A superyacht guest preference sheet is a structured questionnaire the concierge sends the lead charterer three to six weeks before boarding. It records who is travelling, how each guest sleeps, what the party eats and drinks, which activities matter, and anything the crew must know before lines come off the dock. The crew uses those answers to provision the yacht, configure cabins, rig the right toys and shape the itinerary, so the boat fits your party the moment you step aboard.
In Indonesia the document carries extra weight. A charter from Bali to Komodo or Raja Ampat leaves resupply behind on day one: no gourmet grocer sits near a park anchorage, and Raja Ampat sits further off the grid, so everything your party wants must be sourced and loaded beforehand. Our desk sits between you and the crew, turning the sheet into provisioning orders, cabin plans and staging instructions. We arrange charters through our group’s operators rather than owning vessels ourselves, so the sheet is the shared language between guest, desk and crew.
What the sheet actually asks
A thorough sheet covers seven areas.
- Guest manifest and cabins. Passport names, ages, who shares with whom; also feeds port clearance and park permits.
- Food. Allergies, dislikes, favourite cuisines, how formal dinner should be.
- Drinks. Wine styles, spirit brands, coffee and tea prep, mixers.
- Daily rhythm. Early risers or slow mornings, meal styles, children’s timing.
- Water sports. Diving and snorkelling experience, tender driving, certification details.
- Health and mobility. Conditions the crew should know, motion sickness, dietary observances.
- Occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries, a proposal, a graduation.
Allergies, dislikes and preferences are three different lines
Mixing these up causes most preference-sheet failures. A shellfish allergy changes how the galley runs: separate boards, separate oil, a briefing for every crew member. A dislike of coriander changes one menu; a preference for Burgundy over Bordeaux changes a wine order. Answer the three separately, and split them yourself if the sheet lumps them together.
From answers to loading lists
Once the sheet returns, the chef drafts menus against it, and approved menus become supplier orders. Bali is the most capable provisioning base for eastern Indonesia, with wholesalers, butchers and florists that remote cruising grounds cannot match, so most of the load happens there. A particular Scotch or named Champagne can be flown in, but needs two to three weeks of notice, not two days.
Most crewed charters run on an advance provisioning allowance, commonly 25 to 35 percent of the fee, covering food, drink, fuel and park fees. The sheet decides whether that buys the right cellar or a generic one, as our guide to superyacht provisioning in Bali covers.
| Time before boarding | What happens |
|---|---|
| 4 to 6 weeks | Sheet sent, completed, returned; itinerary confirmed |
| 3 weeks | Menus drafted; specialty items ordered |
| 2 weeks | Cabin plan agreed; certifications and toys confirmed |
| 1 week | Dry goods and cellar loaded |
| 24 to 48 hours | Fresh produce, flowers, celebration items delivered |
| Boarding day | Final walkthrough against the sheet |
Cabin set-up and observances
The interior crew reads the sheet as a floor plan. Twin cabins convert to doubles or split back depending on who shares; bedding weight and air conditioning get pre-set per cabin, and children’s cabins gain safety rails where the sheet flags young kids. Halal provisioning is straightforward in Indonesia; kosher depends on imports and needs the most notice of anything on the sheet.
Toys, dive gear and celebrations
Deck crews rig toys against stated ability, not the full inventory: confident divers get filled tanks and a dive-ready tender, beginner teenagers get inflatables and a slower briefing. Komodo and Raja Ampat sit at the serious end, where dive guides ask for certification cards and logged-dive counts before current-swept sites, and the sheet collects that paperwork weeks early. This guide to superyacht charter amenities and costs, from a sister site in our group, gives a fair sense of what extras run.
Celebrations show pre-staging at its best: a cake from a Bali patisserie, flowers cut that morning, sky-deck decorations, a photographer met at Labuan Bajo, all loaded before the guest of honour suspects a thing. Most sheets include a confidential field the rest of the party never sees, so coordinate it with your concierge, not the family chat.
How to fill one in well
- Name brands, not categories: “gin” gets a decent gin, a named bottle gets that bottle.
- Separate allergies from dislikes, and label which is which.
- Be honest about water experience; overstating diving ability in strong currents is a safety problem.
- Flag occasions even when secret, through the confidential field.
- Describe children’s real routines, not the ones you wish they had.
- Return the sheet on time; its value equals the lead time it gives the crew.
Where a concierge desk fits in
On paper the process looks tidy: sheet out, sheet back, yacht ready. In practice sheets come back late, guest lists change, and requests prove unavailable east of Bali. A desk working these waters year-round knows what Bali fills fast and where a substitute is needed; closing those gaps is the daily substance of our VIP charter curation service.
If you have an Indonesian charter booked, or are still choosing the yacht, send your dates on WhatsApp at +62 811-3941-4563 or email bd@juaraholding.com. We will walk you through the sheet before it becomes a boarding-week scramble.