Nightmare cruises: what’s happening to the Boataround platform?

A growing number of sailors have suffered negative experiences with the online charter agency Boataround, with undelivered boats, withheld payments, and missing refunds. Similarities with the Zizoo case and the importance of relying on reliable operators when renting a boat.

The lure of the open sea and the promise of an unforgettable cruise aboard a sailboat can quickly turn into a bitter disappointment if one runs into untrustworthy operators and market practices that are as aggressive as they are bordering on legality.

The Boataround Case

In recent months it happens, for example, that the online charter agency Boataround, one of the largest charter operators based in Slovakia, is attracting the attention of sailors with super tempting offers and extra discounts of up to 45 percent. However, behind these promotions are, according to several reports, a number of problems for users: booked boats that are not delivered due to non-payment, cabin cruiser models replaced at the last minute without notice, vacations ruined by stress, and fears of being scammed. In the face of customer complaints, Boataround makes vague excuses, alleged computer system problems and related payment delays, further fueling confusion and frustration. What’s going on?

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Marcus’ misadventure: vacation in Greece at risk

Shedding light first on the Boataround case was the German publication Yacht.de with an article by Jochen Rieker entitled “Beware of untrustworthy online charter providers!” published on November 10. The text reports a number of first-hand accounts of nightmarish charter experiences, to say the least.

As happened, for example, to Marcus Neumüller, an Austrian doctor and sailing enthusiast who wanted to spend a week in Greece with three friends in mid-October 2025. In August he had found online a 40-foot Bénéteau near Athens that was only a year old. According to the offer advertised by Boataround, the vacation was to cost 2,600 euros, including a Stand Up Paddle to be used at stops. Lured by the offer, Marcus booked and transferred the entire rental amount last August 24, after receiving confirmation of the reservation.

However, just a day before departure, he received out of the blue disturbing news. A fellow traveler who had arrived in Greece early had been informed by the Alimos fleet operator that the boat would not be delivered. The reason: Boataround had not paid the last installment of 1,200 euros, despite having been paid long ago. “We often have these kinds of problems with them,” the Greek operator confessed to the disappointed and bitter crew.

Unacceptable stress and anger for a cruise

What followed for Marcus Neumüller and his group of friends was at that point a race against time, accompanied by anger and concern about having to pay the last installment again to obtain the charter yacht. Through e-mails, phone calls and the cooperation of the fleet operator himself, they demanded that Boataround fulfill its contractual obligations immediately. And the pressure had an effect. In the afternoon, the Slovak agency finally transferred the outstanding amount, just an hour before the final deadline.

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“No one needs this kind of stress on vacation! – said Marcus Neumüller – and after this experience I will certainly never book with Boataround again. There are many other agencies and certified and appreciated for their quality. We were simply blinded by the advantageous price of the offer.”

More cases of missing boats and phantom refunds

In fact, Neumüller and his crew were lucky. Other Boataround customers encountered worse experiences: boats booked that were no longer available, refunds promised and never arrived, and discounts advertised on the official website homepage that later turned out to be misleading.

Another customer of the company, Nico Gast of Neuenhagen, near Berlin, had a series of unpleasant surprises. He had booked and paid a deposit for a 14-meter catamaran through Boataround for a trip to be made in September 2025. Since the catamaran was not available at the desired time, he was offered a competitor’s model of the same size as a replacement. Nico then paid the last two charter rates in July and August and arrived on September 27 full of expectations.

Unheard reports, emails and protests

However, he and his crew were also denied the replacement boat at the last moment because the last installment had not been forwarded. The base manager then canceled the contract and rented the 46-footer to other clients. In this case Boataround offered a much smaller 40-foot catamaran as a replacement, but it would not be available until the next day and was about 180 miles away. In this absurd situation, Nico Gast was forced to accept the exchange, so he rented a car and left with his crew.

The additional costs for the car and the missed sailing day were not refunded to him, nor was the difference of 906 euros for the rental of the new boat. The agency, moreover, responded to the complaints only when Gast set a deadline until the end of October, threatening to file a complaint if the deadline was not met.

The sailor lawyer and the lawsuit: when patience runs out

A similar case happened to Florian Koschel, a lawyer by profession and a sailor in his spare time. His reservation was canceled a day before his flight to Corfu under the deliberately false pretext that the cancellation was the fault of the charter company and could not be influenced by Boataround. Even worse, they offered him a much more expensive alternative somewhere else in Greece. After a phone call with the local charter company, it turned out that the charter fee had not been fully forwarded, even though at that point the yacht had been paid for weeks.

Florian has still been waiting for a refund for almost two months. And after several requests and deadlines were ignored, he decided to file a lawsuit against Boataround’s headquarters in Germany and its Slovak parent company.

Aggressive strategies and on the edge of legality

In short, what is happening and how can such behavior on the part of such a large and hitherto influential industry player be explained? The most credited hypothesis, but at the moment all yet to be verified, is that Boataround is proceeding with two precise market strategies. The first is so-called “price dumping,” a predatory (albeit legal) business practice of selling cruises at a lower price than the standard market, even at the cost of incurring losses. On the agency’s home page such offers are called “early bird.” The goal here is to gain market share, eliminate local competition, and create a monopoly and then raise prices once market control is achieved.

The other practice that could be implemented by Boataround is the so-called “bait and switch,” which consists of proposing a misleading cruising offer to lure the customer who believes he is buying a product on favorable terms. When the customer then has to physically pick up the boat, he or she is shown a different cabin cruiser, often at a higher price or with lower quality. The goal is to make an unfair profit by exploiting the good faith of the consumer, who often feels compelled to buy the “alternative” product so as not to have wasted the time and effort spent. Indeed, it seems that Boataround was until a few weeks ago promoting so-called “secret offers” with up to 50 percent off. Offers in which the customer could only specify the type of boat, the area, and the duration of the trip, but had no guarantee as to which boat he would actually get in the end and from which base. A kind of blind date with the boat. This practice is not only wild, it is also illegal because it is based on deceptive transactions that mislead consumers in order to make an unfair profit to their detriment.

Boataround, a startup that has become a market giant

These are behaviors that if established would be quite sensational and paradoxical for a company that has been a true business model in the charter industry in recent years. Founded in 2016 by two former Booking managers, Czech Pavel Přibiš and Slovak Jana Escher, Boataround has become in just a few years the leading online yacht charter platform based on the idea of making the boating experience accessible to all, with quick and easy booking and payment systems, a rigorous selection of fleets scattered around the world, and top-notch customer care and support. All based on user-centricity. A project as ambitious as it is innovative that has also attracted major investors, such as the Slovak Investment Holding (SIH) group and the Slovak and Czech “crowd-investing” platform Crowdberry, which have funded Boataround with more than $2 million.

To date Boataround operates a worldwide fleet of nearly 30,000 boats including catamarans, sailboats and houseboats in more than 2,500 marinas located in 102 countries. Its operator portfolio includes 7,862 local charter companies. In short, a successful start-up that in just a few years has revolutionized the industry and become a behemoth who has anything to do with unfair marketing strategies and alleged scams?

Trustpilot: between positive reviews and complaints

In spite of recent unpleasant incidents on Trustpilot, a leading portal for customer reviews, Boataround currently continues to enjoy a good rating. The agency itself advertises its service with 4.5 stars out of a possible 5. The most recent reviews, often submitted anonymously, are all good. However, those who take the trouble to look at the one-star ratings will find dozens of negative reviews, with a significant increase since August.

It is then not only clients who are complaining on the web. Some of the charter operators who had been working with Boataround for years have in recent months severed their partnership with the agency. The reason? Broken trust, unjustified delays, dissatisfied customers, and reputation at risk.

The previous case of the Zizoo agency

The recent vicissitudes of Boataround are reminiscent of another similar case that happened in 2024 to another online charter agency launched with tens of millions of investor money and high standards-Zizoo. The start-up with headquarters in Vienna and management in Berlin had been withholding charter fees from clients for months in 2023 before the fraud was uncovered early last year and insolvency proceedings were initiated in both locations.

Zizoo aimed to monopolize the small charter boat brokerage market, still dominated by many family-owned businesses, similar to how Booking.com dominates the global travel market. With an easy-to-use website, aggressive marketing and high discounts, they wanted to steal the thunder from traditional agencies and fleet operators. But they burned through money faster than they gained market share. And customer funds were apparently used to cover operating expenses rather than being transferred to yacht owners in a timely manner. A case that is apparently still being investigated.

Transparency and trust for a peaceful charter future

We hope that the case of Boataround will be resolved as soon and as best as possible. The charter world is constantly growing in quality of services, and such cases only cause confusion and bewilderment among users. It then takes a lot of time on the part of agencies working properly to restore trust to their clients. Transparency, escrow protection, client accounts, and fair practices must be the cornerstone of this type of market. Law, courts and lawyers aside, sailors themselves, out of a spirit of sharing, exchange information and warn each other of unfair operators.

But at the same time they also report successful cruises, quality agencies and super efficient services. And it is this generalized satisfaction with luck that is still going strong in the sailing charter market today. It is absolutely necessary to follow this course…

David Ingiosi