Clean, fuelled, and ready to go: automate your turnaround times

You can feel the stress. You want to get that new group out on the water as quickly as possible, but you also want to hand them a clean, safe boat. The result? You end up rushing, perhaps miss a check, and wave your new guests off whilst dripping with sweat. That's not the experience you want to deliver. And frankly, there's no need for it.

As a hire operator, you don't want bookings to run back-to-back with no breathing room. You need time for inspection, time for cleaning, and time to catch your breath. In i-Reserve, you can build those rest periods in automatically — without having to puzzle over your diary yourself.

The invisible pause button: 'time before session'

In a standard calendar, ending at 14:00 also means the next booking starts at 14:00. Logical on paper, impossible in practice. A boat needs to be moored, people need to gather their belongings, disembark, and you need to go aboard for the inspection.

The 'Time before session' setting in i-Reserve solves this. You simply tell the system how many minutes you need to get the boat ready for hire again — for example, 15 or 30 minutes.

How does this work for the customer?

Suppose a customer books a boat until 16:00, and you've set a 15-minute buffer.

• The customer sees that the boat is occupied until 16:00.
• The next customer wants to make a reservation. The system only shows the boat as available again from 16:15.

Those 15 minutes don't exist as far as the customer is concerned, but they're sacred to you. The system blocks this time automatically, so you never have to worry about a quick booker 'snapping up' that buffer. You'll always have time to clear away the empty cans, check the fuel tank, and straighten the cushions. The next group steps into a fresh boat, and you're standing on the jetty feeling relaxed.

Prevent congestion: spread your start times

As well as the time between two bookings on the same boat, you also have to manage the busyness at your location. If you have twenty boats and they all depart at 10:00 in the morning, it's chaos at the reception desk and on the jetty.

Here too, i-Reserve helps you think ahead. Using the 'Time between session starts' feature (often in combination with 'Parallel periods'), you can regulate departure times.

Instead of everyone being able to start at any random moment — or all at once — you enforce a rhythm. For example: one boat may depart every 15 minutes.

• Group A starts at 10:00.
• Group B starts at 10:15.
• Group C starts at 10:30.

This creates a natural spread. You have time to give each group a relaxed briefing on the sailing routes and how to operate the outboard motor, without tripping over other customers.

What if something really goes wrong? (maintenance)

Sometimes a quick clean simply isn't enough. A previous hirer has caught the propeller on something, or the engine is spluttering. That boat simply cannot go back out on the water this afternoon.

You absolutely want to prevent anyone from booking that boat online. In i-Reserve, you can immediately add a 'Dummy reservation' or a maintenance block. This instantly removes the boat from hire for however long is needed for repairs.

In your planning overview, you can see at a glance exactly which boats are 'out of action' and which are available. That way, you'll never hire out a boat that isn't 100% in order.

You focus on the service, we'll handle the planning

Running a hire business on a beautiful day is a real endurance sport. You want to maximise revenue, but not at the expense of quality.

By automating your turnaround times and buffers, you create calm in the chaos. The system acts as your firm gatekeeper: "No, this boat isn't ready yet." This allows you to focus on what truly matters: making sure your guests head out on the water with a smile — and come back with an even bigger one.

Would you like more calm on the jetty too?

Curious about how to set up those automatic buffers for your fleet? Stop rushing and start planning smarter. Try i-Reserve free for 30 days. Experience for yourself how great it is when your system works around your timings.