Anyone Using Dockwa for Slip Reservations?

[RTB]

I don't work for Dockwa. I am a dock master at a marina, and interested in how you normally make marina reservations. I really appreciate everyone's input.

[rwidman]

I have, but not on purpose. I typically call a marina (on a telephone) to ask if they have a vacancy for my boat and if they do, I'll answer whatever questions they ask and then pull in when I get there. It may be for today, it may be for tomorrow or the next day.

A couple times, I have found that when I got there, the marina put my information into Dockwa. I don't know why and I see no advantage for me.

I don't know if Dockwa does this but it would be nice if I could just give my name and my boat's name and Dockwa or some other service would already know all the information they typically ask for and enter this automatically. And of course, this would only help if most of the marinas were using the service.

[Suijin]

In my opinion, Dockwa is pretty useless and I never use it. It does not have near a critical mass of marinas for most areas, so it undermines the process of finding what you need/want. The information it has for marinas is pulled from Active Captain, which is great, but it's easier to find a marina in Active Captain and just call them to make a reservation, right while you're there in AC, because ALL the marinas are there.

I just opened Dockwa and looked up a marina I know. There is a note in Dockwa saying the marina is closed for the season and will reopen Dec. 31, 2015. Ridiculous.

Active Captain should acquire Dockwa and integrate it into their stuff. I can't imagine the company is worth much at this point.

What would make it truly worth something is if you could search by various criteria (laundry, proximity to groceries, chandleries, etc).

In short, AC has 90% of what makes a reservation system useful, and Dockwa has 10%. AC should just build out the capability.

[RTB]

Originally Posted by rwidman

I have, but not on purpose. I typically call a marina (on a telephone) to ask if they have a vacancy for my boat and if they do, I'll answer whatever questions they ask and then pull in when I get there. It may be for today, it may be for tomorrow or the next day.

A couple times, I have found that when I got there, the marina put my information into Dockwa. I don't know why and I see no advantage for me.

I don't know if Dockwa does this but it would be nice if I could just give my name and my boat's name and Dockwa or some other service would already know all the information they typically ask for and enter this automatically. And of course, this would only help if most of the marinas were using the service.

Thanks for your input Ron. You touched on some points that I'm looking into.

Ralph

[RTB]

Originally Posted by Suijin

In my opinion, Dockwa is pretty useless and I never use it. It does not have near a critical mass of marinas for most areas, so it undermines the process of finding what you need/want. The information it has for marinas is pulled from Active Captain, which is great, but it's easier to find a marina in Active Captain and just call them to make a reservation, right while you're there in AC, because ALL the marinas are there.

I see it the same way as you do. What advantage is there reserving a slip electronically, rather than calling the marina direct? Dockwa charges your credit card immediately upon the marina accepting the reservation. That could be days, weeks, or months in advance of arriving. I guess you cancel if weather holds you up and can't make it on the date of the reservation?

Ron mentioned that a marina that he had made a reservation with, had entered him into Dockwa. Would you have a problem with a marina that you reserved a slip with, share that information with Dockwa? I guess the marinas are providing info to help them build their business (for free), but also adding to a data base for everyone to use.

Since Dockwa is not a non-profit business, and takes a cut for reservations, do you think that marinas will raise their transient fees?

So, any Dockwa customers out there that would be willing to share what they like about making reservations this way?

[Dockwa]

I am one of the founders at Dockwa and wanted to quickly respond and address some of the misconceptions that were evident to me after reading this thread.

I first should say that we love that these conversations are happening online. It's important for us to hear any and all feedback and understand where there are areas that we can improve. Let me address some of the comments that were made above:

"I have found that when I got there, the marina put my information into Dockwa. I don't know why and I see no advantage for me"

One clarifying point is that there is two sides of the Dockwa system: the boater and the marina. Marinas that are listed on Dockwa use the Dockwa software for reservation management (receiving requests, communicating with boaters, charging their credit cards, sending confirmations/receipts etc.)

Boaters can make reservations through Dockwa a few ways. They can choose to go directly to dockwa.com or reserve through the Dockwa mobile app, or they can book directly through the marinas website in the case where that marina has chosen to use the Dockwa software to manage their online requests. In a case that the marina is using the Dockwa software to manage all of their reservations, they can also manually input phone requests into the system. This allows the marina to realize all of the benefits of the management software, and also makes payment and receipts easy for customers. To directly answer the question above, the main benefit to the guest in this situation would be that all of your information is saved at the marina (safely and securely) so you do not have to provide all the same information next time you want to stay there.

This brings up another good question: "Would you have a problem with a marina that you reserved a slip with, share that information with Dockwa?"

In this scenario it is no different than a hotel taking your information and putting it into their system. They need customer records on file for operational and accounting purposes. Many marinas use Dockwa for the same reasons, so a marina manually entering a reservations is not necessarily just "sharing that information with Dockwa", they are putting that information into a system that is built to make their operation run smoother and also give their customers a more modern way to make a reservation if they so choose.

"I don't know if Dockwa does this but it would be nice if I could just give my name and my boat's name and Dockwa or some other service would already know all the information they typically ask for and enter this automatically."

This is exactly why we built Dockwa. We're not trying to completely replace the phone, boaters who prefer calling can certainly continue to do so. What we have heard from thousands of boaters and thousands of marinas is that current process (in many cases) is frustrating and antiquated. If a boater creates a Dockwa profile they can save all of their details needed to make and pay for a reservation in one place. If a marina is listed on Dockwa you don't have to provide the same details to everyone, you can simply select the dates you'd like to stay and send the request through with all of the pertinent information. The marinas staff will then be alerted and have everything they need to make a decision or communicate back with the customer. In addition, if the boater is making multiple reservations they will have everything on file in the Dockwa app or if they log into their Dockwa profile online, helping to organize their trip.

We know that the utility to boaters is directly correlated to the amount of marina inventory listed on the platform, so let me wrap up by addressing a few of the other comments in respect to the amount of marinas on Dockwa.

"It does not have near a critical mass of marinas for most areas, so it undermines the process of finding what you need/want. The information it has for marinas is pulled from Active Captain, which is great, but it's easier to find a marina in Active Captain and just call them to make a reservation, right while you're there in AC, because ALL the marinas are there."

All of the information from Dockwa is not pulled from AC. We do integrate with their reviews, but that is it. At Dockwa we have a dedicated account management team that works directly with our marina partners to populate their profiles and ensure there accuracy. All of the marinas on Dockwa have also actively been trained on our software.

This is an important differentiator between Dockwa and other websites boaters may use. We are not a directory of 100% of the marinas that exist, we are a system that can directly connect boaters to marinas who use our software. Our brand promise is to provide the option for a simpler and more modern booking experience for boaters. As a result, we are selective of the marinas that we have listed, meaning that we want to know they care about providing a better guest experience, and we take a lot of time to make sure they are trained and using the system in a way that will help us deliver on that brand promise to boaters.

That bing said, we are actively expanding and adding as many quality marinas partners as we can. I am in agreement that for the system to be more useful to a broad audience we need more marinas on the platform. So we're working hard for that to be the case.

If anyone has any other questions please reach out to me directly. Happy to help and welcome additional feedback.


Thanks

[ProgSon]

Originally Posted by RTB

I don't work for Dockwa. I am a dock master at a marina, and interested in how you normally make marina reservations. I really appreciate everyone's input.

YES I have used DockWa! I skipper two sailboats one in New England and one in the Southeast. My first experience was in May 2016 with Dockwa.

While I do not wish to name the marina it is frequently a hassle in getting a reservation and their basic communication skills. With that said when I found out they had signed on with Dockwa I immediately booked my reservation. I did not have to deal with faxing my credit card, waiting for confirmation and the entire transaction was smoother than it was before.

I am extremely pleased with the ease-of-use and the fact that I can store multiple boats in my profile and book directly.

Furthermore, as a professional captain making it easy for me to book a reservation without having to fax my information and wonder which fax machine my credit card info is sitting on top of waiting to be lost or stolen is a huge plus.

If you own or operate a marina and don't use an automated reservation booking system like Dockwa you're creating extra hassle for the most important person in your business, your customer!

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Dockwa

"It does not have near a critical mass of marinas for most areas, so it undermines the process of finding what you need/want. The information it has for marinas is pulled from Active Captain, which is great, but it's easier to find a marina in Active Captain and just call them to make a reservation, right while you're there in AC, because ALL the marinas are there."

All of the information from Dockwa is not pulled from AC. We do integrate with their reviews, but that is it. At Dockwa we have a dedicated account management team that works directly with our marina partners to populate their profiles and ensure there accuracy. All of the marinas on Dockwa have also actively been trained on our software.

This is an important differentiator between Dockwa and other websites boaters may use. We are not a directory of 100% of the marinas that exist, we are a system that can directly connect boaters to marinas who use our software. Our brand promise is to provide the option for a simpler and more modern booking experience for boaters. As a result, we are selective of the marinas that we have listed, meaning that we want to know they care about providing a better guest experience, and we take a lot of time to make sure they are trained and using the system in a way that will help us deliver on that brand promise to boaters.

That bing said, we are actively expanding and adding as many quality marinas partners as we can. I am in agreement that for the system to be more useful to a broad audience we need more marinas on the platform. So we're working hard for that to be the case.

First off, let me say that there is nothing I would like more than for Dockwa to be universal and effective, the Uber of slip reservations, if you will. It would be a huge benefit. If Dockwa knew the length and draft of my boat, whether I was 30 amp, needed water, etc, and automatically matched me with marina's, and even better, available slips that met my requirements, I would use it every single time I wanted a slip, period.

I personally think you're shooting yourself in the foot saying "we're selective in the marinas that we have listed" if not being downright disingenuous. For example, I'm in Southport NC right now, at a very fine marina, and there is another very fine marina next door. Both are quite large, extremely well maintained and staff, offering a full suite of services, and have snappy and reliable internet connectivity. Neither is listed in Dockwa. I suspect from witnessing when I signed in their use of paper is the barrier. Sadly, Dockwa only has 9 marinas listed in North Carolina and the closest listed marina is some 15 miles away.

I understand that marinas need to use your booking engine to manage all their slips, and that makes sense. If they won't, for whatever reason, we can't book a slip there through Dockwa, so it all comes down to making your marina software as appealing a value as possible to marinas. It's free at the basic but pretty high value level, I see, so cost is not a barrier. Perhaps you should start giving them free tablets to use, lol.

Hopefully you can leverage your acquisition of Marinas.com to expand your penetration into marinas. I certainly hope so. Despite being rather negative in my review of Dockwa, I'd like nothing more than to see you succeed wildly. It would make my life that much easier.

[Dockwa]

Suijin,

Thank you for your response. I'm not being disingenuous when I say we are selective. We in fact removed over 60 marinas from the Dockwa platform over the last 3 months that did not exhibit the type of behavior that we believe is imperative to significantly improve the reservation experience for boaters like you. If we can't deliver on the promise of directly connecting you to the marinas, then how can we truly change the "way it's always been"?

We don't have everyone (yet) on the platform because not all marinas have decided to join Dockwa. We're working tirelessly to educate as many marinas as we can on the overall benefits. You're correct when you say that the Dockwa platform (even at the Basic level) provides a ton of operational value to the marinas that use it.

However, change is hard. As you know many marinas have been doing the same thing for many many years and are slow to adopt any innovations to their process. The good news is that the marinas that have adopted Dockwa to it's full potential are seeing material impacts on their business. This is good news for boaters because the more they adopt the software, the easier things become on their guests. These results are proving our original thesis that if you can make the lives easier of the marina operators, boaters will benefit. After only 18 months with a product in the market we are already seeing a positive shift in the way of thinking, but it does not happen as quickly as you or I would like.

I'm 100% in agreement with you that there are ways that we can and should make the Dockwa boater platform more intelligent. We have many plans to do so. To your point, there are so many possibilities when the amount of marinas using the platform gets to the critical mass that someone like you desires. If you would like to see specific marinas on the platform please email me. It's likely that our team is in active conversations with them already, but I will personally do everything I can to see if we can get them up and running.

Again, any and all feedback welcome. Reach out any time.

-Matt

[RTB]

Originally Posted by ProgSon

While I do not wish to name the marina it is frequently a hassle in getting a reservation and their basic communication skills. With that said when I found out they had signed on with Dockwa I immediately booked my reservation. I did not have to deal with faxing my credit card, waiting for confirmation and the entire transaction was smoother than it was before.

Furthermore, as a professional captain making it easy for me to book a reservation without having to fax my information and wonder which fax machine my credit card info is sitting on top of waiting to be lost or stolen is a huge plus.

If you own or operate a marina and don't use an automated reservation booking system like Dockwa you're creating extra hassle for the most important person in your business, your customer!

My marina (and none I've used in the past 4 years of cruising full time) have ever required that I pay up front before arriving at the marina. Actually, I won't accept your credit card number to confirm your reservation, because it is not needed until you are tied up at my dock and standing in the dock office. Maybe that IS the case for you where you travel. This is not a valid concern for anyone making a reservation outside of Dockwa that I can see, at least for most of us.

I am more than happy to take your Dockwa reservation, but disagree that not using an automated booking system we are creating extra hassles for our customers, at least for this marina. We have 340 slips, and manage with one dockmaster and an accountant/dock office person. We maxed out the marina before Hurricane Matthew by taking phone reservations. One person in the dock office handling the vhf, and a dockmaster and one maintenance guy catching lines. No time to be dealing with internet. This went on for 2 days non-stop.

I started this thread to see what was actually going on with cruisers and their preferred way of contacting marinas. Not to promote nor discourage Dockwa.

Definitely way less input than I had hoped for.

[valhalla360]

Never heard of it until this thread.

It is far different from a hotel noting your info in their system. That stays within one company. This info is spread out among many marinas of which you have no other relationship with.

I just don't see it having a lot of use unless it hits that critical mass. Selectively including marinas means I'm no getting all the options. This is what I really love about AC. It's not like the old cruising guides that only list the marinas that pay to be included (ie: selectively chosen)

[accomplice]

I've used Dockwa, but I prefer not to -- for several reasons.

First is that many of the places I go I have been before and know the people. To use an online reservation form makes it so impersonal. It also makes difficult the discussion of which slip I might have, whether I'll need to schedule my arrival/departure for particular tides, and the general pleasantries that one exchanges with a friendly person one sees a few times a year.

Second is that Dockwa requires that I put in a credit card to reserve a slip, and pay 100% of it in advance. I prefer not to do that. Some of the places that use Dockwa to manage their reservations now will *only* accept reservations on Dockwa. If I had a choice, I would not use it. To me, it makes those places *less* attractive.

In a nod to Dockwa, but also pointing out its shortcomings, last summer I made two reservations at the same place. I called to cancel them. Only one of them was canceled and I was charged for the other one. Dockwa promptly admitted their mistake and refunded my money for the other reservation. Good for them. I would never have had this problem, though, if I had simply asked George if he had any space that weekend, and then later called him to say I wasn't coming.

I can see why Dockwa would want cruisers using Dockwa. I can see why harbormasters/marinas might want cruisers to use Dockwa. I cannot see why I would want to use it -- and given a choice, I would not.

[Pendragon35]

I have Dockwa but haven't used it yet. I'd like to confirm something said up thread:
that Dockwa immediately charges the a credit card when the reservation is made.
Is this accurate?

[CaptTom]

First, as a cruiser let me say that I'm open to anything that might improve things for marinas and boaters, and I wish Dockwa well.

That said, I can't put aside a nagging skepticism. Maybe it's just aversion to change, but the OP asked a serious question, and the discussion since has somewhat strayed from what's in the mind of the boater.

I hate the idea of reservations. The most dangerous thing you can have on a boat is a schedule. I know that others with different cruising styles like to make reservations. But don't dismiss the fact that not everyone goes to a "destination" marina for their 2-week vacation in their floating condo.

I'd much rather wing it. My ideal technology would be something like AC, which lists all the marinas and has reviews, but I wish it were better at filtering and searching by various criteria. Show me all the marinas within 20 miles of my planned destination which have transient moorings/slips available tonight, fuel, a nearby grocery store, laundry, whatever. Oh, and sort them by price. I never trust a business that shies away from talking price.

That said, there are popular destinations where reservations are always required, or just on popular weekends. Sometimes I can't avoid those.

Once again, any technology to find and filter ALL of the available options would be the biggest help.

Sorry to say, I'd still call them to actually make the reservation. The hotel analogy breaks down here. I may need local knowledge; depths, currents, services available, which one is dock "C", whether it's better to bow-in or stern-in, etc. Or maybe I've been there before and I have a preference for where in the marina I'd like to be. There are just too many variables to treat slips like hotel rooms.

Then there's that whole schedule thing. I may not be there on the day I'd planned. Or I may get there and hate the place. I'd prefer not to be charged until I'm at the dock.

Sorry for going on at length, but the OP wanted details, so I'll share what I typically do now, and see if you can improve on that.

Underway, after I've got some confidence as to where I'd like to spend the night, I look up destinations on Active Captain. Usually using an app with locally cached data, since I don't always have internet access.

Sometimes I'm looking for an anchorage, sometimes I'd like a dock or mooring. But unless it's a "must see" destination, or I need a specific service, or I'm getting beaten up by weather, I'm usually pretty flexible.

All else being equal, price would be the biggest factor in my decision. Of course, all else is rarely equal, so a marina that distinguishes itself somehow always has an advantage. But a marina that doesn't advertise their rates will never be my first choice. That implies a "money is no object" approach, and I am uncomfortable around boaters who feel that way.

Be upfront and honest about your rates and services. Take my reservation over the phone, help me find my slip or mooring, let me know what other services are available, and treat me fairly. Right now, that's all the technology I need.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by ProgSon

YES I have used DockWa! I skipper two sailboats one in New England and one in the Southeast. My first experience was in May 2016 with Dockwa.
.................
If you own or operate a marina and don't use an automated reservation booking system like Dockwa you're creating extra hassle for the most important person in your business, your customer!

When I see a first post from someone and it's praising a product or service I get a bit suspicious. This is the Internet and we can be anything we want to be on the Internet. I'm going to discount your post about 99%.

That said, here are a few random thoughts:

I don't care if other marinas or businesses (or individuals) have my information except for my credit card information. If I was hiding something, I wouldn't be posting on web forums. It would be nice to call a marina and say "This is Captain Ron on HIGH COTTON." And have all my boat's information, name and address, phone number, etc. already filled out when I get there.

There are some marinas that charge credit cards to hold a reservation. I am a bit surprised that more don't. Suppose you change your mind and they have turned away another paying customer because they thought you were coming?

Some marinas are way too casual to use any sort of computerized system. They look out the window to see if they have a vacancy. These are the $1.00 per foot marinas. The one in St. Marys, GA comes to mind. The guy wouldn't even get up out of his chair to run my credit card. He asked me to do it. He didn't offer to help me dock, either.

Some marinas already have a system that works well for them. I saw one that had a diagram of the entire marina with symbols of boats (and the names of the boats) in the slips that were in use.

Personally, I don't care how a marina manages its slip reservations or billing as long as it doesn't add to my cost of staying there. I mentioned the convenience of them already knowing my boat's and my personal information so I don't have to fill out a form. That's worth about a dollar to me, no more.

When I cruise, there is a very informal schedule. I seldom make a marina reservation more than a day or two in advance.

The bottom line is, I am not against any marina reservation service as long as it doesn't increase my cost of staying there but I wouldn't seek out a marina that's using a particular service. At least at this time.