Berth Utilisation and Revenue per Metre: The Two Numbers a Dock Should Report Every Month

Report two numbers and the marine amenity becomes manageable: berth utilisation, which is the share of available berth nights you actually sold, and revenue per metre, which is total marine revenue divided by the linear metres of berth you operate. Utilisation tells you whether the dock is full, measured as physical occupancy, meaning whether a boat was actually in the berth. Revenue per metre tells you whether being full is worth anything. Contracted berths get a second, separate line called revenue utilisation, which is covered below. Many properties report neither, which is why the honest answer to how the amenity performed last season is often that it felt busy. This guide sets out how to calculate both without flattering yourself, and what to do when each one moves.

Key Takeaways

• Utilisation is sold berth nights divided by available berth nights, with out-of-service berths excluded from the denominator.

• Revenue per metre normalises for berth size, which is why it beats revenue per berth at a dock with mixed vessel lengths.

• Count all marine revenue in the numerator, including power and services, or the number flatters the berth rate.

• Segment both figures by resident, seasonal and transient, because they behave differently.

• Report contracted berths twice, once as revenue and once as physical occupancy, since the gap is sellable capacity.

• Compare both numbers against your own previous periods rather than an industry benchmark, and report them monthly.

Berth utilisation is sold berth nights over available berth nights

The calculation is simple and the denominator is where properties go wrong. Available berth nights means the berths that could actually have been sold in the period, so a berth closed for pontoon repairs or reserved permanently for the property's own boat comes out of the denominator rather than counting as an empty berth you failed to fill. Sold berth nights means nights a berth was occupied by a paying boat, whether that boat was a hotel guest, a visitor or a contracted holder.

Take a dock with 40 berths in a 30-day month. If three berths are out of service for the whole month, available berth nights are 37 multiplied by 30, which is 1,110. If you sold 820 of them, utilisation is 74 percent. These are illustrative figures rather than a published result, and the point is the method: the same dock reporting against 40 berths would have claimed 68 percent and quietly blamed itself for berths it could never have let.

Revenue per metre is what tells you whether being full is worth anything

Utilisation on its own is a vanity number, because a dock can be completely full of small boats on last decade's rates. Revenue per metre fixes that by dividing total marine revenue by the linear metres of berth you operate, which normalises for the fact that a 25-metre berth and a 10-metre berth are very different assets.

Add up the berth length of every berth you count as available, using the same availability rule as the utilisation calculation. Taking the same dock as above, the 37 available berths at an average of 12 metres give 444 metres; if the month produced €62,000 of marine revenue, that is roughly €140 per metre. These are illustrative figures rather than a published result, so rebuild them on your own berth lengths and revenue, because berth mix varies enormously between properties.

Put everything the dock earned in the numerator, not just the berth fee

Revenue per metre is only honest if the numerator is complete. That means berth and mooring fees, day berths, metered shore power, water and services, and anything else the dock sells. Properties that count the berth fee alone end up with a number that measures their rate card rather than the amenity, and then cannot explain why the figure barely moved after they started billing power properly.

Decide the treatment once and keep it stable. Whether you report net of VAT or gross matters less than reporting the same way every month, since the figure earns its value from comparability. The underlying requirement that every charge stays attributable to the dock is covered in the guide to mooring revenue that survives an audit.

Segment both numbers by resident, seasonal and transient

A blended figure hides the thing you would act on. Resident and seasonal berth holders produce predictable revenue at a lower rate per metre. Transient and day-berth traffic produces a higher rate per metre and arrives unevenly. A dock that mixes them into one line cannot tell whether a soft month came from fewer visitors or from a contract that lapsed.

Report three rows rather than one, with utilisation and revenue per metre on each. The shape of those three rows tells you where the capacity actually is, and it often shows that the transient segment is both the smallest and the most valuable per metre.

A contracted berth is not automatically a full berth

This is a common and expensive error in dock reporting. Properties treat every contracted berth as 100 percent utilised for the season, because somebody is paying for it. Commercially that is defensible; operationally it hides the largest recovery opportunity you have, because a contracted boat that is away cruising for three weeks leaves a berth that could have been sold to a visitor and was not.

Report contracted berths twice: once as revenue, which is what the contract produces, and once as physical occupancy, which is whether a boat was actually in the water. The gap between those two lines is the capacity you could sell without building anything, and filling it depends on knowing the berth is free, which is what a live berth map provides. The allocation side of that is covered in the guide to automating berth allocation.

Read the two numbers together, because each one explains the other

Four combinations cover most situations. High utilisation with flat revenue per metre usually means your rates are behind the market, since you are selling everything you have at a price nobody is arguing with. Low utilisation with strong revenue per metre usually means the berth mix is wrong, because the boats that want to come cannot fit the berths you have.

Both low means a demand or visibility problem rather than a pricing one. Both rising means the amenity is working, and that is the month to ask finance for the pontoon investment, because you have two comparable figures rather than an anecdote. The revenue levers behind these movements are set out in the guide to growing revenue the PMS never captured.

Compare against your own history rather than an industry benchmark

Published benchmarks for this category are thin, inconsistently defined and rarely comparable to a hotel dock, so chasing one is a poor use of a GM's attention. The useful comparison is the same month last year, the same month two years ago, and the trailing twelve months, all calculated the same way.

That is also the honest answer when the owner asks how the dock compares to the market. You can say what it does compared with itself, explain which direction it is moving and why, and avoid attaching the property's investment case to a number nobody can source.

What to run every month, in order

1. Confirm available berths and remove anything genuinely out of service from the denominator.

2. Pull sold berth nights, split into resident, seasonal and transient.

3. Pull total marine revenue for the period, including power and services.

4. Calculate utilisation and revenue per metre for each of the three segments.

5. Compare both against the same month last year and the trailing twelve months.

6. Note the one decision each number suggests, even when that decision is to do nothing.

The last step is what turns reporting into management. A number with no decision attached tends to stop being produced within a few months, which is how dock reporting quietly dies.

Start with one clean month before you build a year of history

Pick last month, calculate both numbers properly, and see whether your current records can actually produce them. Most properties discover the gap is in the underlying data: berth nights were never recorded consistently and power was estimated rather than metered. That is the thing worth fixing first, since both numbers are only as good as what the dock captured at the time.

To see what your own dock would report with that data in one place, book a demo and bring your berth list, your rate card and last month's marine revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you calculate berth utilisation at a hotel dock?

Divide sold berth nights by available berth nights for the period. Available means berths that could genuinely have been let, so anything out of service for repairs or permanently reserved for the property comes out of the denominator. Counting unavailable berths as empty inventory understates the figure and makes the dock look worse than it performed.

2. What is revenue per metre and why use it instead of revenue per berth?

Revenue per metre is total marine revenue divided by the linear metres of berth you operate, and it is the better measure because berths differ in size. Revenue per berth treats a 25-metre berth and a 10-metre berth as equivalent assets, so a dock that attracts larger boats looks the same as one that does not. Per metre normalises that and makes periods comparable even when the berth mix changes.

3. Should shore power and services count in revenue per metre?

Yes, include everything the dock earns: berth and mooring fees, day berths, metered power, water and services. Counting the berth fee alone measures your rate card rather than the amenity, and it hides the effect of improvements such as metering power properly. Whichever treatment you choose for VAT, apply it the same way every month so the figures stay comparable.

4. How should a dock report contracted berth holders in utilisation?

Report them on two lines. Revenue utilisation counts the berth as sold because the contract is paying, and physical occupancy counts whether a boat was actually in the water. The gap between the two is sellable capacity when a contracted boat is away, and a dock that only reports the first line never sees it.

5. What is a good berth utilisation rate for a resort marina?

There is no reliable published benchmark worth managing against, because definitions vary and hotel docks differ too much from commercial marinas. Compare against your own previous periods instead: the same month last year, the same month two years ago, and the trailing twelve months, all calculated identically. The trend is actionable in a way an external figure is not.

6. How often should these two numbers be reported?

Monthly. A figure produced once a year arrives too late to change anything, and a dock running a short season needs to see a soft month while there is still season left to respond to it. Attach one decision to each number every month, even when the decision is to leave things as they are.