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Airbnb for boats grows in SA

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 11 Oct 2016
There are around 500 boats available in SA on the GetMyBoat app.
There are around 500 boats available in SA on the GetMyBoat app.

South Africans are getting on board and taking to the seas with the Airbnb for boats.

GetMyBoat is a free-to-use hospitality app that allows travellers to rent different types of boats that owners are not currently using.

The app works similarly to Airbnb, where the owner of the boat gets most of the booking fee and GetMyBoat takes a cut. The charters are priced per night. The aim is help boat owners make money from their seldom used watercraft.

Both renters and owners can leave reviews and ratings of one another on the app.

The company started in 2013 with 10 000 boats in 30 countries. It now has over 62 000 boats in 169 countries, including South Africa.

"Currently, we have approximately 500 boats available in South Africa. The depth and breadth of boats available include diving trips, sailing lessons, power and sailboat charters, and even white water-rafting adventures," says GetMyBoat.

The company says the boats are mostly used for day trips and the most popular charters worldwide are 5m to 10m powerboats or sailboats.

Travellers can book a trip on a boat to another destination. GetMyBoat says when this happens, the destinations are often Caribbean destinations such as the British Virgin Islands or Mediterranean locations in Greece or Croatia.

In South Africa, the response has been "positive and enthusiastic" and there have been hundreds of new listings this year alone. It also recently reduced its booking time from 30 days to 24 hours to make the process easier.

The company was co-founded by Sascha Mornell and Rafael Collado, who were inspired by the sharing economy and wanted to give more people access to water adventures.

GetMyBoat is available to download on both Android and iOS.

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