Guide

Trends in boat rentals for the 2027 season

You plan the 2027 season this winter: the prices, the boats, the website. We read the latest figures from tourism researchers, payment companies and the water sports world. Here are eight trends, each with its source, and what you can do about them at your dock.

Updated 7 min readBy Iwan de Ploeg

You plan the 2027 season this winter. You set the prices, decide on your next boat and update your website. So we read the latest figures from tourism researchers, payment companies and the water sports world. Every figure below links to where it comes from. Next to each trend, we say what you can do about it at your own dock.

1. People travel closer to home

International travel grew only a little in the first half of 2026. Arrivals worldwide rose by 0.4%, and in Europe by 3%. UN Tourism lowered its forecast for 2026 to between 1% and 2% growth. It expects travelers to look for value for money and to travel closer to home, because prices are high and the world feels uncertain.

Hands at a laptop showing a discount code, with a phone beside it

For a boat rental, that can mean more guests from your own country and region. A local who likes your boats can come back several times a summer, and bring the family who come to stay. Give them a reason to return, like a resident rate or a lower weekday price. Our article on renting out the same boat more often has ideas for each group.

2. Most outings are still booked offline

Tours and activities keep growing, but more slowly than right after the pandemic. Arival, a research group for the tours and activities trade, puts the growth at about 7% from 2024 to 2025. Across the whole market, only 33% of those outings were booked online in 2025. For travel as a whole, that was 64%.

That means many people still call, send a message or walk up to the dock. Every customer who can book online instead saves you a call. Online booking also brings in the people who don’t want to call at all. Start with a booking form on your own website. Read our step-by-step guide to your boat rental website, or see how online booking works in Let’s Book.

3. Customers book a few days ahead

Most people don’t book a trip months ahead. In 2025, only 17% of tour bookers bought their tickets a month or more in advance, Arival found. About one in five bought on the day itself.

A woman looking at her phone outdoors, with a notification beside her reading Booking updated

A customer who books on Thursday for Saturday wants to see right away which boat is free. So show live availability on your site. In Let’s Book, the booking form shows what’s free, and offers other times when the one they want is taken. You set how late a customer can still book online, so you are never surprised by a booking ten minutes before departure. A boat that is still free this afternoon can go out at a last-minute price.

4. OTAs sell a bigger share of online bookings

Online travel agencies (OTAs) like GetYourGuide and Viator keep growing. Among the more than 5,000 operators Arival asked, 37% of the bookings made online came through an OTA in 2025. Bookings on the operators’ own websites went down.

Two laptops showing Amsterdam boat rentals on the booking platforms GetYourGuide and Viator

An OTA brings you tourists your website would not reach, for a commission on each booking. Every OTA keeps its own calendar. When you sell a boat yourself, close that time on the OTA. When the OTA sells it, enter the booking in Let’s Book too, so nobody can book it again through you. Do you want that customer to book directly with you next time? Then read the OTA’s terms first, because some platforms forbid arranging a later trip with their guests outside the platform. When their email address is on the booking, Let’s Book sends a follow-up email after the trip and a win-back email fifty weeks later. Do the terms forbid those emails? Then turn off “Notify customer” when you confirm the booking. Read more in the boat rental customer journey.

The hotel or campsite down the road can sell your boats too, without an OTA in between. With partner bookings, a partner books through a link of their own, and you see which bookings came through them.

5. Customers pay with their phone

Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are now the most used way to pay online. They made up 56% of online spending worldwide in 2025, according to the Global Payments Report 2026 of Worldpay.

Do you rent out in the Netherlands? Then iDEAL is turning into Wero. From October 2026, payments move to Wero step by step, and the switch is to be done by the end of 2027, says the Dutch Payments Association. Your customers keep paying through their own bank. Ask your payment provider what the switch means for your checkout.

Let’s Book takes payments through Stripe or Mollie, into your own account. With Stripe, the booking form offers the payment methods of the country the customer pays from. When you turn on Apple Pay and Google Pay in Stripe, customers can pay with those on a phone that supports them. A walk-in at the dock pays on your phone, with Tap to Pay through Mollie. Read more about payments.

6. Central Amsterdam closes to fuel engines

Since April 1, 2025, the center of Amsterdam has been an emission-free zone for pleasure boats. They may only sail on electricity, hydrogen or muscle power, the Dutch watersports association writes. Did a boat already have a vignette before April 1, 2025? With a transit vignette, it may keep sailing on fuel until January 1, 2028. With a harbor dues vignette, it may sail until January 1, 2030, as long as you pay the harbor dues every year. Other cities and waterway authorities set their own rules, and they change. So check the rules for your own water before you buy your next boat.

An electric boat is quiet, and you charge it at your own dock overnight. It also suits keyless rental, where the customer starts the boat from their phone. Read what to look for when you switch to electric boats and how to connect an electric fleet.

7. The biggest boat club keeps growing

According to Brunswick, the owner of Freedom Boat Club, demand for boating without owning a boat is growing. Freedom Boat Club has more than 400 locations in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Its members made more than 640,000 trips in 2025, over 5% more than the year before, Brunswick reported.

Two members of staff in branded jackets standing by the water

A club or a membership brings you income before the season starts, and members who come back all summer. You can start small, with a member rate or a ride package. Read about membership systems and how to start a boat club, or see memberships in Let’s Book.

8. Google answers with AI

Google now shows an AI summary above many search results, and offers a separate AI Mode. Somebody who asks for “boat rental near me with a skipper” may read the answer before they see your site.

Google says there are no special tricks to appear in those answers. The same clear pages that rank in search are what it uses. So write your prices, your dock address, your opening hours and what’s included as plain text on your website. Keep your Google Business Profile up to date as well.

Sources

Booking software for boat rental, tours and charters.

This article is from Let's Book, the software that lets your customers book and pay on your own website, and puts every boat on one planning. Made by people who rented out boats themselves.

See how it worksBook a demo

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