Booking Manager Market Safety Policies

Several payments in the wrong direction are enough to lose an entire year's worth of profits for smaller companies. With that in mind, Booking Manager platform provides an additional level of security for both charter providers and agencies. MMK Booking Manager is doing the following basic checks of the companies joining the System:

1. Legal Entity Registration Check

2. Fleet Documentation

3. Booking Manager Platform Rules

4. Golden Partner Program for fleets and agencies with additional limited liability guarantees

5. Three strikes rule

6. Third-Party Certificates

1. Legal Entity Registration Check

Both charter providers and agencies need to be correctly licensed to operate. Booking Manager follows the appropriate regulation in the companies' domicile country to validate that service is legally executed. In case of charter providers this is important because it lowers the risks for clients and agencies if they work with new partners. New companies’ registration documents are checked. The existing, longer standing fleets are also validated by market, and we monitor companies that defaulted on their services even before declaring formal bankruptcy. We especially reject cases where new registration is done with the intention not to honour previous booking obligations and release the same boats on the market as available.

2. Fleet Documentation

Booking Manager requires additional paperwork for each new boat registration in order to confirm the existence and legal status of each vessel. It is important that a particular charter operator is in charge of the boat, either owns the boat directly or operates it for the owner legally under charter management. Also, in some jurisdictions, boats need additional licenses to be able to operate commercially.

3. Booking Manager Platform Rules

A standard service contract with each charter provider defines a basic code of conduct that ensures reliability and truthfulness of the offer in the Booking Manager System. Availability and price displayed are guaranteed and to be listed in real-time, and each fleet needs to guarantee that direct booking via the platform will be honoured and override any request simultaneously coming via manual sources, such as email or phone calls. Additionally, fleets are responsible that boat specifications and equipment information is correct and matches reality. On the other side, agencies using the System are expected to operate in good faith and use direct option and booking functionality to book for real clients.

4. Golden Partner Program

If the charter fleet operates a minimum of 18 months on the market, it has a possibility to become an MMK Golden Partner. Golden partners are fleets that sign an exclusive contract with Booking Manager as theirs only distribution channel. This increases the reliability of data since the charter fleet is maintaining it in only one relevant location, and in turn, MMK provides financial guarantees and assumes liability for the payment of the service in case it is not fulfilled.

5. Three Strikes Rule

Some charter fleets or agencies are operating in grey zones and not playing completely fair on the marketplace, and some are outright defrauding their clients. If this is a systemic behaviour of some companies, Booking Manager has the ability to detect it very quickly, and if too many of these grey area events happen, it raises a red flag and the fleet can get banned from the System. Behaviours vary from easily detectable ones such as holding out the security deposit for no apparent reason or overbooking the same boat on purpose and then declaring it is on maintenance and providing an inferior replacement, to taking the deposited advance payments and never providing the service. The same is valid for agencies that exhibit similar behaviours, such as not transferring clients payments. Of course, if we detect an obvious fraud case that passed our initial checks, we cancel their accounts instantly.

6. Third-Party Certificates

In cooperation with insurance companies, certification entities and service rating services, Booking Manager displays all additional data that is available about a particular company. European Insurance Services from Berlin provides information about stability and insurance levels within companies. Rating systems such as Yacht Check and Euminia provide direct feedback from existing guests. IBCS Anchored as a standards certification and best practices training company provides information about the level of organisation in each company.

Safety policies for the yacht charter industry provided here will be regularly updated following market standards and conditions. The main goal is that these safety policies form the backbone of a fair and healthy business environment, from which yacht charter professionals will continuously prosper in all business segments.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the Booking Manager Market Safety Policies feel free to contact us via form below.