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Websites for boat hire and tour operators

Online booking, your prices and your weather rules on one clear page, so customers book a boat or a tour while you’re out on the water.

People planning a day on the water do it on their phone, often the night before and often from out of town. They want to see what you’ve got, what it costs, when it’s free and what happens if the weather turns. If the only way to book is to ring, they ring while you’re down at the jetty helping someone into a boat, and plenty of them don’t try twice.

I build sites that take those bookings for you. I’m Matt, I run Your Mate Agency out of Mallacoota, and I built the booking system for Mallacoota Barbie Boats, which handles the boat hire bookings for Scallywags.

Where a boat hire site loses bookings

Bookings come in by phone, text and Facebook message, then get written on paper or kept in your head, which is how the same boat ends up booked twice. Or there is a booking link, but it’s buried, or it opens a page that looks nothing like yours and people wonder if it’s legit. The prices aren’t there, so people message to ask, and the rules about weather, fuel and what to bring only come out when someone rings.

The other half is being found. Visitors search for boat hire or tours in the town they’re heading to, usually before they arrive. Google has to know what you run, where you are and when you’re open, and a properly built site that matches your Google Business Profile is how you show up in that list. A clear page is what gets them to pick you once you’re there.

Two boat hire jobs in Mallacoota

Mallacoota Barbie Boats

Mallacoota Barbie Boats handles the boat hire bookings for Scallywags, and I built the booking system they run through. The build is written up in the Barbie Boats case study.

A mockup before a price

Mallacoota Hireboats started the other way round. It began with an audit and a mockup of a new homepage that I made before anyone asked me to. Then Grant and I had a chat, I gave him a price, and the new site is live now. It’s written up in the Hireboats case study, and it’s the same free mockup I offer further down this page.

What goes on a boat hire or tour site

Hire boats, fishing charters, kayak hire and guided tours each need slightly different things, but most of the work is done by the same short list.

  • Online booking one tap away on every page, showing what’s free on the day people want, using the system you already have or one set up for how you work.
  • What each boat or tour costs, how long it runs and how many people it takes, as a proper list, so nobody has to message to ask.
  • Your weather, cancellation and safety rules in plain words, right next to the booking button, so people read them before they turn up.
  • Where to find you: the address, a map and where to park, matching your Google Business Profile.
  • Photos of your actual boats and your actual water, not stock shots of somewhere tropical.
  • A clear section for each main thing you run, so Google can match you to searches for it in your town.

All of it built for a phone first, because that’s what your customers are holding when they decide to book. There’s more on this in my guide to websites for tourism operators in Victoria.

How the build runs

It fits around your season. You don’t need to stop taking bookings to get a new site.

  1. We have a chat about the business: what you run, how people book now, what it costs and what customers keep ringing to ask. Thirty minutes, no jargon.
  2. I build the site around the booking, with your boats or tours, prices and rules done first, and send you a link to go through on your phone.
  3. You tell me what’s wrong, I fix it, and it goes live. I also check your Google Business Profile says the same thing as the site.
  4. I walk you through the booking side until you’re comfortable with it. When something needs changing later, you ring me, not a call centre.

What it costs

A fixed price, agreed before I start, and that’s what you pay. Rebuilding a site that’s structurally fine starts at $3,000, a redesign runs $3,500 to $10,000, and a fresh build from nothing is $4,000 to $15,000, all plus GST. What moves it is mostly page count and add-ons like online booking or taking payments. The full breakdown is on the pricing page, with no lock-in contracts.

Questions I get asked

Can customers book and pay online?

Yes, and for boat hire that’s the main job of the site. Customers pick a boat or a tour, see what’s free and book it without ringing you. If you want a deposit or the full amount taken when they book, that can go in too. If you already use a booking system, I put it where people expect to find it.

I already use a booking platform. Do I have to change?

Usually not. If customers already book through it and it works for you, I build the site around it. If it’s causing you grief, we can talk about other options, but I won’t push you off something that works.

What about bad weather and cancellations?

Your weather and cancellation rules go on the site in plain words, right next to the booking button, so people know them before they pay. The rules themselves are yours to set. My job is making sure nobody can miss them.

Can I see what it would look like before I pay anything?

Yes. Send me your business name, what you run and your town, and within 48 hours you get a free mockup of your new homepage and a fixed price. That’s how the Mallacoota Hireboats site got started: an audit and a mockup first, then a chat, then a price.

Do you build for tour operators too, or just boat hire?

Tour operators too. Fishing charters, cruises, kayak hire and guided tours have the same job to do: show people what’s on, what it costs and when it’s free, then let them book on their phone. Both jobs on this page are boat hire, but the booking side works the same way for a tour.

Do you only work with operators in Mallacoota?

No. I’m based in Mallacoota and both of these are local jobs, but I build for boat hire, charter and tour businesses across Gippsland and regional Victoria. Most of the work runs over the phone and email.

See your new homepage before you pay a cent

Send me your business name, what you do and your town. Within 48 hours you get a mockup of your new homepage and a fixed price, on a private link.

It uses your real photos, phone number and colours, carries a “concept by Your Mate Agency” banner, and nothing on it is made up. No obligation. I take the first 10 businesses a month.

Get a free mockup

Or just have a chat

Thirty minutes on the phone and I’ll tell you straight what your site needs and roughly what it’d cost. If your booking system and your Google listing are already doing the job and a new site wouldn’t change much, you’ll hear that too. You talk to me, not a call centre.

Book a chat