Smart marinas: how AI is changing berth booking and boater services

The hospitality sector of the marine industry works to provide easy digital access to the services that marinas provide. Boaters can book, use and pay for berths, fuel, water and all the other services using a simple app. For marina management, keeping track of berth availability and more, A.I. powered software platforms form the back end of the visitor apps. The next step is to integrate the variety of websites and apps into one platform, possibly even on the navigation screens of yachts. 

During Mediterranean high season, finding a berth in a marina can be hard. Drawing from personal experience as a flotilla leader, I know the search for safe harbours along Croatian Islands can be horrifying. Finding spots for the eleven yachts in the flotilla every day is certainly not an easy task, especially since there are other flotillas exploring the same cruising grounds. Most municipal marinas are not connected to a booking system.

If there is a website, one hopes it is in English. The harbour master’s telephone number is given, but when called, the operator says reservations are not possible. After explanation that we are coming with a flotilla of eleven yachts, with often inexperienced sailors and their families on board, we are urged to get to the marina early, otherwise the berths will be given to other yachts. Five minutes to four o’clock, the mobile rings and the harbour master says the berths are not for our flotilla any more. “But we are underway at sea with ten yachts with inexperienced sailors who need a harbour”. Answer: “Not my problem.” This baffling lack of responsibility really perplexed us as flotilla leaders. Do these marina officials know the sea at all? Why is it so hard to book a berth?

Clarity

Modern marina management chooses automation to provide clarity for yachties. The example above illustrates how in touristic areas, it can be hard to find even slightly qualified staff.  Having a good website and a clear system of booking berths is essential if marinas want to provide a good experience to their visitors and berth holders. While staff may have a hard time maintaining oversight of free spots and the number of incoming boats during the afternoon, modern automated systems are provided with information from camera’s, the booking system, weather data and more to determine if there are fee spaces for sailors to make a reservation. Whereas an automated system might not be as hospitable as personal contact, at least it provides clarity and allows for reservations.

Services

Automation of marina operations may include a lot more than berth bookings. Availability of fuel and water, electricity and black water disposal can all be part of the digital interface that allows the visitor or berth owner to plan the necessary procedures during the marina visit and pay for it all at once. The user interface for the visitor will be a website or an app. Marina staff can have an overview platform on their screens to review the number of visitors and the use of services.

User central

Key is to have the customer – a leisure boater on holiday – central. The new generation of boaters navigates digitally. On their plotters, they see other yachts that have AIS active, they can see accurate weather conditions.

Today, they will need to consult their smartphones for weather predictions, marina reservations and use VHF to communicate. For the sailors, it would be great if all of such services could be integrated in the same electronic devices. As Melanie Symes of Innova Marina consultancy puts it: “Imagine a world where, from within the boaters navigation platform they can see real time berth availability, book a berth, update their ETA dynamically, check in, check out, pay the marina. Where they can find an anchorage with an advanced mooring system and reserve a buoy so as to avoid damaging seagrass beds. Where power consumption can be precisely predicted by factoring in tide and weather conditions. All these things are possible now, but not common place.

Digital-First might be the new navigation mantra, but there is Digital Hesitation in other parts of our industry.” As soon as long time sailors of progressing age get their aha-moment, they will acknowledge the value and ease of digital booking and paying, too. Most digital navigation systems do not have this kind of booking availability today.  

Smart platforms 

Following up on the various berth reservation platforms like Marina Reservation, Dockwa or the Blue Water App,  some start-ups are including A.I. into the marina management platforms to provide a much more comprehensive system, including supply management, predictive maintenance of equipment, predictions of incoming traffic and more. These systems are provided with information from camera’s, AIS, weather forecasts, data from the marina equipment like power outlets and water taps. Examples of such platforms include Elite Marinas, Harbr or Pacsoft.

Chains and independents

The marina business is currently in the process of concentration. The real estate, client bases, services and contracts are bought and integrated into large companies or conglomerates, marina chains. The bigger chains are all implementing apps for berth reservation and more. Everybody is sure that smart platforms, using advanced algorithms to support management and provide easy access to visitors, are the (near) future of the marina business. A lot of independent, one-location marinas remain. For them, the initial cost of installing all of the hardware to create an internet-of-things network that monitors all equipment, getting a subscription to the right software platform and implementing all of that, will be relatively higher. 

Book from nav screen

The challenge is to create a connection of marina management platforms that will be accessible from a lot of instruments, smartphones, websites and boater tools. The new digital aware boater will not want to download a new app for every other marina they visit. Like Symes said: put the boater central.

If different platforms keep competing, the user of the other tool will simply not find your marina or think it is too much of a hassle to get a berth there. Digital booking might be less personal than calling the harbour master. But is provides clarity and saves boaters from being perplexed by incompetent and bluntly unfriendly staff like I experienced in the Dalmatian Islands.