Webinar: Optimizing Your Marina for Occupancy

Part 1 - How to Assess Your Marina's Occupancy:

1. Collect the data points needed to build your occupancy report by exporting your Dockwa Reservation report. Isolate your customer:

• Arrival and Departure dates
• LOA
• Rate
• Slip/mooring assignment (if possible)

2. Analyze the makeup of your occupancy throughout the season. That means taking a look at your:

• Demand windows (where does occupancy peak and dip throughout the season?)
• Vessel makeup (what type of boats are in your marina and when?)

To make this analysis tangible, we recommend picking 3 time periods in your season to focus on. When you've isolated these three periods, identify in each:

• "Off-peak" windows where you'll want to increase demand for your marina
• Vessel types to target during each off-peak window

3a. Adapt your operation to improve operational coordination.

Your occupancy report does more than help you spot opportunities to increase demand for your marina. It also indicates where you might want to adjust staffing needs and supply deliveries/quantities. Consider:

1. A successful Summer 2020 operation will require extra diligence in sanitation. That means extra staff and supplies needed to clean facilities, especially on peak days.
2. With major summer events like Fourth of July fireworks being cancelled, be sure to compare this year's occupancy report to last's. You may spot opportunities to reduce staff headcount during periods when your marina won't need as many hands on deck as years past. 

 

 

There are four components to demand for your marina - your Pricing, Policies, Program, Plan. Adjusting each is like turning a knob on a control board to get your occupancy and revenue just right for your business. In Part 2, we dive into how you might address each "P" to achieve optimum occupancy. 

Webinar Recording | Download Presentation Deck

 

Part 2 - How to Improve Your Occupancy:

Take stock of your marina's "Ps" - 

1. Policies - What LOAs do you/do you not accept? What reciprocity rules do you have in place?
2. Pricing - How much do you charge for whom?
3. Program - How is your marina laid out? 
4. Plan - What events are going on at your marina this summer? 

Which of these Ps might you be able to adapt to fill your marina?

1. Adapt your policies - Practice leniency & reduce reasons boaters would not book with you. Common policies to reevaluate include:

• Cancellation (Boaters are seeking flexibility.)
• Minimums (Nightly, LOA, etc - Let’s make boating more accessible for all.) 
• Reciprocity (That new guest could one day become a member.)

 2. Adapt Your Pricing - Give boaters a simple reason to visit you over your competition.

• For years, hotels and airlines have used dynamic pricing to smooth out demand and occupancy. The marina industry isn’t quite there (yet).
• Running Dockwa Deals during low-occupancy periods is an easy alternative way to test what moves the demand needle at your marina.

3. Adapt Your Program - Create opportunities to accommodate new types of customers.

• How you “program” your marina is both about how you physically arrange your customers and how you think about who your customer is.
• Reprogramming your physical marina can help you, very literally, accommodate more types of customers.
• Reprogramming how you think about who your customer is can help you spot ways to serve new boaters with different needs.

4. Adapt Your Plan - Use events and partnerships to attract new visitors. Some ideas we've seen from other marinas include:

• Partnering with a local brewery to host a socially-distant craft beer tasting.
• Setting up a simple screen/projector and host a cruise-in movie night.
• Inviting local musicians to play the docks while guests enjoy cocktail hour from their boats.