Brokers Reveal First-Time Charter Mistakes
Our June edition of "Three Brokers Say" on CharterWave asks the question: "What is the biggest mistake that first-time charter clients make?" I have to say, it's the first time since we started running this monthly feature that all three brokers gave e...
Our June edition of "Three Brokers Say" on CharterWave asks the question: "What is the biggest mistake that first-time charter clients make?" I have to say, it's the first time since we started running this monthly feature that all three brokers gave essentially the same answer. That means there are a lot of first-time charter clients out there making the same exact mistake, one that can be easily avoided.
In a nutshell, these brokers all told us that first-time clients tend to choose a charter yacht based on pretty pictures of the yacht. The client generally finds a yacht online, decides it looks nice, and calls the broker to book it.
The problem is twofold with this approach to booking a charter.
First, as with anything you buy, pictures quite often fail to tell the whole story. Sure, that chair may look good in the furniture-store advertisement, but when you sit in it, the cushions sag and your back breaks. The same can be true of charter yachts. What looks good on the Web is not always up to standard in person.
Second, the yacht itself is just one component of a charter yacht vacation. There is also the destination and the itinerary, the personalities of the crew you will be in close contact with the entire journey, the features on the yacht that may or may not match your expectations, the chef's style of cooking that may or may not suit your tastes, and so on. None of these key chartering details can be properly addressed by looking at pretty pictures of a yacht. You need information that isn't in those photographs, information that you can get from reputable charter brokers or websites like CharterWave that run independent reviews after stepping foot onboard yachts, interviewing crew, and sampling chefs' offerings.
If you're thinking about chartering for the first time, then I encourage you to read this month's edition of "Three Brokers Say." You can avoid the mistake that, apparently, countless first-time charterers are making again and again and again.
