Day Berth Pricing at a Resort: How to Build a Rate Card by Metre, Night and Season

A resort day berth rate card prices each stay per metre of length overall, multiplied by a rate for the time unit used (short stay, day or night) and for the season band. It adds a minimum chargeable length, published surcharges and a clear list of what the rate includes.

Many published berthing tariffs use the same structure. It suits a resort because it scales fairly from a 9-metre day boat to a 30-metre motor yacht, and it stays simple enough for a guest to check. This guide works through each decision, then builds an illustrative rate card you can rebuild with your own figures.

Key Takeaways

• Price per metre of length overall (LOA), in a few length bands, because length is what a boat takes from the dock.

• Sell the time units guests actually use: a brief landing, a short stay, a full day and a night.

• Set peak, shoulder and low bands from your own occupancy records rather than a neighbour’s calendar.

• Publish a minimum chargeable length, a multihull rule and any premium positions before the season opens.

• State what the berth rate includes, meter shore power separately, and decide in advance how hotel guests and diners are treated.

• Review the card every season against utilisation, revenue per metre and the boats you turned away.

Price by the metre, because length is what a boat takes from the dock

Length overall is the standard basis for berthing charges because it is the dimension that consumes pontoon space, and it is the figure every skipper knows without checking. Many published tariffs use it. The 2024/25 tariff of Gunwharf Quays Marina in Portsmouth (checked October 2026), for example, prices both short stays and overnight visits per metre of overall length, in bands running from under 12 metres to over 30.

A single rate per metre is the simplest card to publish. Many resorts find that three to five length bands work better, with the rate per metre rising for larger boats. That reflects real costs at the dock: bigger yachts need the deeper, wider positions a resort has fewest of, more line handling on arrival and higher-rated power. It also stops a 28-metre yacht taking the best berth on the pontoon at the same per-metre price as a day boat.

At the large-yacht end, some Mediterranean marinas price on area instead. The 2025 price list of Flisvos Marina in Athens (checked October 2026) calculates its mooring fees on length multiplied by beam, with minimum chargeable dimensions and a ratio rule so that unusually wide boats cannot pay as if they were narrow. Area pricing is fairer for a dock that regularly hosts wide motor yachts, but it is harder for a guest to check, so many resorts keep length as the base and handle width through a surcharge.

Set a minimum chargeable length as well, often the length of your shortest berth, so that a 7-metre boat occupying a 12-metre position pays for the space it blocks.

Sell the time units guests actually use

A resort dock is used in more ways than an overnight marina. Lunch guests from a yacht at anchor want three hours. Spa guests want an afternoon. A skipper collecting passengers wants twenty minutes. Visiting yachts want a night or a week. Pricing all of these as a full day either overcharges the short visit or gives away a berth that could have turned over twice.

Published tariffs show both approaches to the short stay. Gunwharf Quays sells a stay of up to four hours per metre per stay, alongside a landing fee for stops of a few minutes, while Howth Yacht Club in Dublin (rates checked October 2026) charges a single flat price for up to four hours and per-metre rates by the day, week and month. Per-metre pricing is fairer when vessel sizes vary widely, which at a resort dock they often do.

Whichever units you choose, write down where one ends and the next begins: the time a day stay must leave by, and what happens to a short stay that overruns. A rule set in advance becomes a charge. A rule invented at the pontoon becomes an argument with a guest.

Set season bands from your own occupancy records

Many Mediterranean properties use three bands: peak, shoulder and low. The tempting shortcut is to copy the months a neighbouring marina uses. A better method is to go through last season’s dock records and mark the weeks when you turned boats away or ran close to full at midday. Those are your peak weeks, wherever they fall, and they may not match the calendar a marina uses because hotel occupancy, events and school holidays drive resort demand too.

The ratio between bands is a commercial decision rather than a formula. The peak rate should fill the busiest days without queues at the pontoon, and the low rate should earn something from boats that might otherwise go elsewhere. If you have no records yet, pick a starting ratio, label it as an assumption internally, and correct it after one season of data. Add an event premium only for named dates, such as a regatta week, and publish it with the rest of the card so it does not read as opportunistic pricing.

Decide surcharges and adjustments before the first boat asks

Multihulls and wide beams

A catamaran can take up most of the width of two monohull berths, so some tariffs add a surcharge. Howth Yacht Club, for example, applies 50 per cent to catamarans. A fairer variant applies the surcharge only when beam exceeds what the berth was built for, so a narrow catamaran pays the normal rate. Whichever you choose, it depends on having the vessel’s beam on record before arrival rather than judging it on approach.

Premium positions

Alongside berths, end-of-pontoon positions and berths closest to the restaurant or beach club are worth more to a guest. Flisvos Marina charges vessels berthing alongside at double its stern-to rate. A resort does not need to go that far, but a named premium position with its own published rate is far easier to defend than a quiet upgrade given to some guests and not others.

Hotel guests, diners and non-residents

This is the decision unique to a resort. A yacht whose owners are staying in a suite, a tender bringing eight covers to lunch and a passing boat with no other spend are worth different amounts to the property. Common approaches include a reduced or waived short-stay rate for confirmed restaurant or spa bookings, a guest rate for registered hotel guests, and the full card for everyone else. Whatever you choose, record the waived or discounted berth as a charge at full value with the discount applied, so the dock’s contribution to food and beverage stays visible in the numbers.

Guarantees and cancellations

Peak day berths are scarce. Take a card guarantee for peak bookings and publish a cancellation window, because a berth held for a no-show is a berth you refused to someone else.

State what the berth rate includes and meter power separately

Guests compare your card with the last marina they visited, so say clearly what the berth rate covers, such as line handling, water, Wi-Fi, waste and use of guest facilities, and whether any transfer from the pontoon is included. Keep shore power out of the bundle and meter it, because consumption between a day boat and a large motor yacht running air conditioning differs too widely for one price to be fair. The method is set out in the guide to metering and billing shore power.

Show whether prices include VAT, and confirm the VAT treatment of berthing and electricity with your finance team or a local adviser, since it varies by country and by how the service is supplied.

Build the rate card in six steps

1. Inventory the dock. List every day berth and landing with usable length, depth and power rating, plus the hours each is available.

2. Set length bands and a minimum. Match the bands to your actual berth sizes, and set the minimum chargeable length.

3. Define the time units. Landing, short stay, day, night and week, each with a written start and end.

4. Set base rates in the peak band. Benchmark against published tariffs within a day’s cruising, then position the resort by the value of what guests get ashore. Derive shoulder and low rates from the peak rate.

5. Add the adjustments. Multihull or beam rule, premium positions, and the treatment of hotel guests, diners and non-residents.

6. Publish the terms. Inclusions, cancellation window and VAT basis, published wherever guests book or enquire.

An illustrative rate card for a Mediterranean resort dock

The figures below are illustrative, not a published result or a recommended price. They show how the structure works so you can rebuild it with your own rates. All rates are per metre of LOA in the peak band.

In this illustration, shoulder rates are 70 per cent of peak and low rates 50 per cent, multihulls pay a 50 per cent surcharge, landings of up to 20 minutes are free for hotel and restaurant guests, and shore power is metered on top. Applied to four typical visits:

• A 16-metre motor yacht on a peak short stay for lunch: 16 × €3.50 = €56. If the property waives short stays for confirmed diners, the charge is still recorded at €56 with a €56 discount.

• A 22-metre motor yacht staying two nights in the shoulder band: 22 × €12.00 × 0.7 × 2 = €369.60, plus metered power.

• A 13-metre catamaran for a peak day: 13 × €7.00 × 1.5 = €136.50.

• An 8-metre day boat on a peak short stay, charged at the 10-metre minimum: 10 × €3.00 = €30.

Apply the card the same way at the pontoon as online

A rate card only protects revenue if it is applied consistently. The usual leak at resorts is discretion at the dock: a friendly waiver for a regular, a length estimated from the approach, a short stay that runs into the evening without a second charge. Take LOA from the booking or the vessel record rather than by eye, raise the charge when the boat ties up rather than when someone remembers, and settle it before departure by card at the dock or on account, since many day visitors have no room bill to charge against. Where the guest is staying, the routes towards the room bill are compared in the guide to dock charges and the guest folio.

In Harba, day berths and tender positions sit on a live map with their dimensions, vessel records carry length and beam, and the charge is raised as the tender ties up and settled at the dock by card or on account. The full picture is on the page about day berth and tender management for waterfront hotels.

Review the card every season against three numbers

At the end of each season, compare three figures by length band and season band: utilisation by hour, revenue per metre of berth per day, and the log of boats you could not fit. High utilisation with a long turn-away list says the peak rate is too low. Low utilisation in shoulder weeks says the band boundaries or the rate need moving. A busy short-stay band with empty afternoons may mean the four-hour limit is too generous. Revenue per metre is the figure that compares fairly across berths of different lengths, and how to calculate it alongside utilisation is set out in the guide to berth utilisation and revenue per metre. These numbers come from the dock’s own records, which is one more reason to keep them somewhere better than a paper list. What the dock can contribute once it is measured is covered in the guide to growing revenue the PMS never captured.

See your rate card running against your own berths

To see day berth pricing applied from booking to the charge at the pontoon, book a demo and bring your berth layout, last season’s rates and a typical peak day.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How should a resort price day berths, per metre or per boat?

Per metre of length overall, in a few length bands. A flat price per boat is simple but means a day boat subsidises a large yacht occupying the best position, while per-metre pricing scales with the space each vessel takes. It works best when vessel lengths are recorded at booking, as they are in a day berth and tender management system.

2. What should a hotel dock charge for a lunch stop or short stay?

Often a per-metre short-stay rate set below the full day rate, covering up to three or four hours, or a flat fee for small boats. Some resorts reduce or waive it for guests with a confirmed restaurant booking, which works well if the berth is still recorded at full value. Lunch traffic by water is one of the sources covered in 10 ways resorts grow income from the dock.

3. Should hotel guests pay for a day berth at their own resort?

That is a commercial choice, but it should be a published rule rather than a decision made at the pontoon. Common options are a guest rate, a waived short stay or the full card with the charge posted towards the room bill. How a dock charge can reach the guest is set out in the guide to dock charges and the guest folio.

4. How much more should a catamaran pay for a day berth?

A 50 per cent surcharge on the monohull rate is applied in some published tariffs, including Howth Yacht Club’s, because a catamaran can take most of the width of two berths. A fairer rule charges it only when beam exceeds what the berth was built for, which requires beam on the vessel record before arrival.

5. Should shore power be included in the day berth rate?

Keep it out of the berth rate and meter it per pedestal, particularly for full days and nights, because consumption varies too much between vessels for one bundled price to be fair. The options are covered on the page about shore power metering and billing for resort docks.

6. When should a resort publish next season’s day berth rates?

Before the first enquiries for the season arrive. Publishing late leaves the team quoting from memory and guests comparing against last year. Fitting rate setting into the wider preparation is part of pre-season readiness at the dock.