In the last decade, a wave of yacht charter platforms has shaken up nautical holidays, and in Spain they are booming.
He turismo Spanish is booming. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in April the record number of 7.8 million visitorsand the country received 24 million travelers in the first quarter of 2024, 18% more than the previous year.
Inevitably, this influx of visitors has had an impact on prices.-and in local feelings –with a 12% increase in average price from hotel rooms, to 135 euros per night. Which could explain why the maritime alternative has also increased.
The “airbnbs” of the seas
In the last decade they haveemerged several boat rental platforms where private owners can rent them to others for trips or recreational fishing.
Among them are Boataffairs, Band of Boats, Borrow a Boat, Beds on Board, Boatsetter, SamBoat, Getmyboat and the largest platform in Europe, with two million users and 55,000 boats for rent, Click&Boat.
“Boat rental has grown by 42% in the last two years in Spain,” he explains. Edouard Goriouxco-founder of Click&Boat, to the economic newspaper ‘Five days’. Spain is the second country, after France, in market share for this business.
Cheaper than a hotel room
Gorioux assures that the Click&Boat market almost doubled between 2019 and 2022 and that, of its income of 200 million euros last year, 15% was generated in Spain.
The company, which processes one boat reservation every 18 seconds and increases its fleet of electric boats, states that the average price of a day of sailing is 350 euros for six people, including overnight stays, less than 60 euros per head.
Counting the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, Spain has almost 8,000 km of coastline to explore by boat, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Click&Boat recommends May to September as an excellent season for sailing.
Of course, don’t limit yourself to Spain: try the Italian archipelago, which can only be accessed by boator hop from one country to another (if you have the necessary visas): Borrow a Boat offers charters in 60 countries, while Click&Boat covers 164.
How does boat rental work?
Fortunately, it is not necessary to know how to navigate, although experience is always a degree. Most boat rental platforms operate similarly to Airbnb, with lists of privately owned boats for rent, which can be filtered to suit the user, with or without a skipper.
You can also filter by boat size, location, type -from catamarans a flouting houses– and extra equipment, such as diveoutdoor showers or the very important inflatable banana.
