Anyone who’s seen the reality TV show Below Deck will be familiar with the glamorous lives of wealthy guests living it up on luxury superyachts, sailing turquoise waters, visiting secluded bays and enjoying long lunches and exquisite dinners.
Small-ship cruise company Unforgettable Croatia co-founder and Managing Director Graham Carter says the show has inspired people to want to charter their own private yacht – or get as close to the Below Deck experience as possible, by booking several cabins and going as a group.
The company has designed flyers agents can use to attract customers they think may be exploring the option of booking a yacht for family and friends.
Type of client
Graham said the typical client is ‘relatively well travelled and looking for something more individual than a conventional cruise’.
“Typical guests are those who have got fairly good professional careers, honeymooners, empty nesters, families – people who want a boutique ship experience and who appreciate having fewer people on board and getting closure to the destinations – getting into small ports and docking where the old town is.”
He said the yacht charter option ‘lends itself to multigenerational families’. “Families want to be travelling together, doing experiences together and exploring the coastline together.”
Other clients to look out for are people with upcoming milestones.
“If you know your client has got a celebratory birthday coming up, this is a really good option.
“Someone might say: ‘I want to do something special for my 60th.’ Being able to charter a yacht on the Dalmatian coast would be a perfect celebration, but people may not realise it is affordable.
“I personally think a good travel agent is one that makes suggestions to their clients and plants the seed. It’s all about presenting the idea – your own private yacht with family and friends at around £3,000 each.”
What’s involved and how much does it cost?
Unforgettable Croatia operates small ships of up to 20 cabins, which sail along the Dalmatian Coast, visiting Croatia’s island. Graham describes the ships as ‘modern, spacious and intimate’ offering ‘the comfort of a boutique hotel with the privacy of your own vessel’.
A full charter on a Deluxe yacht, which is classed as the operator’s ‘value option’, can cost from around £3,300 per person for a week, excluding flights, while chartering a Signature ship – which is adult-only with spacious staterooms, many of which have private balconies – works out at around £5,000pp.
The general passenger mix on non-charters is 70% American, 20% Australian and 10% from the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
Guests usually head ashore for dinner, and, for the 2027 season, Unforgettable Croatia has introduced an optional, complimentary Michelin Star add-on for its Signature Cruises.
Its concierge team can book Michelin Star and Bib Gourmand restaurants throughout Croatia to coincide with guests’ sailings, such as Restaurant 360 in Dubrovnik, Pelegrini in Šibenik and LD Restaurant in Korčula. The operator also has a Restaurant Guide, which showcases a selection of the best eateries in the destinations visited.
Flexible approach
Graham said agents can feel daunted about booking a full charter on behalf of a client, but he says they shouldn’t, because the company operates a flexible approach if guests don’t end up filling the whole allocation.
“They probably worry that it’s going to cost a lot and worry about filling the whole yacht,” Graham said. “But we can make it easy for them by holding cabins while clients firm up their plans.
“We often find that this is the sort of holiday people are they’re planning further out. We can hold eight or 10 cabins for a period of time for the family or couple, giving them more time to speak to friends and family before committing to the trip.”
The group can then increase its allocation as more people confirm, or take a smaller allocation, leaving the remaining cabins to be filled with other passengers.
“If after a while, five cabins have been confirmed, we can talk to the agent and agree to extend the other cabins by another couple of months,” Graham said.
The part-charter concept works well in the US and Australia, but Graham said: “We haven’t pushed it as much for the UK market, primarily because we’ve got to be able to educate them on how to sell it. The message we want to get across to agents is that we can extend to small groups of about eight people, to the full charter. For an advisor, it’s a no risk option. We are not charging them the deposit at the beginning.”
