A full inbox in January
When people start planning summer holidays, your inbox fills with enquiries. A group of eight wants a catamaran for two weeks in July, somewhere with easy sailing. A couple with some experience wants a small monohull for a week, flexible on dates. A family wants a skippered charter because nobody sails. Each enquiry comes by email, a website form, a portal message or a phone call.
To reply properly, someone checks the fleet: which boats have enough cabins, which are free on those dates, which base suits the sailing they want, what the price is with any early booking offer, and whether a skipper is available if needed. Then they write a reply with two or three options. It is careful work and it takes a while, so enquiries wait. The ones that arrived on a Sunday are answered on Tuesday.
In that time, the enquirer has asked three other fleets and a broker, and one of them answered first.
Why a good reply takes so long
The information needed is spread across several places, and the enquiry itself is often incomplete.
| What the office needs | Where it lives | What slows it down |
|---|---|---|
| Group size and experience | In the enquiry, if given | Often missing or vague |
| Boats that fit | Fleet list and specifications | Checked by memory |
| Availability on the dates | Fleet management system | Flexible dates mean several checks |
| Price and offers | Price list and current offers | Offers change through the season |
| Skipper availability | Skipper rota | Separate from boat availability |
And once a reply is sent, there is rarely any follow-up. An enquirer who goes quiet is simply forgotten, even though many of them are still deciding.
The cost of slow and unfollowed replies
- Enquiries lost to faster competitors or brokers.
- Office time spent on the same checks again and again.
- Inconsistent replies depending on who writes them.
- Weeks left unsold that an interested enquirer might have taken.
- No record of which enquiries turned into bookings, so marketing decisions are guesswork.
Enquiry handling that does the checking first
What we build does the preparation for each reply, so the office spends its time on judgement and conversation.
- Enquiries from email, your website form and portal messages are gathered in one place.
- An AI model such as Anthropic Claude or OpenAI reads each one and picks out group size, dates and flexibility, experience, preferred area, bareboat or skippered, and budget if mentioned.
- Missing essentials are asked for straight away with a short, friendly reply, such as confirming how many people and whether anyone holds a sailing qualification, before a full quote.
- Suitable boats are matched from your fleet details and live availability, with prices and current offers from your price list, including alternative dates if the requested week is full.
- A draft quote with two or three options, photos and links is prepared for a person to check, edit and send.
- Enquirers who have not replied get a follow-up after a time you set, with an update if availability has changed.
- Every enquiry is tracked to booked, lost or still open, with the reason where known.
What your January looks like
Most enquiries get a first reply quickly, even at weekends, asking for anything missing. Full quotes are prepared while the office is doing other things, and staff check and send them rather than building them from scratch.
Quotes are consistent, and they always include offers and alternative dates where they help. Enquirers who go quiet hear from you again. And by the end of the season you know which sources, areas and boat types turn into bookings.
Is this your booking season?
- Enquiries wait days for a full reply.
- Each quote means checking boats, dates and prices by hand.
- Enquirers who go quiet are never followed up.
- Different staff send very different quotes.
- You do not know how many enquiries become bookings.