Charter software for the whole trip, not just the booking.

Yacht charter management software runs a charter fleet from one record: bookings, boats, crew, guest lists, guest money, cleaning and checks between trips, and what each boat owner is owed. It fits crewed charters, where the crew runs the trip, and bareboat charters, where the guest sails the boat. It makes sense when the trip is retyped across chat, spreadsheets, and paper, and the cost shows up in double-bookings, missed turnarounds, or arguments about money.

APA stands for Advance Provisioning Allowance. It is guest money paid in advance to cover the costs that change from trip to trip: fuel, food, drink, marina fees, and special requests. The captain holds the money, keeps the receipts, and gives the guests a statement at the end of the trip. Money left over goes back to the guests. The amount is set as a share of the charter fee in the charter agreement. In the software, APA is a money record tied to the trip, so the office, the captain, and the guests all see the same spending.

The turnaround is the work between one trip ending and the next starting: cleaning, restocking, safety checks, and any repair the last trip surfaced. The software shows it as one board: which boats are ready, which need work, and which are blocked until the work is signed off. A boat does not get promised again until its turnaround is complete. The crew ticks each step off on the dock, so the office sees the real state of the boat instead of phoning to ask.

One fleet calendar holds every booking, every blocked date, and every boat. A booked date closes itself. A cancelled booking opens back up. Dates blocked for maintenance, bad weather, or owner use cannot be sold. Capacity is set per boat, so a booking for more guests than the boat can carry is refused at the point of booking, not discovered at the dock.

The trip is flagged once, and the change flows from that single record: guests are told at the same time, the boat is freed or rebooked, and any refund or new date is tracked against the same booking. The crew and the office work from the same status, so a guest is not told one thing by the office and another by the captain. The software cannot change the weather, but it can stop a cancellation turning into a week of phone calls.

Each crew member has one record holding their licences, certificates, the boats they are qualified for, and expiry dates. Expiring items are flagged before anyone is assigned to a trip, so a captain is never booked onto a boat they are not qualified to run. The software shows the record; qualified people still decide who sails. Rest time and days off sit on the same record, so the rota respects them instead of relying on memory.

Yes. The trip record is the same; the steps differ. A crewed charter needs guest preferences, provisioning, and a guest money statement. A bareboat charter needs a skipper licence check, a handover checklist, and a return check for damage and fuel. Both share the booking, the boat, the calendar, and the owner statement. A fleet that runs both models does not need two systems.

Each boat gets an owner statement built from the same trip records: charter income, costs, and the owner's share, for one period. Nothing is retyped from a spreadsheet at month end, so the numbers the owner sees are the numbers the office worked with all month. When an owner asks about one trip, the office opens that trip and walks through it, instead of rebuilding the month from memory.

Guest messages sit in one shared inbox tied to the booking, not on one person's phone. Confirmations, payment status, meeting point, what to bring, weather policy, and the contact person all come from the same guest record. When a guest asks the same question twice, any member of the team can answer from the record. When staff change, the history stays with the booking.

Buy a maintained charter platform when it handles bookings, guest lists, crew, and owner reporting with reasonable setup and its pricing makes sense. Build a custom record when the way your fleet runs does not fit any platform: your guest money rules, your owner splits, your local paperwork, or a connection to a system you already run. If the rules of the operation are still changing every week, wait and settle them first.

For a small, well-defined task with someone technical managing it, freelancers are often cheaper. The pattern that goes wrong is a non-technical buyer coordinating several freelancers becoming the project manager, the tester, and the person who discovers the pieces do not fit. A software company earns its fee when the work needs coordination across bookings, boats, crew, money, and connections: one accountable party, one phase price, and checkpoints against the whole trip. If your need is one screen or one fix, hire the freelancer.

The first paid phase may cover a bounded audit, a proof of concept, a recovery plan, or a small first release. The final price depends on how many boats you run, which charter models you run, how many kinds of users it serves, what it needs to connect to, whether data needs moving over, whether phones or tablets are involved, any compliance requirements, and the condition of existing code. The agreed phase is priced in writing before it starts.

Timing depends on scope: a bounded audit or proof of concept is a smaller engagement, while a fleet record with several system connections, data to move over, mobile apps, or formal compliance controls takes longer. The schedule is set once the first trip and what 'done' looks like are clear.

Yes. Takeover is a common first engagement, and it always starts with an audit: where the code lives, how your data is organized, what is tested, which outside services it depends on, who can access what, and how updates go live. Code that is understandable and fit for the next release stays; only the parts blocking reliability get replaced. AI-built prototypes from Lovable, Replit, Bolt, or v0 can be assessed as starting points. And if you already paid another vendor and have nothing working, the audit tells you which story you have before you spend more: the most expensive version is the product that looks finished, clean screens and clicking buttons, while underneath nothing is tested and the security checks run in the browser, where anyone can tamper with them, instead of on the server where they hold.

Security starts with the data, the people, who can see and change what, the systems it connects to, and where it runs. Guest identity documents are a good example: the crew usually needs a yes or no that a passport was checked, not a copy of the passport stored in the system. The scope can include access controls, separate testing and live environments, protected passwords and keys, activity logs, backups, recovery plans, and whatever your regulation requires. We write down which protections are included and which evidence your team or an independent specialist must provide. We do not call a product compliant until the technical, operational, and legal requirements are all verified.

We need one person who owns the charter operation, access to the relevant users and systems, timely answers on business rules, and someone who can accept or reject each milestone. A weekly working session is usually enough once the scope is stable. Your team should not have to manage developers day to day. The team that scopes your project is the team that does the work: no handoff to another vendor after you sign, and you can talk to the people doing the work directly.

Ask for the quote to name everyone who will use the system, including your own team. Every platform has two products: what guests see, and what your people use all day: dock check-in, the turnaround board, crew records, guest money, and owner statements. When that second product is quoted as an 'admin panel' on a single line, it becomes the overrun. Our quotes treat your team's screens as their own scope, with their own users. Then the phase names the trip, what 'done' looks like, the price, and the exclusions, all before paid work starts. You review working software at agreed checkpoints, and when new information changes the scope, you hear the effect on price and timing before anything is approved.

You judge what you can see, not the code. Every checkpoint is working software you click through yourself, tested against the trip agreed at the start. Progress is reported in plain language: what changed, what's next, and what it costs. Because you own the code, the accounts, and the operating notes throughout, nothing about the work is locked inside our heads. Our job is to make the work checkable; your job is to check it against your business.

You own the code built for you and control where it lives, the cloud accounts, the data, analytics, and third-party subscriptions. Outside services and open-source pieces keep their own licence terms. The operating notes and handover material stay current so another capable team can take over.

Every launch includes post-launch warranty cover for defects in the agreed scope, release support, and small screen corrections. After that, work can continue as another fixed phase or an ongoing product engagement. The code and accounts stay under your control either way.

Yes, when the other product offers suitable access and your finance lead owns the mapping. Define which system owns bookings, guests, money, and owner statements. Test duplicates, closed periods, retries, rejected postings, refunds, and reconciliation. RaftLabs builds the connection; your finance team approves accounting treatment and controls.

Yes, for explicitly designed workflows. The app stores a limited working set on the device, queues check-ins and turnaround ticks, shows what is current, pending, or failed, and syncs when the signal returns. Offline support adds complexity around identity, device storage, and conflicts, so test it on a real dock with real conditions, not only on office wifi.