Rates
All-Inclusive Yacht Charter Explained: What Is In, What Is Not
Median all-inclusive weekly rates, and what the headline figure does and does not cover. Computed across 950 current Caribbean and Bahamas crewed listings.
Charter Market Research
What the Booking Data Actually Says
Published analysis of crewed charter rates, availability and booking windows across the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Every figure carries its method.
Read the MethodologyWhy This Exists
Nobody Publishes the Numbers
Ask what a crewed week costs, or how far ahead the good boats go, and you will get an anecdote. One broker’s impression of one season, repeated until it sounds like fact. There is nothing dishonest about it. There is just nothing behind it either.
We came out of medicine, where a recommendation is only as good as the evidence behind it. So we publish what the booking data shows, with the method attached, including when it is inconvenient for a brokerage to say.
Where the Numbers Come From
Licensed Industry Data, Independently Analysed
As a licensed brokerage we subscribe to the industry reservation feed that carries live rates, availability, vessel specifications and booking calendars for the crewed fleet. We do not own that data and we do not republish it. What we publish is our own analysis of it: aggregates, medians, distributions and trends, computed by us and reported with the method that produced them.
For Journalists and Researchers
Using This Research
Our figures are free to use. Send us a message before you publish and we will confirm the method, the sample and the period behind any figure, make sure you are working from the current version, and agree how you would like to credit it.
We will run the analysis you need, at no cost
If the cut you want is not published, ask. By destination, vessel class, season, guest count, price band or amenity, we will produce it and send you the method alongside the number. There is no charge and no expectation of anything in return.
We take part in industry surveys
If you are running a survey or panel that would benefit from a working brokerage’s perspective, we are available on request.
Tell us if we have it wrong
If you find an error in anything published here, tell us. We will correct it and say that we did.
Press and research enquiries
What We Publish
Six Recurring Lines of Analysis
Seasonal rate index
What a week actually costs by destination and vessel class, tracked over time.
Booking windows
How far ahead weeks genuinely go, by season and by cruising ground.
Fleet and availability
Year over year changes in what is on the water and what is still open.
Destination reporting
Trend analysis by cruising ground as the record deepens.
Amenities and water toys
Which features are becoming standard and which are still rare, by vessel class, size and price band. What a seabob, an elevator or a beach club actually costs you in weekly rate, and how quickly each is spreading through the fleet.
Industry surveys
Original survey research among charterers, crew and brokers, published with the questionnaire, the response count and the sampling frame, so anyone can judge the weight it carries.
Published Analyses
What We Have Published So Far
Rates
Catamaran Charter Caribbean: Rates, Destinations and What Is Included
Median catamaran rates by destination and vessel size, computed across 670 yachts.
Rates
Caribbean Charter Costs: BVI vs Bahamas vs Grenadines
What the same week costs across three cruising grounds, from current listed rates.
Fees
Hidden Fees in Yacht Charters: Government vs Operator Add-Ons
Which add-on charges are imposed by government and which are operator discretion, with median values. Sample of 237 listings.
Fees
Caribbean and Bahamas Yacht Charter Taxes, Permits and Fees
Every published tax, permit and cruising fee by jurisdiction, with the median impact on a charter week. Nine reference tables.
Quote structure
All-Inclusive Charter vs Bareboat: What Each Quote Actually Covers
Line by line comparison of what each quote type includes, computed across 152 current listings.
Primary research
Why Chartering a Crewed Yacht Is Not Cheap
A week for eight on St. Barts by land, priced against the identical week afloat, from receipts and published menu pricing. Sample of eight guests over five nights.
Methodology
How Every Figure Here Is Produced
Source
The industry reservation feed we subscribe to as a licensed brokerage, covering listed rates, availability calendars and vessel specifications for the crewed fleet. Supplemented, where stated, by charters we have placed ourselves and by publicly verifiable pricing such as published restaurant, hotel and marina rates.
Coverage
Crewed sailing catamarans, power catamarans, motor yachts and motor sailers in the British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Barts and Anguilla, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas and Belize. Bareboat charter is excluded throughout.
Sample
900+ crewed vessels. Each published figure states the sample it was computed from, which is often narrower than the full set.
Rate basis
Rates are the weekly base rate as listed, in U.S. dollars, before Advance Provisioning Allowance, gratuity, taxes, cruising permits and dockage. High and low season are reported separately and never blended. Holiday weeks are reported separately again, because averaging them into a season distorts both.
Excluded
Vessels with incomplete rate or capacity data, duplicate listings for the same hull, vessels listed outside the cruising grounds above, and any listing we cannot verify is currently offered for charter.
Statistics
We report medians rather than means wherever the distribution is skewed, which for charter rates it almost always is. Where we report a range we give the interquartile range, not the extremes.
Updated
Each analysis carries its own publication and revision date.
What this analysis cannot tell you
Listed rates are asking prices, not transacted prices. We do not have visibility into final negotiated fees, and where a discount is customary the real number will sit below what we report.
Availability is a snapshot, not a booking curve. A week showing as open today may have been held and released, and we cannot see that history.
Our own placed charters are a small and non-random sample. They are useful for texture and never for a headline figure.
Planning a Charter
The Same Numbers, Applied to Your Week
The analysis on this page is what we use when we shortlist yachts. If you are working out what your week should cost, or when to book it, we would rather show you the data than sell you an opinion.