Managing any type of business requires long-term planning and spending resources efficiently and effectively. Marinas are not different, and every marina manager must understand how to scale their property to meet growth plans and provide the best boater experience for their guests.
The right marina management software can provide you with the necessary tools and technology to accommodate guests, scale your business operations, and set your property up for success.
As you continue to expand your business, it’s important to scale accordingly to avoid over or underspending resources.
A marina management system can help with this by:
Data visibility is crucial to determine weaknesses in your business operations and reduce areas that are leaking revenue. With an all-in-one reservation software with data reporting features, you can receive customizable reports on a schedule and save your most important reports for quick access.
When technology solutions don’t work together, the time and resources spent managing those processes can slow your business down, potentially resulting in lost revenue over time.
An all-in-one marina management software is key to centralizing and maximizing your tech solutions. If your marina management software allows it, you can implement standard operating procedures and manage them at scale.
Additionally, with the right tech stack, and the ability to manage it from one dashboard in your reservation software, you can grow your operations without adding complexity to them. A singular dashboard with access to multiple integrations enables the staff at your marina to work efficiently while allowing you to manage multiple properties with group-level functionality.
Here are some of the specific areas where marina management software can help you streamline and automate your business:
With a centralized tech stack, you can run your marina and even expand your offerings with ease. Property managers are able to free their staff from time-consuming tasks so they can focus on projects that generate revenue and improve their customer experience.
One scaling issue many property managers face is the overwhelming business operations needed to accommodate growth. Front-end operations — customer service, dock maintenance, and revenue management — and back-end processes — like reservations, payments, and more — can all be improved with marina management software.
The automation provided by marina reservation software can help free up your staff and scale your operations at a lower cost. For example, it can boost your front desk processes by streamlining tasks and updating boater records in real time, enabling your staff to quickly access the information they need and support guests right away.
Scaling your marina via marina software solutions doesn’t require you to change locations or implement new services; you can focus on scaling the experience of your boaters to cultivate loyal guests.
The hospitality industry is shifting more and more toward a digital landscape with growing expectations for digital options when booking. This means marina owners must invest in the right software options to meet these demands, such as direct booking through an online guest portal that supports communication between them and your staff.
Marina software solutions that support an Internet booking engine (IBE) can give your guests the ability to book a slip directly through your website. This feature can save you money on OTA fees and boost your occupancy rate at your marina.
If your marina reservation software has an online guest portal, your boaters and your staff can easily access important information, such as:
Communication and support between you and your guests are crucial to providing a positive experience.
With support from chatbots, your management system may offer the ability to streamline communication between you and your guests. Chatbots can offer 24/7 support every day of the year, a service that is unsustainable without automation.
By answering general inquiries and offering support, marina management software chatbots can free up your staff to focus on other tasks and scale your resources properly.
Upselling and cross-selling are powerful techniques for scaling your business by offering your customers more variety. For example, if your customer data shows an increase in demand for more boat storage or service repairs, you can pivot your resources according to those demands.
Furthermore, you can rent out equipment, such as dock ladders and dock carts. This can help you offer variety for upselling or cross-selling opportunities, allowing you to scale while meeting demand without going over budget.
With marina management software, you can build offers and promos around these amenities and offer additional services to your boaters to boost their experience at your marina slip.
As an outdoor property manager or owner, you may need to scale and add staff to match the increase of boaters reserving slips at your marina. For any business to be successful — especially during times of growth — there must be a dedicated and well-trained staff on board that understands the latest industry trends and supports your business goals.
Robust marina software solutions can make onboarding new hires a smooth-sailing process by seamlessly integrating them into your business operations. Although automation is a cost-effective and invaluable feature, it’s still important to train your staff to use your reservation software so they’re familiar with how it integrates and aligns with your company's vision.
Choosing the right management system that simultaneously accommodates the growth of your business and improves the experience for your guests can be difficult. That’s why we created this essential guide for picking the right marina software for your needs.
Download our Reservation Software Vendor Comparison Guide to see how our software matches up to available alternatives.