Who Borrow A Boat Works For (American Travelers Edition)

If you're flying out from the US to charter a yacht in Greece, the British Virgin Islands, or anywhere else our coverage runs, this page is the no-spin version of who we are and whether we're the right fit for your trip. We're Borrow A Boat. We've been booking yacht charters and boat holidays since 2017: 20,000+ boats, 70+ countries, 800+ marinas worldwide, with our deepest inventory in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Our office is in Berlin (BAB GER GmbH), our agents handle US travelers regularly, and the booking, contract, and support are in English start to finish.

Yacht charter is confusing for first-time American travelers in particular. Pricing usually quotes in euros, license rules differ by country, the tipping convention isn't what you'd expect at home, and the line between "broker" and "marketplace" gets blurred online. So here's the straight version: who we serve well, who we don't, how the booking actually runs, and three real stories.

The trip we're built for:

• A week-long charter for 1 to 12 guests. Typically a family vacation, a multi-couple trip, or a friends group. We also book day rentals, romantic getaways, and on-water events, but the seven-day private charter is what we do most and where our inventory runs deepest.
• A Mediterranean or Caribbean destination. Strongest coverage runs across Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Italy, Spain, the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and Martinique. Northern Europe, Thailand, the Seychelles, French Polynesia, and the US (Miami, the Florida Keys) are also served, but those first two regions are where the deepest inventory lives.
• A budget that starts around USD 1,650 per week (about EUR 1,500) and goes up to USD 55,000 and beyond. Charters are quoted and contracted in euros, which is the working currency of European charter; your card or bank handles the conversion at the rate of the day. The full range is on offer: shoulder-season sailboats at the entry end, mid-market catamarans for families in peak summer, and fully crewed luxury yachts, gulets, and superyachts at the top.
• Bareboat, skippered, or fully crewed: all three. Crewed sits at the same level as the other two, not as a tail-end footnote. Bareboat is open to anyone in the group who holds an ICC, RYA Day Skipper, or equivalent qualification. A US state boater education card or NASBLA-recognized course generally is not enough on its own for European bareboat; if no one in the group holds an internationally accepted license, we book a skipper. Fully crewed means captain plus hostess or chef on the right boats.
• First time chartering, or seasoned sailor, both work. First-timers get walked through boat type, license needs, route planning, and what genuinely happens at the marina on day one. Experienced sailors get a fast competitive quote without sifting through hundreds of listings on their own.
• Flexible terms. Deposits as low as 15 percent where the operator allows, against the 50 percent many brokers demand. Custom payment plans and installments by request. Rescheduling on the table. Charter weeks that don't have to start on a Saturday.
• Pricing visible before you commit. Every quote shows the total price to get the boat moving, including the line items paid at the base in cash or on a card (tourist tax, transit log, fuel, end cleaning, marina fees, sometimes APA on crewed boats), separated from what you pay through us. No buried surcharges between deposit and dock day.
• A real person, named, who follows your booking through. Each inquiry is assigned to one of our agents (Fred, Eray, Nicolo, Vicky, Christianna, and others), who builds the booking, negotiates with operators on your behalf, and stays reachable Mon to Sun, 10am to 7pm Greek time (3am to 12pm Eastern, midnight to 9am Pacific in summer; shift one hour earlier when Greece moves out of DST in late October).
• Quote in your inbox within an hour. During business hours that's the response window. If you send the inquiry overnight from the US, expect to wake up to a real reply.
• Last-minute requests welcome. Next-day bookings, peak-season scrambles, the works. Our agents call operators directly to find late cancellations or negotiate availability, instead of waiting for feed updates.

The trip we're not built for:

• Peer-to-peer rentals from private owners. Only professional charter companies are listed on Borrow A Boat. This is a deliberate supply standard: insurance, maintenance, operator support, and post-booking accountability all sit on professional businesses, not private individuals.
• Flotilla-style holidays. Lead boat, set routes, daily group briefings, scheduled socials at every stop, that kind of thing. Sunsail, Moorings, and other operators we partner with do run flotillas, but our focus is private charter, your own boat with your own itinerary. If flotilla is what you actually want, you'll get more attentive service booking direct with the flotilla company.
• A two-hour rental at the marina back home. A global charter platform is the wrong tool for a half-day pontoon hire on Lake Travis or Lake Tahoe. Find a local operator.
• Buying a boat or fractional ownership. Charter holidays are the focus here. There are partnerships for ownership inquiries, but it's not the core service.
• The cheapest possible C2C dinghy hire. Inventory tier starts above that.

If you own a boat and want to rent it OUT:

Different page. The partner program lives at bmt.borrowaboat.com. Listing and the fleet management tool are free for registered charter businesses.

What the booking process actually looks like

Within an hour of your inquiry (business hours): Your assigned agent gets in touch and runs a discovery call by email or phone, depending on what you prefer. Dates, group size, budget, destination, sailing experience, special requirements, and whether anyone in the group is licensed.

Days 1 to 7: The agent searches across the 20,000+ inventory and partner network and comes back with 2 to 3 curated quotes that match the brief, not 50 listings to sort through. If you're booking late or inventory is tight, the agent calls operators directly to find late cancellations or negotiate availability.

Booking confirmation: You pick a boat. We secure it with a deposit, as low as 15 percent where the operator allows, otherwise whatever the operator requires (still typically below the 50 percent industry default). Custom payment plans available by request. Then we layer in extras: skipper, marina transfers, provisioning order, route suggestions tailored to the group.

Pre-departure: Final balance is due. Document check, including skipper license if bareboat, crew list, and insurance. Direct contact details for the operator running your boat. A briefing pack for your destination (passport rules, ports of entry, anchorages, weather windows for the season).

During your charter: The operator running your boat is your primary on-the-water contact. They have professional staff at the marina and the operational authority to handle whatever comes up: weather diversions, technical issues, crew changes. Our team stays reachable in the background for escalations. We're deliberately not pretending to be the boat operator while you're actually on the boat.

After the trip: Post-charter conversation, feedback, loyalty offers for the following season. About 40 percent of Borrow A Boat customers rebook with us, which is the metric we trust to tell us this works.

Three real client cases

Case 1: Sardinia, peak season, mid-charter skipper illness

Who: A group of 8 had booked a 50-foot sailboat in Sardinia with a skipper arranged through us.

The problem: Halfway through the week the skipper got sick. The local replacement channels operators normally use came up empty.

What we did: We sourced a replacement skipper from outside the region, booked a flight for him, and absorbed the EUR 500 (about USD 550) flight cost ourselves. He was on board the next day. The group spent one extra night in the marina waiting for him.

The result: The client sailed the rest of the planned itinerary, with that one marina night as the only deviation. We didn't bill the flight cost or the lost sailing day. The client has rebooked since.

Case 2: Canary Islands, peak season, last-minute booking confirmed in 30 minutes

Who: A couple, modest budget, looking for a charter in the Canary Islands.

The problem: Five days before their planned departure. Canary Islands inventory is mostly sold out in peak season and their budget was tight.

What we did: Eray, one of our agents, called operators directly instead of relying on standard availability feeds. He found boats inside budget and confirmed the booking in under 30 minutes from the first call.

The result: Confirmed booking inside half an hour, inside budget, departing five days later.

Case 3: Greek marina, peak season, on-the-ground welcome for a first-time American family

Who: A family of 6 with two teenagers, first time chartering anywhere, booking a 45-foot catamaran in Greece for a week in peak season.

The problem: First-time charter day looks like this: jet-lagged from a transatlantic flight, paperwork at the marina office, an inventory check on the boat, a technical briefing covering electrical, plumbing, water, fuel, and rig, a provisioning run, and most of it conducted in a language the family doesn't speak. Operators run this professionally, but at pace. For a US family stepping onto a charter boat for the first time, that's a lot.

What we did: Every high season we identify the marinas that handle the highest volume of our bookings and place a Borrow A Boat team member on the ground there for the busiest weeks. Vicky was at the marina the morning this family arrived. She walked through the check-in alongside the operator, translated the technical handover into plain language, recommended a taverna for the first evening, and left her number with the family for the rest of the week.

The result: The family sailed the full week without a single support call. In their post-charter feedback, they specifically called out the marina welcome as what turned a nervous first booking into a confident second one. They booked next year's high season while still on board.

Useful facts at a glance

How to start

Send an inquiry at borrowaboat.com with your dates, destination, group size, and a rough budget in dollars or euros. A named agent replies within 1 hour during business hours. The quote is free and non-binding.

Phone: +1 727 258 5406 (Mon to Sun, 10am to 7pm Greek time)