A much-discussed topic at the boot trade fair in Düsseldorf was the rapid change in the charter market. This is shifting more and more towards the online sector, and in the reader survey conducted by our sister magazine YACHT, online bookings were the number one way for customers to find a boat. This probably also applies to most "traditional" agencies, which are characterised by their presence at trade fairs, their business premises, their accessibility to customers and their membership of industry associations such as the VDC (Association of German Yacht Charter Companies), which guarantees good standards.
The previously very tense relationship with purely online platforms has changed fundamentally since such companies have also bought up traditional agencies such as Master Yachting, Scansail or Argos. There is no doubt that in addition to questionable online charter platforms, such as Zizoo recently, against which a Insolvency proceedings and whose management is being investigated by the public prosecutor's office.
Displacement through price dumping
It is difficult to deal with those who try to gain market share through aggressive price dumping by any means necessary. A start-up recently tried this: when its software registered that another agent had optioned a boat in the standard fleet programmes, the start-up's platform immediately displayed a special offer on its website. The same type of boat, the same week, the same charter base - only 10 to 20 per cent cheaper. Although the boat could no longer be optioned, as it was already booked.
The point of it all: Quite a few customers google the data on the Internet after receiving a quote from an agency. If they find a more favourable offer, they click on it. Every customer has the right to do so.
But what many people don't realise is the long-term strategy behind such tactics. The online platform gives away its entire booking margin and makes a loss on the booking. This sounds tempting for the customer at first, but in the long term it only has one goal: the platform makes losses for years, which are borne by risk investors. Ultimately, the aim is to drive the competition out of the market and make the online platform the market leader. It then dictates the margins and raises prices so that it operates profitably.
Fleet operators fight against dumping prices in the charter market
For this reason, the first fleet operators are now fighting back by contractually prohibiting agents from passing on their margins in full. The problem is that the days when online platforms such as Booking.com or Amazon were able to achieve market leadership by having a technical edge over the competition or simply being one of the first major providers online are over. The financial problems of the start-up Zizoo, which was launched seven years ago with the aim of taking over the market, prove that this does not seem to be so easy.
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Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
