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DockMaster has made it a company mantra to seek third-party solutions in order to better serve our clients. After all, in order to provide the best marine management solutions, it’s imperative not to rest on our laurels, much like any marina would seek ways to improve operations. Earlier this year, DockMaster struck a partnership with Swift Harbour, a sales, booking and hospitality platform for marinas that accept transient moorage online. Much like any DockMaster product, DockMaster Online Reservations is designed to make your marina more money, save time and satisfy your customers. 

DockMaster Online Reservations will allow your marina to leverage the best of both DockMaster and Swift Harbour platforms. This integration allows you to seamlessly transfer information between both platforms, providing the ultimate booking, hospitality and marina management powerhouse. Your marina’s operations will now run smoother than ever.

Taking Bookings With DockMaster Online

DockMaster Online Reservations - booking and hospitality platform for marinas

With easy access to DockMaster Online Reservations, be it from a smartphone, tablet or computer, you’ll be able to take online bookings from virtually anywhere! Your digital online presence will grow as you grab more online bookings from more sources, be it from your website, your social media pages, online ads, apps and more! DockMaster Online Reservations allows you to place as many booking links online as you want. Customers will find you more easily and a simple booking process will make them more likely to choose your marina. The booking automatically syncs to into DockMaster eliminating double entry. 

Booking links can be shared at any time by simply logging in to your Online Reservations dashboard and click “get your booking link” on the left hand menu or “booking button code” in the Marina Settings menu. Placing your booking buttons online is a critical step in maximizing what this tool can do for you, so be sure to do so.

Managing Bookings In Seconds

Manage online moorage bookings in seconds

You’ll be able to stay on top of your bookings and manage them in seconds. When a customer requests moorage, you will receive an email notification, with a link to your marina dashboard. When you get to your dashboard, pending requests will be displayed automatically. From there, you can customize your page to display all confirmed, waitlisted or declined bookings at any time.

When you click on a booking request, its details will slide out to the right of your screen. This ‘slider’ will display the owner’s name estimated revenue, vessel type, special requests and more. Using this information, you can then choose to share logistics planning notes and customer service notes between yourself and other marinas to take the appropriate measures.

When you click on the booking request, you’ll learn more about the request and you can choose to accept, waitlist or decline the reservation request. Should you accept the booking, a transactional email will be sent to the boater, which includes the booking dates and confirmation. Your booking management is far easier with automatic emails. This simple feature keeps your customers informed and puts them at ease about choosing to dock at your marina.

Collecting Payment Information During Booking

With quick online booking comes quick payment processing. When a boater books with your marina, you can now accept the boater’s credit card information via Stripe, a trusted processing platform for major online brands like Facebook, Kickstarter, Unicef, Uber, Target and National Geographic. Rest assured, your payment processing will be simple and secure, in full compliance with PCI. 

Increasing Sales

SwiftHarbour booking app

With more booking avenues available, you’ll see an increase in sales as your online presence grows. You’ll get more sales while spending less money for exposure with DockMaster Online Reservations. Joining this platform automatically gets you a listing on both the Apple App Store (iOS) and the Google Play Store. Our apps are designed to make boaters find you easily, explore your services and conveniently book from their smartphone or tablet.

You’ll also receive a listing in our app discovery map. The discovery map is designed to focus on points of interest for mariners. Boaters will now find your marina easily and it all comes free! All you have to do is enter your marina’s data and your listing will be set up automatically.

With your customers now one click away from a reservation, your online marketing platforms will be more effective. You can set up your marina’s booking link and watch bookings roll in. This accessibility, ease of use and instant gratification all plays a part in increasing your marina’s margins.

Hospitality Tools: Boater Information Package & Boater Messenger

Boater Messenger in DockMaster Online Reservations

To help expand your marina’s hospitality efforts DockMaster Online Reservations offers several hospitality services, which will help increase your marina’s popularity and repeat customer traffic. Our Boater Information package is automatically created from content in your dashboard and sent out to your accepted boaters. This package will include key information for your customers, such as; a marina map, gate codes, contact info and more, depending on what data you wish to include.

The Boater Messenger tool allows you to freely send messages directly to your customers from your online dashboard. You can even send multiple messages simultaneously, which goes directly to their email (text notification will be available soon). The boater messenger can be used any time within a booking or in bulk from your dashboard.

Wrapping Up

DockMaster Online Reservations in a nutshell, gives boaters the flexibility of booking slips online or using a mobile app, while allowing your marina to remain in control of your customer relationships. If you have any questions regarding DockMaster Online Reservations, or wish to request a demo, please contact us.

DockMaster Software is an industry leading management system for marinas, boatyards, and boat dealerships. DockMaster includes Unit Sales, Prospecting and F&I with fully integrated financial management and numerous integrations with CRM applications, dealer websites and text/messaging services. The Service module includes estimating, labor tracking, and complete parts management with ordering/receiving, subcontractor fulfillment and invoicing. DockMaster Mobile allows technicians to clock on/off jobs from any mobile device. Visual Marina™ management includes storage & billing, occupancy tracking, reservations and dry stack management, including integrations to leading consumer applications for boat rentals, online reservations, concierge/launch scheduling and our new Fuel Integration with FuelCloud. DockMaster also includes Point of Sale, Order Entry with eCommerce and a complete accounting system. Learn more at www.DockMaster.com and follow DockMaster on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Or email info@dockmaster.com

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