the different charter companies all over the world. These sites have the advantage of offering you at a glance a huge number of boats, spread out…over the whole world. Inevitably, with such an offer, knowledge of the areas and the boats available in the destinations is more uncertain than if you called on the charter company directly. But the agencies – like certain charter companies – can organize your voyage from A to Z, from the charter to the provisioning, via the air tickets, a possible skipper, and transport from the airport to the base. Finally, there are numerous sites on the net which offer charter between private individuals. Although the price is sometimes attractive, be very careful. What happens in the case of damage to the boat you are supposed to be chartering? A charter company would find a solution, to provide you with another one. But what about the private individual? And in the case of an incident? Don’t forget to check carefully the insurance and each party’s responsibilities, to avoid the week’s holiday in paradise turning into an endless financial nightmare. Whatever choice you make, whether you decide to pass directly via a charter company or an agency, never finalize your booking on the internet. Call the company (or the agency), ask questions, get answers and talk about your project, so you can get help from the professionals. Visiting the boat shows is then a good idea, to discuss directly with the charter companies. There are now boat shows ...