After a soft launch last year Yotha, a new digital yacht charter platform has launched worldwide with a promise to bring trust and transparency to the yachting market.
Designed to make yacht chartering faster, simpler and more straightforward, the platform will encourage more owners to charter their yachts because they will have greater flexibility, including shorter charters and more off-season deals.
As with other online platforms, the company seeks to offer substantially reduced commissions – It takes an 8% commission if a yacht is booked directly through the platform, or 4% if the booking is made through a broker
This is substantially less than the standard industry commissions of 15% to the retail broker and an additional 5% to the yachts central agent.
It hopes to empower captains, allowing them to connect directly with charterers through the YOTHA app in advance of their trip to plan the perfect itinerary whilst providing all their favourite food and drink on board.
Uniquely it allows charter guests to negotiate directly with the owner’s representative, book their trip online and then benefit from a free concierge service which helps them to create their own bespoke itinerary.
It also features:
- All financial transactions secured and guaranteed under the supervision of FINMA, the Swiss banking regulator
- A facility to negotiate the charter price online
- A 24/7 customer care service
- Partnerships with luxury brands, including concierge service Quintessentially Switzerland, and other yacht service providers
- An electronic charter contract balancing the interests of charterers, owners and professionals
Already more than 100 superyachts are available for charter on the platform, hundreds more to be added to the platform in the coming months.
Amongst the 114 yachts currently registered for charter on the online platform are the 90m Lauren L, 50m Vertige and 55m Mustique.
Smaller motor yachts and sailing boats are also available on the platform. Yachts are available for the end of the Winter season in the Caribbean and the upcoming Summer season in the Mediterranean.