SINGAPORE- Boatbay announced the official launch on August 2oth of the first boat rental marketplace in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Boatbay is a community driven website connecting boat and yacht owners, with people looking to rent, charter or crew watercraft of any kind. Boatbay’s focus is on people who wish to rent a boat located within Asia Pacific or the Middle East, which are massive growth markets for travel, leisure and lifestyle.
The average boat owner uses their boat 15 days a year, while spending a fortune in storage and maintenance fees with no way to offset these costs. Boatbay lets an owner earn money out of his or her boat, while making quality lifestyle boating affordable to everyone.
Tim Gundry, co-founder of Boatbay is all too familiar with the costs of boating, “the expenses really add up. The advantage of using Boatbay is that you can offset these expenditures while still enjoying boat ownership”.
Boatbay allows boat owners and boat charter companies to list their boat at no cost. All the boat owner has to do is to add some photos, a description, contact information and pricing. The owners can rent or charter their boat with themselves as the captain; or select a captain of their choice or rent to someone with a boat license.
Boat renters can browse listings across their chosen destination, find a boat they like, select dates and book. Boatbay takes a small commission on consumed bookings and the owner gets the rest. Boat rental rates vary according to the size of the boat ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
“A wide variety of watercraft can be found on Boatbay” added Tim Gundry. “Boat renters can search and rent a luxury motor yacht in Sydney, a sports fishing boat in Dubai, a 1906 Danish built sailing yacht in Phuket or even a submarine in Bali”.
“We are seeing an increasing amount of people taking to the water for a growing variety of reasons, such as hosting a corporate event or birthday party, fishing, water skiing, recreation and family holidays. Recreational boating is a $50 billion dollar industry and Boatbay enriches people’s lifestyles by enabling fresh social experiences. A 24 foot boat that costs $35,000 to buy is available on Boatbay for rent as little as $150 a day”.
Tim continues, “Boatbay not only improves industry efficiency, but enables transparency and reduces risk. We are building a peer-to-peer driven community which empowers people to write and post user reviews of boat owners, yacht charter companies, and those who rent or charter boats”.
He concludes “Boatbay is the airbnb for boating, yachting and people who want to experience a social activity on the water”.