Yacht charter websites: an up-to-date fleet without retyping a thing

One listing, six entries, six chances to get it wrong

A crewed yacht is marketed by her central agent, the firm appointed by the owner. The central agent keeps the calendar, the rates and the specifications in a professional tool (Yachtfolio, the MYBA platform, but also Ankor, CYA or Charter Index). Brokers draw on these tools, then republish the listing on their websites, in their brochures and in their emails. For bareboat charter, booking systems such as NauSYS or MMK Booking Manager play the same role.

MYBA, the international association of yachting professionals, asks central agents to keep Yachtfolio updated regularly: high and low season rates, summer and winter locations, home ports, refit details. But every copy made by hand then lives a life of its own.

Take a fleet of twelve yachts: with every new rate sheet, each yacht’s rate has to be re-entered on the website, in Yachtfolio, in two distribution tools, in the brochure and in the email template. Six entries per yacht, seventy-two for the fleet. Forget just one, and a client finds the new rate on your website and the old one in the brochure.

Admittedly, a charter contract often states that only the signed contract counts, not prior communications with the broker. But a client who notices a gap between your website and their contract does not remember the clause. They remember the gap.

What must stay accurate at all times

Not all the data in a listing ages at the same pace: the calendar changes daily in season, rates every year, photos after every refit. Each goes wrong in its own way:

The calendar deserves particular care. Before signature, dates may be “under option”: for MYBA, an option starts when the contract is sent to the client for signature, and lapses if the signature and deposit have not arrived by the due date. And a broker may not place options on several yachts for the same client and the same dates. A calendar that confuses “under option” with “available” therefore offers dates already promised to someone else.

Connecting your website to the source, in five steps

The principle fits in one sentence: each piece of data is entered once, where it originates, and every medium reads it from the same place. Putting it into practice calls for a methodical approach.

1. Name the single source. It is the tool where each piece of data is created: the central agent’s management tool, for its own fleet; Yachtfolio or a distribution tool, for a broker; the booking system, for a bareboat fleet. Everything else flows from it, and nothing is re-entered anywhere else.
2. Connect the website through the official channel. Most of these tools offer an API, meaning an access point through which your website reads the data automatically, with no copying and pasting. Yachtfolio has one, with terms available on request from MYBA; other providers publish their subscription prices and even supply a WordPress plugin. One essential point: the central agent decides who may display its yachts, and a broker sometimes has to ask first.
3. Build real pages, not an embedded widget. Many websites show their fleet through a search module supplied by the provider and embedded in a frame on the page (an “iframe”). It is quick to install, but the listings then live on the provider’s side: you control neither their title nor their description in Google’s results, and there is no guarantee they count towards your own site. With the API, each yacht has her own page on your website, with your layout and your words.
4. Write your own text. Every broker has access to the same yachts, with the same description and the same photos. Republished verbatim, that description appears on dozens of websites: your page then offers nothing Google cannot already find elsewhere, and its spam policies specifically target republishing other sites’ content without added value. The data comes from the source; the words must come from you: who the yacht is ideal for, the itinerary you would suggest from Monaco, what you know about her crew.
5. Plan for failure. The website keeps a recent copy of the data, so that it still displays if the source stops responding; it refreshes that copy at regular intervals, and alerts you if an update fails. And when a client asks for a specific week, availability is checked again at the source before any reply.

Before choosing a solution, I read the documentation for the access your tool provides, then run a trial on a copy of your website: you know exactly what will be synchronised, and what will not.

A price displayed as it will be paid

The weekly rate is almost never the full amount the client pays. On top of it come:

• VAT, depending on the country where the yacht is placed at the client’s disposal: 20% in France and Monaco, 22% in Italy. The share of the charter spent outside EU territorial waters may be exempt, with navigation records as proof.
• The Advance Provisioning Allowance, or APA: around 25 to 40% of the rate depending on the source, often around 30%. The captain uses it for fuel, food and port fees, and returns whatever has not been spent.
• Delivery, when the yacht has to travel to an embarkation port far from her base, or back again. It is subject to VAT as well.
• The crew gratuity, left to the client’s discretion.

Take a yacht offered at €120,000 per week, departing from Monaco:

Wealthy clients do not mind the amount; they mind discovering it at the last minute.

In France, a price offered to a consumer must be displayed inclusive of all taxes, with any additional charges. When it cannot be calculated in advance, the method of calculation must be given instead. And charges that were not announced are not payable. In Monaco, Law No. 1.383 of 2 August 2011 for a Digital Principality also requires consumers to be given clear information before a distance contract is concluded. Have your price display checked by your legal adviser.

A showcase worthy of the yachts

A yacht is chosen from her pictures first, and your website is judged by the same standard as the yachts it presents.

• Photos that load fast: a gallery of sixty photos and a drone video playing in the background can leave a phone user waiting several seconds. Google recommends that the largest visible element should appear within 2.5 seconds. The main photo should load first, the others as the visitor scrolls, in modern formats (AVIF or WebP), and the video only when the visitor asks for it. Other causes of slowness are covered in my guide to slow websites.
• The contract currency and the client’s units: the rate in the contract currency (euros or dollars, depending on the yacht and the season), the length in metres and in feet for English-speaking clients, and no automatic redirection based on the visitor’s country.
• Proof of credibility: on signing, the client usually pays half the charter fee by bank transfer, sometimes to a firm they know only through its website. Show what can be checked: your MYBA membership if you are a member, with a link to the association’s public directory (where the association has already named websites that presented themselves as members when they were not); full legal and company details; the standard contract you use.
• Discretion: MYBA asks central agents to keep the identity of clients and their guests strictly confidential, and your website should follow the same rule: no guest’s name or photo without written consent. And if you ask for guests’ passports, they should not be sent by email: a secure area where they can be uploaded protects your clients, and protects you too. This data is protected: in France by the GDPR, in Monaco by Law No. 1.565 of 3 December 2024, enforced by the Personal Data Protection Authority (APDP).

Qualified enquiries, answered within the hour

A form limited to a name and an email address leads to a lot of back-and-forth; a twenty-field form drives people away. Five pieces of information are enough to propose the right yachts in your very first reply: the dates (or the period); the number of guests; the embarkation port or area; the budget; the type of yacht. The rest will come in conversation.

Then comes speed. A study published by the Harvard Business Review in 2011, across all sectors, found that firms that tried to contact a prospect within the hour were nearly seven times as likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision-maker as those that tried even an hour later.

In practice: an immediate acknowledgement, in the client’s language, telling them when they will hear back; an alert on the phone of whoever is on duty; and an enquiry that arrives complete, with nothing to chase.

Your fleet deserves a website that keeps itself up to date

I design and develop websites for businesses in Monaco and on the French Riviera, with one simple standard: every piece of information displayed must be accurate. For a fleet, I start by mapping your sources: where each piece of data originates, and where it gets copied.

I then connect your website to the tool that holds the master data, build a real page for each yacht, and plan for what happens if the source stops responding. Before going live, you approve your fleet, synchronised on a test copy of your website, with your own wording. And if your tool does not transmit a piece of data, I tell you before we start. You talk directly to the person who writes the code.

Let’s talk about your fleet → Web developer in Monaco

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Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Guidelines for Retail Charter Brokers and Charter Managers (MYBA, 2019)
• Yacht charter costs explained (YachtCharterFleet, 2024)
• Price information rules (DGCCRF)
• Law No. 1.383 of 2 August 2011 for a Digital Principality (Légimonaco)
• The Short Life of Online Sales Leads (Harvard Business Review, 2011)