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Marina Recreation Association
News and Issues
PRESIDENT'S THOUGHTS Randy Short I addressed the issue of pricing strategies related to boat slips in the last issue. One of the areas even the most progressive operators hasn't applied the 3 to 1 square foot pricing rule is on end ties. In many cases the most in demand berths are end ties. These berths are also occupied by the largest boats and should be priced accordingly. Again, the same 3 to 1 principle applies here, a 100' berth should be priced at roughly three times the rate of a 50' berth. The Department of Boating and Waterways has facilities guidelines that outline the square footage of each size berth. These guidelines include the berth, part of the fairway, finger and headwalk. It gives you the total square footage related to a particular berth. If you apply a price for each square foot you can quickly see the difference square foot pricing makes in your marina. You will eliminate the bigger boat being subsidized by the smaller boat. For example when using DBAW's square footage numbers, a 25' slip priced at $ .25 per square foot means a 104' end tie or slip would be priced at $1,381 and the 25' at $184 per month or $13.28 and $7.36 per linear foot respectively. This pricing strategy allows the small boater to have appropriately and significantly less expensive fees. It also allows for any change in configuration at no change in revenue. There has been discussions, by operators of covered berth marinas, about cubic foot pricing. It is important for us as operators to correctly price our product. Small boats are our entry level boats, we can't afford to price them out of the market. |