Twelve emails and a shopping list
Guests want the boat stocked when they arrive: water, beer and wine, breakfast things, snacks, maybe a full starter pack so they can sail straight away. They email their order to the office, sometimes weeks before, sometimes the night before they fly. One asks for 'basic breakfast for six'. One sends a list in German. One changes their order twice and the base only sees the first version.
The office forwards the emails to the base. The base manager, already busy with turnarounds, retypes them into a list for the local supermarket or provisioning supplier, works out the price, and hopes the guest pays on arrival. On changeover Saturday, boxes arrive at the pontoon, and someone has to work out which boat each box belongs to while the guests are checking in.
Something is always missing or wrong. The gluten-free bread did not come. The water was for a different boat. A guest disputes the price because nobody agreed it in advance.
Why free-text orders never quite work
The underlying issue is that the order is not structured until someone at the base structures it, at the busiest moment of the week.
- Guests order from memory, not from what your supplier actually stocks.
- There is no cut-off tied to the departure, so late orders arrive after the supplier's own deadline.
- Prices are not agreed in advance, which leads to arguments at check-in.
- Orders come to the office, not the base, and changes do not always reach the base.
- Several boats' orders go to the same supplier, and nobody combines them into one clear order.
- Dietary needs and allergies are written in the middle of a long email and easily missed.
What provisioning muddles cost
| What happens | Where the cost falls |
|---|---|
| Order retyped at the base | Base staff time on changeover day |
| Missing or wrong items | Guest disappointment, extra supermarket trips |
| Price disputed at check-in | Unpaid provisioning or awkward discounts |
| Boxes delivered to the wrong boat | Delays and confusion on the pontoon |
| Allergy detail missed | A serious guest problem that nobody wants |
Provisioning is not your main business, but it is one of the first things guests experience, and a bad start colours the whole charter.
An online provisioning list for each base
What we build is a provisioning service run from your booking data, with the base and supplier seeing exactly what they need.
- For each base, a product list is set up from what your supplier provides, with prices, photos and descriptions, plus ready-made packs such as a starter pack or breakfast pack.
- Guests get a link after booking to a provisioning page in their language, showing their boat, their departure date and the order cut-off for that base.
- They choose items, add notes such as dietary needs, which are highlighted separately, and pay online through Stripe or your payment provider, or add it to their charter balance if you prefer.
- Orders can be changed until the cut-off, and the latest version is always the one that counts.
- After the cut-off, each supplier gets one combined list for the day, split by boat, in the format they want, such as an email, a spreadsheet or a printable sheet.
- The base gets a delivery sheet showing what should arrive for each boat, so boxes can be checked and labelled on the pontoon.
- Late requests after the cut-off go to the base to accept or decline, not straight to the supplier.
If a base buys the provisions itself rather than using a supplier, the combined list becomes a shopping list sorted by where the items are in the shop.
Changeover day with the boxes already sorted
The base knows several days ahead what each boat needs, and the supplier has one clear order. On changeover day, deliveries are checked against the sheet and put aboard the right boat. Guests find what they ordered, at the price they already paid.
Allergies and special requests are visible on their own, not buried in a long email. Late changes no longer cause chaos because there is a clear cut-off and a clear way to handle exceptions.
Provisioning can also become a small but steady source of revenue, because guests are offered the full list at booking rather than ordering whatever they remember.
Is this how provisioning works at your base?
- Guests email provisioning orders in free text.
- The base retypes orders for the supplier.
- Prices are agreed, or argued, at check-in.
- Changes to orders do not always reach the base.
- Boxes arrive on the pontoon and nobody is sure which boat they are for.