How to Budget a Resort Dock for the Season: Revenue, Costs and the Numbers to Track

A resort dock budget is built from capacity rather than last year’s total: metres of berth available, multiplied by expected occupancy and rate in each season band, plus power, day berth and service income, set against staffing, utilities, maintenance, insurance, concession fees and systems.

The result is a monthly plan the GM can track against actuals, and a dock that can be staffed to the standard guests expect because its contribution is known in advance. This guide covers the revenue lines, the cost lines and the four numbers worth reviewing every month of the season.

Key Takeaways

• Start the revenue budget from metres of berth available per night, not from last season’s total.

• Forecast each season band separately, because occupancy and rates move together.

• Budget shore power as a recovery line against what the property pays for electricity.

• List every dock cost, including staff hours borrowed from other departments.

• Give waived berths and hospitality their own line, so the dock’s generosity stays visible.

• Track four numbers monthly: occupancy by metre, revenue per metre, power recovered and charges uncollected.

What goes into a resort dock budget?

A dock budget has two halves. The revenue side covers everything the waterfront sells, and each line has its own driver. The cost side covers everything the property spends to keep the dock at the standard of the rest of the resort, which at many properties is spread across several departments’ budgets and never added up in one place.

Contracted income is more predictable than visitor income, so it helps to keep the two apart. A budget that shows contracted income separately tells the GM how much of the season is already secured before the first visiting yacht arrives.

Build berth revenue from capacity, then apply occupancy by season band

Capacity is the total length of usable berth multiplied by the nights the dock is open. Measuring it in metres rather than in berths matters because a resort dock sells space: a 30-metre yacht in a 30-metre berth and a 9-metre boat in the same berth occupy the same position but earn very different amounts. Occupancy measured in metre-nights reflects what the dock actually sold.

Apply occupancy and rate separately for each season band, because both move together. Peak weeks run fuller at higher rates, shoulder weeks fill unevenly, and low-season nights may sell at a fraction of the peak rate or not at all. If you have last season’s records, take occupancy from them. If you do not, start with conservative assumptions, write them down, and replace them with actuals after the first month.

The figures below are illustrative, not a published result. They model a dock with 240 metres of usable berth, open for 182 nights.

In this illustration, the dock has 43,680 metre-nights available, so forecast berth revenue works out at about €3.86 of berth revenue per metre per night across the season. That figure is the berth fee alone; revenue per metre, the monthly measure below, adds day berth, shore power and dock services to it.

Budget shore power as a recovery against what the property pays

Electricity at the pedestal is both a cost and a revenue line, and the budget should show both. On the cost side, estimate the kilowatt hours the marine circuits will supply and the price the property pays. On the revenue side, budget what you expect to bill on your published tariff. The gap between the two is the figure to manage.

A dock that meters every pedestal can budget recovery from last season’s readings. A dock that estimates or bundles power should budget conservatively and treat metering as a decision for the next season, since vessel consumption varies too widely for an estimate to hold. The method is set out in the guide to metering and billing shore power, and the options for resort docks are on the page about shore power metering and billing.

List every cost the dock carries, including shared staff

The cost side is where dock budgets tend to look healthier than they are, because several costs sit in other departments. Listing them in one place is the clearest way to see what the waterfront really costs to run at the standard the property sets.

Software is often a smaller line than staff or maintenance, but it is worth budgeting properly because it decides whether the other lines can be measured. The pricing models used in this market are compared in the guide to what marina and marine-amenity software costs in Europe.

Give waived berths and hospitality a line of their own

Resorts give dock space away for good reasons: a tender bringing guests to a booked lunch, an owner staying in a suite, a returning guest the GM wants to look after. Those decisions protect the guest experience, and the budget should support them. What it should not do is hide them.

Budget an allowance for waived and discounted dock use, and record each waiver as a charge at full value with the discount applied. At the end of the month, the dock’s gross revenue, its hospitality allowance and its net revenue are all visible, and the contribution the dock makes to food and beverage can be shown rather than assumed. Where some charges reach the guest’s room bill, the routes are compared in the guide to dock charges and the guest folio.

Track four numbers every month of the season

A budget is only useful if actuals are compared with it while there is still time to act. These four numbers, reviewed monthly, show whether the dock is on plan and why.

The last two are often where a budget is lost. A dock can be full, priced well and still miss its number because power goes unbilled and visits go unrecorded. The guide to mooring revenue that survives an audit sets out the records that close those gaps.

Budget from records rather than memory

Every figure in this guide depends on three records: berths with their real lengths, every visit with its vessel and dates, and every charge tied to both. When those live in a booking spreadsheet, a meter book and a card terminal, the budget is rebuilt from memory each autumn, which is how the hidden costs of spreadsheet dependency build up.

In Harba, the operating system for the dock, each berth carries its dimensions, each visit carries the vessel and the dates, and each charge is recorded against both, running alongside the PMS rather than inside it. How that works without changing the room side is set out on the page about marine operations alongside your PMS.

Set the budget before the pre-season checks begin

The budget decides how many people the dock needs, which pedestals need metering and what the rate card should say, so it belongs before the pre-season work rather than after it. Once the numbers are agreed, work through the guide to pre-season readiness at the dock, which turns them into the twenty checks to run before the first guests arrive.

To see your dock budget built from live records, book a demo and bring your berth list, last season’s rates and last season’s marine revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you forecast berth revenue for a resort dock with no history?

Start from capacity: total metres of usable berth multiplied by the nights the dock is open. Apply a conservative occupancy and your published rate per metre for each season band, then replace the assumptions with actuals after the first month. Records from the first season become next year’s baseline, which is why it matters to capture every charge from the start.

2. Should the dock be a separate line in a hotel’s P&L?

Yes, if it carries enough revenue to make decisions about. A separate line lets the GM see what the dock earns, what it costs and what it contributes to F&B through waived berths. Mixing dock income into rooms or guest services hides all three. Charges that reach the room bill can still be reported as dock revenue if they are recorded against the berth first, as the guide to dock charges and the guest folio explains.

3. Which dock costs are easy to miss in a hotel budget?

Staff hours borrowed from concierge, security or F&B, electricity billed to the property as a whole, mooring inspection and replacement, card fees on dock payments taken at reception, and concession or permit fees. Each sits comfortably in another budget, which is why the dock can look cheaper to run than it is. The pattern is described in the guide to the hidden costs of spreadsheet dependency at a resort marina.

4. How much shore power should a resort dock expect to recover?

There is no fair benchmark, because recovery depends on the tariff, the vessel mix and whether every pedestal is metered. The useful target is a gap between kilowatt hours supplied and kilowatt hours billed that you can explain, reviewed monthly. The method is in the guide to metering and billing shore power.

5. How often should a resort review its dock budget during the season?

Monthly, against the four numbers: occupancy by metre, revenue per metre, power recovered and charges uncollected. A weekly glance at occupancy helps in peak weeks, but a monthly review is enough to adjust staffing, rates or follow-up on unpaid accounts while the season is still running. The wider case for measuring the dock’s return is in the guide to resort marina ROI.

6. Does dock software belong in the dock budget or the IT budget?

In the dock budget, because it is part of what the dock costs to run and part of what makes its revenue measurable. The decision between extending the PMS and running a dedicated dock system is compared in build it into the PMS or buy a dock system.