How to book a gulet? Early booking or Last Minute? Agency or Direct?

Blue cruise concept is one of the most attractive concepts in tourism when it comes to relaxation, seeing the most in the shortest period of time and having the best time of your life.

However booking a gulet cruise for a group of family or friends is not easy. If a person in charge to find the best vessel makes a mistake all the pressure will be on him, person will have a hard time from his kids, his spouse or/and his friends. So people are doing everything they can when searching for the perfect gulet to make everybody happy.

As we are living in modern age, where the internet is everywhere this makes our lives a lot easier. But is it really like this?

In this blog post we are answering all the important question you should know before booking your cruise.

"Early booking" vs "last minute"

• Most of the gulets are still available so the choices are unlimited with Early booking concept
• Last minute season has limited options/gulets available especially in highest season – you can come up empty handed
• You will get bigger discounts with last minute bookings, but this does not really mean better holidays. Read here why!
• According to our statistics, we have the biggest satisfaction from clients who booked Early
• When booking Early you have a lot of time for planning and all organizations
• With last minute bookings, you have to be more careful. You have to be sure lower prices does not also mean lower quality of the gulet!

And always ask why there is such discount on the gulet.

Browse hundreds of gulets on your own vs "a la carte inquires"

• If you make your own search you will get great idea of what you like, and what you do not like, however you will lose a lot more time if you browse gulets on your own.
• There are not a lot of agencies in the market, that have pictures, info, prices, and everything updated 100%, so it can happen that gulet you like is either booked, sold, in bad shape or the info is not exact.
• Agencies usually inspect gulets several times per year, they have a lot of experience, they know which gulets have the best crew and this is not 14 days process but it is 5 years process

Owners/local agencies vs tour operator

• If you book with the owner directly or via a travel agency, the price should be the same. However, it can happen some owners do not think long term and they lower the prices for their direct clients. This means you can get a bit smaller price booking directly.
• When booking directly, there is a small possibility for some mistakes (without any intermediaries).
• On the internet, you have legit owners and not very legit owners. So it can happen you come to the destination and there is no gulet there (who are you going to call if this happens?). 
• If you have some disagreement on the board of gulet (because of services, itinerary, food, cleanliness, crew….) you have nobody to assist you.
• All other support which agencies usually organize for all clients such as transfers, extra trips, support during the cruise, professional approach to check in and check out are not as good.
• Agencies are paid from owners (they get a commission) and they work for this commission. With agency you will get the best advice, good support and much more safety if you book with the agency.

Fixed itinerary vs client wishes

• Most of the clients wish to be very much involved in the itinerary design of their gulet cruise, following internet suggestions or some other very good guides. This way you will really see all the things you think you wish to see.
• On the other hand, on a gulet cruise most of the time you are not aware of all the hidden gems there are along the coast. If you focus on most popular tourist destinations, you will miss a lot of hidden treasures.
• Nobody knows the areas more as the captain, who is cruising there for many years. Fixed itineraries are not made to save some money to owners on fuel, but because owner/agency believes they will offer the most satisfaction to clients.

This way you have a combination of FIXED ROUTE, which sounds like a lot of fun for your group + you are opened for suggestions from the owner while already on a cruise.

Last 6 rules you should keep in mind

• Ask a lot of questions at the start – immediately when you are sending inquiry.

• Give the agency as much info possible about your exact wishes.

• Give the agency info about your budget! Usually, clients wish to avoid that, but from our experience, you will get around 4% – 7% better prices if you give a budget, rather than if you do not provide the budget – interesting fact, but it is true.

• If you see agency knows EVERYTHING about gulets and they know what they are doing – TRUST THEM with their advice. They are dealing with gulets longer than you do and it is in their interest to keep you happy.

• Do not book gulets only because you see discounts, book the gulets you like most.

• If you are booking with gulet owner directly do your homework very very good! Be sure what you are booking so you do not end up with a disaster!

How would we do it? What do we recommend?

We as gulet experts would you to do it like this:

• You need to try to find an agent who knows everything about gulets and an agency that would know how to advise you

• You should probably check 15 different internet pages and send inquiry to 3 of them that gave me best feeling and most credibility

• According to how fast, professional and detailed reply was, yu should probably go with that agency

• You could give the agency hard time and would ask for several gulet suggestions until you are not 100% happy with what you see

• Make the agency work for their money and ask for their advice for the best possible route, gulet, food, activities.

• When you have everything you can ask for a bit of additional discount (would not squeeze too much) so that you know they will be motivated in case you need any support

• And we would definitely recommed to book “Early” and ask the agency to offer you gulet, where they have special conditions as an agency because of huge volume that they do.