Deposit
- Standard position
- Typically 30–50% on confirmation
- What decides it
- Higher where suppliers require prepayment — vessel holds, park administration and bunkering are the usual reasons.
The desk
From brief to closing statement
Six steps, no forms, and nothing booked in your name before you approve the quote it appears on. Every figure in USD, every third-party charge shown at documented cost.
In short
A booking opens when you approve an itemised quote — not when you fill in a form.
- One named person owns the file from the first message to the final statement.
- Desk fee and third-party cost are separated on every document you receive.
- If a date cannot be supported properly, you are told before the deposit, not after.
The sequence
How a booking is opened
The same six moves whether the engagement is one port call, a season on retainer, or a guest programme around a charter.
-
01
Send the brief
Vessel and LOA, dates, guest and crew numbers, and what the engagement has to deliver. A sentence starts it; the desk asks for the rest.
-
02
Receive an itemised quote
Desk fee on one line, third-party charges on their own, in USD. Same working day for a standard call, longer only where a supplier has to be priced first.
-
03
Adjust the scope
Add a load-out, drop a guest day, move the berth to anchorage. The quote is reissued rather than amended in a chat thread, so there is one current version.
-
04
Confirm with a deposit
Approval plus deposit opens the file. Only then does the desk commit anything in your name — berths, bunkering windows, park slots or vessel holds.
-
05
Finalise the detail
Preference sheets, dietary and certification requirements, crew movements, transfers and event detail, confirmed against the working plan before arrival.
-
06
Settle against the statement
The balance falls due before execution, and the file closes with a statement: every disbursement listed, every supplier invoice attached.
Nothing on this page is charged until you approve the quote it appears on.
Commercial terms
The terms, plainly
The standard shape of an engagement. The quote you approve carries the binding version — where a supplier imposes its own terms, they are named on that quote rather than buried here.
Balance
- Standard position
- Due before execution, normally 7–14 days ahead
- What decides it
- Retainer clients settle monthly in arrears against a statement instead.
Payment methods
- Standard position
- Bank transfer; card by arrangement
- What decides it
- Card processing costs are shown as a line item rather than absorbed into the fee.
Weather and safety
- Standard position
- Rescheduled or refunded less committed cost
- What decides it
- The master's call is final. Third-party charges already incurred are shown with their invoices.
Cancellation by you
- Standard position
- Tiered by notice period
- What decides it
- The tiers are stated on your quote before you pay anything. Committed supplier cost is never refundable, and is identified in advance.
Changes of scope
- Standard position
- Reissued quote, no change fee
- What decides it
- The desk does not bill for revising its own paperwork.
Third-party charges pass through at documented cost throughout. The desk earns its stated fee and takes no supplier commission — which is what makes the closing statement auditable.
See what the desk fee actually coversBefore you write
What speeds a quote up
None of this is required to start. Each one removes a round trip, and together they usually turn two days into one.
Vessel particulars
Name, flag, LOA, beam and draft. Draft and LOA decide alongside versus anchorage before anything else does.
Dates, with the flex
Arrival and departure, and which of the two can move. A day either way often changes what a berth costs.
Numbers on board
Guests and crew, separately. Manifests drive clearance, provisioning volume and every guest-side figure on the quote.
The scope, roughly
Clearance, berth, load-out, bunkering, crew change, guest programme — tick what applies. Precision can wait.
What you are booking
Cruising Guides
Permits, park fees, seasons and itineraries.
About the Desk
The entity, the four people, and how to verify us.
Forty Questions
What captains, owners and brokers actually ask.
Reach the Desk
One accountable contact, answered the same working day.
Concierge Desk
What the role covers, what it costs, where it stops.
Port Services
Clearance, berths, bunkering and technical support.
Open the file
Vessel, dates and scope. The quote comes back itemised in USD, with a name attached and the terms stated before any money moves.