Anyone Using Dockwa for Slip Reservations?

[dwedeking2]

I started this thread to see what was actually going on with cruisers and their preferred way of contacting marinas. Not to promote nor discourage Dockwa.

Some of this might be generational as well. My job is online marketing and I see a wide gap in how people of different ages use the internet. Me personally I'd rather do an Uber-like system where I can have the information stored, transmitted as needed without having to talk to anyone over the phone. I HATE talking on the phone, relying more on text and email.

But as has been stated you have to hit critical mass (high number of users to entice marinas to update their processes, high number of marinas so users have coverage in an area) or the point is mute.

[Dockwa]

“I started this thread to see what was actually going on with cruisers and their preferred way of contacting marinas. Not to promote nor discourage Dockwa.”

RTB, completely understood, and certainly not my intention to redirect the conversation, but I do believe it’s imperative for us to ensure that people are discussing/debating this based on facts, to clarify any misconceptions in the boating community, and provide some perspective as to why we've made certain decisions - if for nothing more than to learn from the boating community how we can make a better and more useful product.

For example, Valhalla360 says, “It is far different from a hotel noting your info in their system. That stays within one company. This info is spread out among many marinas of which you have no other relationship with”. That’s not at all accurate. If you create a Dockwa profile, you can more easily share that information with other marinas when you make a Dockwa reservation after logging into your profile. If you called another marina for the first time, even if they used Dockwa as their only reservation system, they wouldn’t have access to any of your personal or payment information. They would need to enter it into the system as if you were a brand new customer.

Pendrago35, you asked the question, “I'd like to confirm something said up thread: that Dockwa immediately charges the a credit card when the reservation is made. Is this accurate?”

If you book through Dockwa today, the answer is Yes; however, that is about to change based largely on the input from Southern boaters. We have a few marinas currently in Beta with this change. When you book you are only billed for a single night as your deposit. Cancellation policies have always and will continue to be that of the marinas, so if there is no penalty for not showing up, then your deposit would be fully refunded. The difference in cancellation and deposit policies between the North and South is extremely pronounced, as you might expect based on a more seasonal market with less time to generate revenue.

I’ll leave this post with what will likely be a contentious statement, but I would be curious to hear this audience’s feedback. We fully embrace and love the adventurous nature of cruising and respect that at times in face of adverse conditions having to keep a schedule is a dangerous thing. Most of our staff are lifelong boaters – though certainly not hardcore fulltime cruisers like many of you. But when you cast off your lines, turn off your internet, and go on a schedule-less endeavor, should that come entirely at the expense of the small businesses that you rely on? Could not a little bit better and more efficient communication by boaters help these businesses that already operate on extremely tight margins? Jetblue charges you $30 if you call to make a change to your reservation instead of going through the online process. Why? Because it’s incredibly inefficient to conduct that transfer of information in real-time with two humans on a telephone. Yes, marinas aren’t selling hotel rooms, or airline seats. Vessels are for the most part unique and captains need to be fastidious about particular information before making a decision. We aren’t advocating to cut out the personal touch or saying there are not unique considerations when it comes to staying at a marina– but streamlining some of the more basic informational exchange, perhaps only as prelude to a phone call, can be hugely beneficial to a bootstrapped operation. In return, we've seen many times that it can improve the guest experience, not take away from it.

Keep the thoughts coming!

[accomplice]

Originally Posted by Dockwa

Could not a little bit better and more efficient communication by boaters help these businesses that already operate on extremely tight margins? Jetblue charges you $30 if you call to make a change to your reservation instead of going through the online process. Why?

If these businesses are operating on such tight margins, it is because the prices people are willing to pay for their goods and services are not much higher than their costs. Using Dockwa only exacerbates that problem and doesn't help it -- unless Dockwa allows them to increase the size of their served market and thereby divide their fixed costs across more customers -- and I don't think Dockwa does that.

As far as jetblue charging to change a reservation, and many airlines charging other nuisance fees (checked baggage, seating selection, and soon overhead carryon) -- these are seen and felt by customers as an effort to extract every last penny from customers, are deeply resented by most, and do nothing to build loyalty. To the extent my friendly neighborhood boatyard attaches a 2% environmental fee to everything they do, they turn me off as a customer.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by ProgSon

YES I have used DockWa! I skipper two sailboats one in New England and one in the Southeast. My first experience was in May 2016 with Dockwa.

While I do not wish to name the marina it is frequently a hassle in getting a reservation and their basic communication skills. With that said when I found out they had signed on with Dockwa I immediately booked my reservation. I did not have to deal with faxing my credit card, waiting for confirmation and the entire transaction was smoother than it was before.

Nice 1st post. Shill.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by Dockwa

Pendrago35, you asked the question, “I'd like to confirm something said up thread: that Dockwa immediately charges the a credit card when the reservation is made. Is this accurate?”

If you book through Dockwa today, the answer is Yes; however, that is about to change based largely on the input from Southern boaters. We have a few marinas currently in Beta with this change. When you book you are only billed for a single night as your deposit. Cancellation policies have always and will continue to be that of the marinas, so if there is no penalty for not showing up, then your deposit would be fully refunded.

However nice a convenience Dockwa may be for the end consumers, the real customers here are the marina businesses.

The assertion that Dockwa exists for the benefit of boaters is ridiculous. Dockwa exists for the benefit of Dockwa and the businesses who make money off of boaters.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Dockwa

But when you cast off your lines, turn off your internet, and go on a schedule-less endeavor, should that come entirely at the expense of the small businesses that you rely on?

I think there's an implied stereotype there.

My point was that a large number of cruisers are trying to experience cruising for its own sake. Those are the ones with schedule issues. The crowd that just wants to motor over to a resort marina and stay tied to the dock for a week or two would be well-served by something like Dockwa.

There are a few must-stop marinas on our list. Not all are the cheapest around, but they all give us a good value in some way. There's one that we've liked for years, but not well enough to pay the 50% increase they instituted last year. For the same money, we'd go to any one of a number of nearby marinas that offer slightly better services.

Let me turn around your question. Should efficient operation and maximizing profits come at the expense of the customers these business rely on?

Any successful small business knows they are there to serve the customer, not the other way around. Customers vote with their wallets.

If a business develops a customer base that trusts them enough to "rely on" them, then they're doing things right, by whatever definition you use.

Conversely, if customers are bypassing them ("at the expense of" them), then by definition they're doing something wrong.

It's business, not morality.

[donradcliffe]

I haven't used Dockwa personally, but I brought a boat from Florida to Maine last May, and the owner handled the marina reservations for about 25 nights. By the end of the trip Dockwa was his preferred method for reservations.

We didn't know where we were going to stay each night until after noon, and we would arrive late afternoon. I would look at the Waterway Guide for locations and approach depths, fuel availability, etc. Then the owner either got on the phone or on Dockwa. Half the time the phone never got through to a real person.

He used Dockwa about a dozen times, and every time the marina had a slip waiting for us with no screw ups. Dockwa didn't cover every marina, but it took a lot less of his time.

[RTB]

Originally Posted by Suijin

In my opinion, Dockwa is pretty useless and I never use it. It does not have near a critical mass of marinas for most areas, so it undermines the process of finding what you need/want. The information it has for marinas is pulled from Active Captain, which is great, but it's easier to find a marina in Active Captain and just call them to make a reservation, right while you're there in AC, because ALL the marinas are there.


Active Captain should acquire Dockwa and integrate it into their stuff. I can't imagine the company is worth much at this point.


In short, AC has 90% of what makes a reservation system useful, and Dockwa has 10%. AC should just build out the capability.

That's not going to happen. Active Captain has severed it's relationship with Dockwa. Interesting development....

Ralph

[CaptTom]

I'm guessing we won't here the whole story. As one who rarely reserves more than 24 hours in advance, and would do so by phone rather than a web site, I'm pretty much a disinterested party.

Still, I'm curious about how the business model is working out for them. Maybe there's a lesson there and the next attempt will be more useful to me somehow.

[Jack Sanford]

I have used Dockwa, and will not use it again. The deal breaker for me was the fact that as soon as you make a reservation, your credit card is charged immediately. If you have to cancel, you are charged 5% of the total dockage fee, or $25, whichever is greater. If you do not cancel more than 48 hours before your scheduled arrival, you are charged the full dockage fee.

We are in the process of bringing our boat home to Maine from Florida. There is no way to know 48 hours in advance if the weather, or boat issues, will interfere with a reservation.

[RTB]

Originally Posted by Jack Sanford

I have used Dockwa, and will not use it again. The deal breaker for me was the fact that as soon as you make a reservation, your credit card is charged immediately. If you have to cancel, you are charged 5% of the total dockage fee, or $25, whichever is greater. If you do not cancel more than 48 hours before your scheduled arrival, you are charged the full dockage fee.

We are in the process of bringing our boat home to Maine from Florida. There is no way to know 48 hours in advance if the weather, or boat issues, will interfere with a reservation.

Thank you so much for your input! I'd rather have a phone in reservation, with updates of estimated arrival time here at our marina. No charge until you are actually here and in a slip. I didn't know about the 5% charge for cancellation, nor about the late (48 hour) cancellation costing you the full dockage fee. The marina does not get any of this just so you know. Dockwa is a third party, so someone is going to pay for the service. If Dockwa proved to be a service friendly to cruisers, and something that those cruisers wanted, I would support it....even at a cost to the marina. But if that is not the case, there is not much incentive for a marina to support, or accept reservations from them.

Once again, thanks to all that have contributed in this thread!

Ralph

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by Dockwa

Suijin,

Thank you for your response. I'm not being disingenuous when I say we are selective. We in fact removed over 60 marinas from the Dockwa platform over the last 3 months that did not exhibit the type of behavior that we believe is imperative to significantly improve the reservation experience for boaters like you. If we can't deliver on the promise of directly connecting you to the marinas, then how can we truly change the "way it's always been"?

We don't have everyone (yet) on the platform because not all marinas have decided to join Dockwa. We're working tirelessly to educate as many marinas as we can on the overall benefits. You're correct when you say that the Dockwa platform (even at the Basic level) provides a ton of operational value to the marinas that use it.

However, change is hard. As you know many marinas have been doing the same thing for many many years and are slow to adopt any innovations to their process. The good news is that the marinas that have adopted Dockwa to it's full potential are seeing material impacts on their business. This is good news for boaters because the more they adopt the software, the easier things become on their guests. These results are proving our original thesis that if you can make the lives easier of the marina operators, boaters will benefit. After only 18 months with a product in the market we are already seeing a positive shift in the way of thinking, but it does not happen as quickly as you or I would like.

I'm 100% in agreement with you that there are ways that we can and should make the Dockwa boater platform more intelligent. We have many plans to do so. To your point, there are so many possibilities when the amount of marinas using the platform gets to the critical mass that someone like you desires. If you would like to see specific marinas on the platform please email me. It's likely that our team is in active conversations with them already, but I will personally do everything I can to see if we can get them up and running.

Again, any and all feedback welcome. Reach out any time.

-Matt

Obviously you have a huge conflict of interest,

[sailorboy1]

I have the Dockwa app loaded on my phone. The only time I ever remember is when it wants to do an update.

[Dockhead]

This conversation makes me kind of glad I don't cruise in the U.S. any more.

In Northern Europe, making reservations for marina slips is fairly uncommon. Normally you just turn up. If the marina is filled up, you raft up to other boats. Rarely is anyone ever turned away, so mostly no one worries about reservations. Exceptionally popular places like Yarmouth, in the Solent, don't take reservations at all. It's first come, first served, but they try hard to accommodate everyone and will raft you up to another boat if necessary. In case they just can't find you a place, there are laid moorings outside the harbour entrance, or you can anchor out for free just East of the pier, and dinghy in for free.

In the Baltic, in most places, you don't even talk to anyone -- there is a system of hanging green plates in front of free places. You just take any place with a green plate and then go pay -- often at a machine -- when you get settled in. Some marinas aren't even manned much of the time; some smaller ones are never manned at all -- it's a pure honor system. The machine gives you a sticker which you stick to a shroud to show that you've paid, but hardly anyone checks as far as I know. It's a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.


As a result of this and other aspects of the market here, berthing costs are far lower. In smaller marinas, we often pay as little as 10 euros a night including electricity; 15 or 20 euros is very common. Even an exceptionally popular, attractive place like Kalmar in Sweden, in the middle of one of the biggest tourist attractions in Scandinavia, only costs 32 euros for a 54' boat. Including electricity, use of a sauna, and really excellent infrastructure including communal kitchens and barbecue places. In fact, I know of only four places in the entire Baltic Sea (Stockholm, Tallinn, Visby on Gotland, and Helsinki) which cost more than 50 euros ($55) a night for a 54' monohull, including electricity, and none of those costs as much as $100.

To save quay space, many of the marina slips are bows-to to a buoy, which require a bit of skill getting into. Sometimes the infrastructure is pretty basic. But more often than not, you get at least a sauna and a nice barbecue place.


In Florida, we avoided marinas like the plague, where it was hot at night and often cost $100 or more for a 37' boat. We would go in once a week to fill the water tanks and do laundry, and head back out again, sometimes paying for a short stay without spending the night. Why God created anchors.