They say the early bird gets the worm, right? Well, the marinas in this post are run by teams who know what the worm is in this scenario – your business, your great first impression, your customer loyalty – and who've equipped their marina with the most state-of-the-art software to get after it.
When booking last minute or coordinating a longer floatplan, a swift response from a marina comes as sweet relief. These marinas are the quickest on the draw when it comes to responding to slip & mooring reservation requests.
Jump to a region:
As mentioned in a recent blog post, we don't pad our numbers and we're not about to start now: as of this week 100 marinas are using InstantBook, Dockwa's first-of-its-kind, one-of-a-kind, cool-as-heck (did I mention free?) instant booking tool for marinas and boaters. So we'd like to take a minute to applaud all of our fastest marinas in each region for making fast work of going high tech.
Note: Not all InstantBook marinas make the top of the list in their region just yet; that's because some came on mid-way through the season, or only put a select number of slips on to be auto-approved as they ramp up (Which is a-ok! We love that marina managers make use of our software however best fits their business.) Click here for a list of all 100 InstantBook marinas.
More About InstantBook
InstantBook is what it sounds like: a feature of Dockwa's marina management software that lets boaters make dockage reservations that are instantly approved or declined based on the marina's dockage inventory and existing reservations. A marina manager using InstantBook enters their slip inventory (our software accounts for the variation in slip sizes) in to Dockwa and makes some or all slips available for reservation request auto-approval in the case that a vessel requesting meets the boat size criteria and the slip is open for the time period requested.
In a world that's quickly become accustomed to lightning-speed, phone-tag-free confirmations for everything from hotel rooms to yoga classes, we're proud to be the first to empower marinas, yacht clubs, boatyards, and mooring fields around the country to offer the same seamless convenience.
California and Pacific Northwest boaters looking to max out your time on the water: these here marinas are the fastest guns in the West, the top dogs when it comes to pulling the approval trigger. On average, reservation requests at these marinas are approved in under two hours:
Harbour Village Marina* - Kenmore, WA
Deer Harbor Marina - Deer Harbor, WA
Sun Harbor Marina - San Diego, CA
Half Moon Marina - San Diego, CA
Dockwa has its roots on the East Coast, so word spread a bit faster here. A ton of marinas are fully ramped up and ready to approve, whether they're using InstantBook or not.
Rhode Island Yacht Club* - Cranston, RI
Pirate Cove Marina & Yacht Sales, Inc. - Portsmouth, RI
East Greenwich Marina - East Greenwich, RI
Sakonnet Point Marina - Little Compton, RI
Cove Haven Marina - Barrington, RI
Harbor Light Marina - Warwick, RI
West Wind Marina - Newport, RI
Newport Shipyard - Newport, RI
Port Clinton Marina* - Clinton, CT
Dauntless Shipyard - Essex, CT
Harbor One Marina - Old Saybrook, CT
Guilford Yacht Club - Guilford, CT
Pine Island Marina - Groton, CT
Crocker's Boatyard* - New London, CT
Mystic River Marina - Mystic, CT
Harry's Marine Repair - Westbrook, CT
Ferry Point Marina - Old Saybrook, CT
Bruce & Johnson Marina* - Branford, CT
Flyer's Moorings, Boat Shop & Rental* - Provincetown, MA
Captain's Cove Marina - Quincy, MA
Marina Bay Boston - Quincy, MA
Westport Yacht Club - Westport, MA
First Light Boatworks - Chatham, MA
Battleship Cove Moorings* - Fall River, MA
Fiddler's Cove Marina - North Falmouth, MA
Ipswich Bay Yacht Club - Ipswich, MA
Pope's Island Marina* - New Bedford, MA
Gloucester Harbormaster* - Gloucester, MA
Maine
Mainers are sometimes known for their lovely, laid-back outlook on life. These marinas keep their Maine-chillness while confirming reservations day and night, averaging a response rate of under two hours:
Dolphin Marina & Restaurant* - South Harpswell, ME
Spring Point Marina - South Portland, ME
Yachting Solutions Boat Basin - Rockland, ME
Jonesport Shipyard - Jonesport, ME
Great Island Boat Yard - Harpswell, ME
Front Street Shipyard - Belfast, ME
Pictured: Southwinds Marina
Southwinds Marina* - Forked River, NJ
Haverstraw Marina* - West Haverstraw, NY
Shattemuc Yacht Club - Ossining, NY
Willis Marine Center - Huntington, NY
Mohawk Harbor - Schenectady, NY
Half Moon Bay Marina* - Croton On Hudson, NY
Icard Marina - New Rochelle, NY
Westlake Marina - Montauk, NY
Willsboro Bay Marina - Willsboro, NY
Oyster Bay Marine Center - Oyster Bay, NY
The Shipyard Marina - Hoboken, NJ
Pictured: Monroe Harbor
Monroe Harbor* - Chicago, IL
Olde River Yacht Club - Cleveland, OH
High Cliff State Park Marina* - Sherwood, WI
Mentor Harbor Yachting Club - Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH
Motor City Marina - Wyandotte, MI
Great Lakes Marina* - Muskegon, MI
Skipper Bud's Harbor Club Marina - Sturgeon Bay, WI
Island Party Hut - Chicago, IL
Bay Harbor Lake Marina - Bay Harbor, MI
Pictured: Shipwright Harbor Marina
Make wake to these Maryland & Virginia's marinas! These locations average a response time of under an hour:
Somers Cove Marina* - Crisfield, MD
Shipwright Harbor Marina - Deale, MD
Norton's Yacht Sales and Marina - Deltaville, VA
Mears Point Marina - Grasonville, MD
Onancock Wharf - Onancock, VA
Anchorage Marina - Baltimore, MD
White Marlin Marina - Ocean City, MD
Haven Harbour Marina - Rock Hall, MD
Havre De Grace Marina at Water Street - Havre De Grace, MD
Sailing Associates Inc.* - Georgetown, MD
Maryland Yacht Club - Pasadena, MD
Dennis Point Marina & Campground - Drayden, MD
Deltaville Marina - Deltaville, VA
Annapolis City Marina - Annapolis, MD
A tie for first between Carolina Beach and Morehead City! Congrats to these seven ICW destinations for helping local boaters and snowbirds secure their slips, asap. (On average, under an hour.)
Carolina Beach Mooring Field* - Carolina Beach, NC
Morehead City Transient Docks* - Morehead City, NC
Bull River Marina* - Savannah, GA
River Dunes Marina - Oriental, NC
Joyner Marina - Carolina Beach, NC
Homer Smith Docks and Marina - Beaufort, NC
Galley Stores Marina - New Bern, NC
The warmer climates are far from behind the eight ball – in fact, these 12 marinas are on it, averaging a reservation request response time of under an hour:
Beach Marine* - Jacksonville, FL
Puerto del Rey Marina - Fajardo, PR
Titusville Municipal Marina - Titusville, FL
Boathouse Marine Center - Fort Lauderdale, FL
EPIC Marina - Miami, FL
Blue Marlin Cove - West End, BS
Harborage Marina - St. Petersburg, FL
Adventure Marina - Fort Walton Beach, FL
Legacy Harbour Marina - Fort Myers, FL
Twin Dolphin Marina - Bradenton, FL
Longboat Key Club Moorings - Longboat Key, FL
Doctors Lake Marina - Fleming Island, FL
A few marinas are holding down the fort in their region while we onboard more locations nearby! Special shout-outs to:
Slidell Municipal Marina at Heritage Park – Slidell, LA
Heritage Harbor Ottawa - Ottawa, IL
Moody Gardens Marina* - Galveston, TX
Kudos to all of these marinas for their quick work letting boaters know that their slip reservations are secure!
Know of a marina that should be using InstantBook? Let me know – email becky@dockwa.com.
Post by Becky at Dockwa
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