In a day and age where services like Airbnb and Uber are changing the way we travel, It was an inevitability that someone would apply the lucrative sharing economy to the realm of luxury boating. A new service named Beds on Board is now making it easy for boat owners to rent space on their vessels to travelers who want to sample life in a luxury yacht.
Brothers Jason and Tim Ludlow founded Beds on Board together with Sir Peter Ogden, an ex-Morgan Stanley MD. The siblings funneled their decades of experience in the sailing, hospitality and IT industries into the endeavor, which was conceived thanks to a spark of inspiration and a lack of hotel rooms at a sailing event.
“We were sat in this beautiful marina and some friends were having trouble finding somewhere to stay,” says Jason. ” On this particular weekend in Palma there was not a spare hotel bed to be found. We thought but there are hundreds of empty beds in the marina, why not stay on a boat? It was a real lightbulb moment.”
Beds on Board launched at the London Boat Show in January, and the team has focused on building and retaining a stock of boat owners. The company currently has boats across the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as in India and the Caribbean. As of yet, there’s no word on when the service is coming to the states.
While the idea of renting boats certainly isn’t a novel concept, Beds on Board gives users the ability stay in a luxury yacht at very competitive rates compared to traditional boat charters and even land-based hotels. Owners list and price their own boats, which currently start from under £50 a night.
There are rules, of course. Moving or driving the boat is forbidden, and each boat owner has specific on-board rules, but these are easy concessions for a haute night on the marina.
(Via The Telegraph)
