Winter jobs: an off-season checklist for boat-tour operators

Getting a boat-tour business ready for the season is two jobs: getting the boat ready, and getting your sales ready. Everyone does the maintenance in winter. But if you don't also sort out your price list, card payments, website, photos and reviews in winter, you won't find time for them in July. Below, both jobs are laid out month by month, from November to April.

The list is written for day-tour operators who haul out at the end of October and run their first trip in May. If your season runs at a different time of year, shift the months; the order stays the same.

November: close last season and gather what you have

As soon as the season ends, while it's fresh, go through last year. You need nothing more than your booking notebook, WhatsApp chats and bank statements. Write down the answers to four questions: which weeks were full, which trips went out half empty, how many days you cancelled for weather, and which countries most of your guests came from. When you set prices in December, this will be the best data you have.

Then gather the photos. Put the season's photos from your phone, your crew's and your guide's into one folder and pick the best: the boat at anchor in a bay, guests jumping into the sea, lunch laid out, the trip home at sunset. The August light is on your phones right now; a cloudy April reshoot won't match it. Before you use photos where guests' faces are clearly visible on your site or Instagram, ask them.

November's third job is reviews. The best moment to ask for one is straight after the trip; if you missed it, ask as soon as the season is over. Send a short message to the guests whose numbers you saved over the summer:

Hi Anna, thanks for coming out with us on the boat in August.
If you could describe your day in a few lines on Google, it would really help next summer's guests: [your Google review link]
Have a good winter, Captain [your name] and the crew

Don't ask specifically for a positive review. Google's policy prohibits businesses from selectively asking for positive reviews and from offering incentives such as discounts or free services in exchange for one. Send it to everyone whose contact details you have, not only to guests you know were happy. And keep the early-booking announcement you'll send in February separate from this message.

December: put next season's prices and rules in writing

Sit down with November's notes. For a boat that was full every day in August, you can probably risk a small price rise. For trips that went out half empty in early June, adding value may work better than discounting: a hotel pickup, say, or free places for young children. Before you change any price, work out what one trip costs you in fuel, crew, mooring and lunch, so you know where your floor is.

Decide on an early-booking discount now as well. Keep it to the weeks that are hard to fill. If your boat is full every day in August, a discount on those weeks just gives money away to guests who'd have paid full price anyway. The real gain from early bookings is deposits arriving in March and April, when your account is emptiest, and seeing ahead of time which weeks in May are starting to fill.

The numbers in this example are entirely hypothetical:

Example: 2027 season, day tour, per adult
1 May – 15 June: €35
16 June – 15 September: €45
Early booking: €5 off per person on trips from 1 May to 15 June booked by 30 April
Deposit: 25%, the rest on board on the day

Four adults booking an early-June trip before 30 April: 4 × €30 = €120
Deposit taken at booking: €30, paid on the day: €90

This month is also the time to talk to your accountant about which currency you'll show prices and take payment in, and how card sales will be invoiced.

Write the rules down along with the prices: when a deposit is refunded, what happens when weather cancels a trip, and what happens when a guest doesn't show up. If guests see this before they pay, most later arguments never start. A short version might read:

Free cancellation up to 48 hours before departure; your deposit is refunded in full.
Cancellations within 48 hours, and guests who don't show up, lose the deposit.
If we cancel because of weather, you can move to another day or get a full refund.

Ask your accountant or a lawyer to check your wording against local rules.

January: start your card payments and your website

Start both jobs in January, because neither timeline is in your hands. To take card payments on your own site, you need an online payment account, such as a virtual POS or merchant account from your bank. Your bank reviews the application, and how long it takes varies from bank to bank. Every missing document and every follow-up question from the bank adds time. Ask your bank up front which documents they need, and whether they need to see a live site with your terms published before they approve you; if they do, start the website now rather than waiting. Applying at the end of March and hoping for approval by early May puts the first weeks of the season at risk.

The part of a website that takes longest is usually not the design but the content. What you prepared in November and December pays off here. Get this list ready to send to whoever builds your site:

For each tour: a short description, departure point and time, duration, route, what's included
Price list, age groups and deposit percentage
Cancellation, refund and weather wording
8–10 good photos per tour
The languages you'll sell in: English, German, Russian...
Boat capacity and departure times

With Lostromo, we do the setup and enter the content, and once your bank approves your account we connect it. But nobody can finish the job without that list from you. The pros and cons of selling from your own site without paying commission are in our post on commission-free bookings on your own site.

February: the boat, paperwork, crew and the early-booking offer

Your engineer knows the details of the maintenance; your job is to get it booked in early. The usual list: antifouling and paint, replacing rotten wood, engine, shaft and propeller checks, wiring and pumps. Check the expiry, refill and service dates on life jackets, fire extinguishers and flares too. If you need a space in a boatyard or on the hard, book it early; as spring gets closer, everyone wants the same mechanic.

For paperwork, make yourself a one-page list: the boat's seaworthiness certificate and the passenger number it allows, insurance including passenger liability cover, skipper and crew qualifications, and any other licences your business needs. Write the expiry date next to each. Which documents need renewing, when and how depends on your boat and where you operate; ask your harbour authority, insurer or accountant about anything you're unsure of now.

Call last year's deckhands and cook now, and agree pay with those coming back. Renew your arrangements with the hotel front desks and agents who send you guests this month too, and give them your new prices now, not in May.

February's selling job is the early-booking announcement. Send last summer's guests a separate message this time, and post the same offer on Instagram:

Hi, you came out with us on the boat last summer. Our 2027 season starts on 1 May.
Book by 30 April for any day from 1 May to 15 June and get €5 off per person.
See available dates and book here: [your site link]
Reply "NO" if you'd rather not get messages like this.

This is a promotional message, and under privacy and marketing rules in many countries the guest must have agreed in advance to hear from you and must be able to opt out at any time; in some places even a review request can count as marketing. Before you send a bulk message to the numbers and emails you hold, check what applies where you operate with your accountant or a lawyer. For next season, the cleanest route is to ask guests at booking whether they'd like to receive offers.

If your site isn't ready yet, put your WhatsApp number in place of the link and take deposits by bank transfer. Remember to enter those bookings in the calendar when the site opens; otherwise the same trip gets overbooked from two places.

March and April: test, fix, open

Once your site and payments are ready, make a booking yourself before the season opens. On your phone, on mobile data, go through every screen a guest will see. If you can, ask a friend who lives abroad to make a small payment with their own card, then refund it. Check that the confirmation arrives in the guest's language and that prices and dates look right.

Then update every place guests find you:

• Your Google Business Profile: season dates, opening hours, new photos and your booking link
• The link on your Instagram profile, pointing to your booking page
• Your marketplace listings: new season prices and dates, and, if you sell the same trip there and through your own channels, how you'll split the seats
• The WhatsApp Business quick reply you send to guests who ask the price, with your booking link in it; templates are in our post on taking bookings on WhatsApp

Finally, talk through the windy morning now. When the wind gets up, who decides to cancel, who tells the guests, and who refunds the deposits? Settle it now, not on your busiest day in July.

If you only do three things this winter

1. Apply for card payments in January. You can speed up everything else, but not your bank's timeline.
2. Put your price list and cancellation terms in writing. Both your site and your WhatsApp replies will rest on these two texts.
3. Ask last season's guests for reviews. A summer's worth of happy guests only shows on Google if you ask.

If you're curious what the first month of selling from your own site can look like, read Captain Ergun's story from Kaş, Turkey: he went from zero to 124 confirmed online bookings in the first month.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take bookings out of season?

Yes. If your site and payments are live, guests can book next summer's trip in winter; families who plan holidays months ahead like that. Before you open sales, settle your season dates, prices and weather cancellation terms. What's refundable on a deposit for a trip months away should be in writing from the start.

What happens to deposits when weather cancels an early booking?

Decide it before you sell: most operators offer another day or a full refund, as in the wording above. Ask your bank or payment provider whether its card fee comes back when you refund; often it doesn't, so a full refund can cost you a little. Knowing that in advance lets you price it in rather than discover it in July.

How much time should I give the website in winter?

How long the build takes depends on who builds it and how many tours you run; ask for a timeline in writing at the start. Your real share of the work is the content. If you prepare tour descriptions, prices, terms and photos bit by bit in November and December, you can hand over a complete file in January. When everything is prepared at once in March, it takes longer and the mistakes multiply.

Should I close my marketplace listings?

There's no need. Even once your own site is live, marketplaces keep bringing you tourists who've never heard of you. In winter, update your prices and dates there for the new season, and decide how you'll split capacity so the same trip's seats aren't sold in two places at once.