AI phone receptionist for yacht and boat charter
Quick summary
- You are in the cockpit doing the Saturday briefing. That is when the published number rings.
- The first question is week charter, day boat, or a briefing you already have — those are three different jobs.
- It takes the week, skipper or bareboat, and how many berths. It never says they are covered, and it never says a licence is enough.
- A family who found you on a search will not wait on voicemail. They ring the next base on the same quay.
- It checks the diary before it offers a viewing or a briefing time, writes it in, and texts the confirmation.
- On changeover Saturday several people ring at once. It answers every line at once.
TL;DR
You are in the cockpit going through the inventory with a crew that wants to leave before the wind. The published number rings. The family who wants the first week of August will not leave a message. The skipper question and the deposit question will not leave one either. They dial the next base on the same quay. An assistant answers in the caller's language, asks whether this is a week charter, a day boat, or a briefing already on the sheet, takes the week, skipper or bareboat, and a time to view or for the briefing, and never says they are covered. It does not decide a licence. It does not invent a week's price from a description of a boat.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the published number with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands in the office still takes the call.
- Teach it the first question: week charter, day boat, or a briefing you already have — and do not let it jump to a time before that split.
- On a week request it takes the dates, skipper or bareboat, and berths. Give it the sentence: it cannot say they are covered, and it cannot say a licence is enough.
- Let it book viewings and briefing times that the diary shows as free. Keep deposit, licence, insurance and a week's price as a callback unless you typed a published figure.
- On changeover Saturday shorten the ring-time before forwarding so overflow is caught before the third ring-out.
- Give it the line verbatim: the base will look at the week. It does not invent a price from eight people and a catamaran.
What an AI phone receptionist does at a charter base
You are in the cockpit with a crew that wants to leave before the wind. The inventory is open. The handheld is in your pocket. The published number rings. You cannot climb back to the office. The colleague is on the fuel dock with the next boat. There is no third pair of hands.
You put the assistant on the number already on the website, on the Google listing, and on the board at the marina gate. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It takes a week request. Or it books a viewing or a briefing time that is actually free.
The first question is whether this is a week charter, a day boat, or a briefing they already have with you. A family who found you on a search is not a 10:00 briefing. A briefing is not “are we covered for the dinghy”. An assistant that opens with “which week would you like?” will put a cockpit problem into a sales hour and leave the crew on the pontoon without a note.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in German gets it in German. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
In the cockpit, and the phone still ringing
One of you is already walking a crew through gas, water, and the thing they must not do with the dinghy painter. The other is on the fuel dock. The published number still rings.
It is a burst. Changeover Saturday. The Monday after a week of meltemi, when people want to move a start. The afternoon a portal dumped three enquiries that all want the same catamaran. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.
The family who wants the first week of August will not wait on voicemail. They have your name and two other bases in the same search, often on the same quay. They hang up and dial the next office. The person who needs to know whether a skipper is free that week will not leave a message either.
Clients whose briefing is already on the sheet will often wait. A person who cannot start a week, and a person who cannot get a skipper answer, will not. If those two wait behind the briefing you are already in, the week is gone, and the crew on the water rings the emergency number you meant for something else.
Whoever takes the first week often takes the next season. That is why a missed Saturday call is not only a missed viewing.
Week charter, day boat, or a briefing — then skipper or bareboat
Week charter. They do not have a boat with you yet, or they think a week is still open. Dates, how many berths, catamaran or monohull if they said, skipper or bareboat. The assistant takes those facts. It looks at the diary. It does not invent a week’s price from a description of a boat. It does not say they are covered. It does not say a licence is enough. If you have closed that week, it says so on the first call, from the line you typed in.
Day boat. Hours, how many people, whether you even run days. A Saturday afternoon on a small boat is not a week on a catamaran. Mark them as different, or you will sit a family of eight in a viewing that was meant for a four-hour run.
Briefing or change they already have. The wind is up, they want to start earlier, a fender is missing, they want to know who to call on the water. The assistant takes the boat name or the skipper’s name if they have it, then what they asked. It does not give seamanship advice. It does not say they can leave without the rest of the inventory. If they are already on the pontoon, that is a flag to a phone you actually hold.
People remember the week. They do not remember your booking code. Ask for the dates first, then skipper or bareboat, then berths. One week and a berth count is enough to put the note on the right file. None is still a note, not a guess.
Bareboat and skipper are not the same product. An assistant that writes “boat, August” has not done the job. The skipper’s week is stock, like a van. If you are out of skippers, that is a fact from the line you typed, or a callback — not a hopeful yes.
A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say
“Are we covered?” is the question on this phone. It comes with the deposit, with the dinghy, with a week towards Turkey, and with a licence held up to a camera.
The assistant does not answer it. Not with yes. Not with “you should be fine”. Not with “the deposit is usually returned”. A sentence that sounds like cover, said on the recorded line, is a sentence the base now owns, and the assistant cannot see the contract, the waiver, the inventory, or what an insurer will do.
The line you give it is short: the base will look at the week. Cover is not decided on this call. A licence is not decided on this call.
“Is my German ICC enough?”, “can we go without a skipper?”, “can we take it to Turkey?”, and “who is at fault if we scratch the quay?” are still decisions this line does not make. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the advice. It does not give legal advice. It does not give weather advice that sounds like a go or a no-go.
Do not put a cover table or a licence list in the notes unmarked. It will read the table out.
Changeover Saturday, and everyone at once
Saturday. By eight, people have started ringing about weeks they saw online overnight. You are already in the first cockpit. The pad is already a list of boats that have not yet been signed back in.
The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your briefing. A week request in that hour is a viewing or a callback. A briefing they already have is a note on that boat. If the assistant parks the family who wants August behind the tenth “can we start earlier” call, that family rings the next base.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding on those mornings. After the first two briefings the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in January is people asking for next season, and one person left in the office.
October is its own problem. Some of you pull boats. Some of you leave a skipper on a last week. The published number still rings. Set the closure dates. Do not let the assistant book a briefing into a week when the base is dark.
A week’s price nobody can give from a description of a boat
When someone describes a boat on the phone — a catamaran, they think forty feet, eight people, first week of August, maybe a skipper — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.
Week, boat, skipper, one-way, fuel policy and what is already on option all change the work. A number quoted before anyone has seen the week on the sheet and the boat on the pontoon is a number you then spend the viewing taking back.
It can repeat a published starting figure you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen August weeks, a skipper you may not have, a one-way to a different island, a day boat described as a week — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the viewing. Last season’s catamaran price is not this season’s price. The assistant does not quote it.
If they press — “just a round figure, we are looking at two bases” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a viewing is free. Flag it if they need an answer today because another base asked for a hold.
Deposit, licence, Turkey, and “who do we call on the water?”
Deposit. They want the figure, and they want to know if it comes back. The assistant takes the question. It does not say the amount unless you typed a published figure it may repeat. It does not say the deposit is refundable. “You are covered” is forbidden here too.
Licence. They name a German ICC, a national ticket, a VHF. The assistant notes what they said. It does not say it is enough. It does not say they can go bareboat. It books a time to show the papers, or flags you.
Another country’s waters. Turkey, Albania, a one-way they saw on a forum. The assistant takes the destination as a request. It does not say it is allowed. That is not a diary fact. It is not legal advice this line can give.
On the water. A missing fender, a skipper they cannot reach, a noise in the engine. If they are already out, that is a transfer to a phone you hold. The assistant collects a name, a boat name, and where they think they are. It does not tell them to keep going, to stop, or to ignore a warning light.
A caller who is at home in March, looking at August, is a week request and, if the diary is free, a viewing.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the site and on the board at the gate. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the office picks up never leave the base.
- Every line is answered at once. A changeover Saturday is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the base you described. What you offer, whether you have a skipper that week, how a week note should look, who is on the pontoon on Saturday.
- It asks week, day boat, or briefing first, then dates, skipper or bareboat, and berths, and only then looks at the diary.
- It takes cover, licence and legal questions as a callback, and never as “you are covered” or “your licence is enough”.
- It checks the real diary before it offers a viewing or a briefing, and writes the time into the same calendar the base already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them what papers to bring.
- It escalates already-on-the-water, licence, cover, and destination questions as a tagged note or a transfer.
- You get the transcript, the summary, the week, and what the caller asked for.
What it will not do
It will not say they are covered. It will not say a deposit will be returned. It will not decide a licence or tell them they can go bareboat. It will not give legal advice about waters, papers, or fault. It will not invent a week’s price from a description of a boat. It will not say a skipper is free unless the diary says so. It will not treat a week request, a day boat and a Saturday briefing as the same visit.
What these calls sound like
The order is the split, then the week, then skipper or bareboat, then the viewing or the refusal said out loud. There is no “you are covered”. There is no “your German licence is fine”. There is no round figure over a catamaran nobody has assigned.
If the assistant is friendly and still answers the cover question, you own that sentence. Put the family who rang about the first week of August at 09:40 on a week note, not on the next base’s list.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the site with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands in the office still takes the call. Then the three-way split, the skipper-or-bareboat question, and the sentence that forbids cover, licence decisions and legal advice.
Write down what you actually offer and whether skippers are open that week. Give it the week fields you want on every note: dates, boat type they asked for, berths, skipper or bareboat, licence mentioned as a question, destination if they named one. Mark two kinds of visit: a viewing that needs you, and a briefing already on the sheet.
Give it the same-hour phone list: already on the water, briefing waiting on the pontoon, skipper no-show, a warning light. Do not give it a price list it would read out unless you marked figures as speakable. Write one line that forbids “you are covered”, licence yeses, and destination yeses. Add changeover hours, who is on the pontoon on Saturday, October dates, where to park a car at the base.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while you are in a cockpit briefing | Always | Only between briefings | Yes |
| Several callers on changeover Saturday | Every line at once | One | Depends on the plan |
| Asks week, day boat or briefing first | Yes — before it looks at the diary | Yes | Often jumps to what week |
| Says they are covered | Never — takes the note | Not on the first call either | Must not; sometimes does |
| Says a licence is enough, or invents a week's price | Never | After the papers and the boat | Often reads a range |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Legal advice, cover, licence, a deposit promise | Looks at the file, still does not decide for a court | Reads a script |
What one unanswered Saturday costs a small charter base
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people on changeover Saturday, roughly 30 inbound calls before the last briefing.
- About a third arrive while one of you is in a cockpit and the other is on a fuel dock.
- Of the calls nobody reaches, 5 are people who want a week that is still open.
- A week that stays is worth about €2,400 to the base — put your own figure in, this is the number to change first.
- This example assumes 3 of the 5 never leave a message and ring the next base on the same quay.
- 5 week-charter requests reach nobody on a normal changeover Saturday.
- 3 of them do not call back.
- 3 × €2,400 = €7,200 of weeks, that Saturday.
- Changeover Saturdays, over a 20-week season — 20 × €7,200. Put your own weeks in.
About €144,000 a season, from the same Saturday window repeating — and only if you accept the conversion above. Change it.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up the number on the site and the pontoon sign?
No. You keep the number on the website, the Google listing and the board at the gate. You set one forwarding rule — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If someone in the office picks up, the call never leaves the base and is never charged.
Can it tell a caller they are covered?
It must not. Not for the deposit, not for the hull, not for a trip they have not yet described. It takes the week they asked for, skipper or bareboat, and a callback number, and puts the note in front of you. Cover is not a sentence on this line. The assistant does not say “you are covered” to sound helpful.
Can it say their licence is enough to go bareboat?
No. A German ICC, a VHF card, a photocopy on a phone — none of that is a decision on this call. It takes what they say they hold and books a time to show the papers, or flags you. Saying they can leave without a skipper is a sentence the base then owns. It does not say it.
What if I am already in the Saturday briefing?
That is the usual morning. The assistant answers the overflow. A week request becomes a viewing or a callback. A briefing they already have becomes a note on that boat, not a new week. After the first two briefings, shorten the ring-time so the third caller is not listening to a busy tone.
Someone asks if they can take the boat to Turkey. Can it answer?
No. That is not a diary question. It takes the week and the destination they named as a request. It does not say yes, no, or that they are allowed. It does not give legal advice about waters, papers, or cabotage. A human looks at the file.
What do we actually see afterwards?
A transcript, a short summary, whether this was a week, a day boat or a briefing, the dates they named, skipper or bareboat if they said, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call.
