Problem, lost charter payments
The bankruptcies of the world’s largest German online charter agency Zizoo and the English online agency Myrentboat have once again clearly shown this. Here, too, many charterers who were blinded by cheap prices have recently lost their charter payments.
Both companies were rated very well by TrustPilot – until it crashed.
Zizoo has now been taken over by an English online agency with a lively past. It is now announcing that it will become the world’s largest agency.
In June 2024, FTI, the 3rd largest tourism company in Germany and one of the largest in Europe, went bankrupt after Thomas Cook,
the 2nd largest tourism company in Germany, already filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2020. One of the causes is likely to have been the aftermath of the pandemic, from which some charter company also suffered.
The scam is always the same: old holes are plugged with fresh down payments. This doesn’t always have to be intentional, sometimes it’s just a lack of management. The only thing that is certain is that you should not rely on appearances.
We can draw two lessons from these cases:
- Some decisions and twists cannot be foreseen by outsiders. For example, the sale of a company to an investor company while retaining the established agency name at the front. However, the contractual partner for the charterer is actually the investor company to which his charter payments flow. This is difficult or impossible for the outsider to recognize and he knows nothing about his creditworthiness.
- Great advertising and market presence and even superbly presented services say nothing about the economic creditworthiness of a company. This applies to every industry and so also to the charter industry. This is the reason why we recommend all skippers to charter with creditworthiness checked companies, whose insolvency risk can be covered by us (not checked on request).
Is there a negative list of companies at risk?
We are asked that again and again. Yes, there are, but unfortunately we can’t publish them. But there is a positive list of companies that have been positively audited by YACHT-POOL. Incidentally, any company can apply. By the way, you can’t buy a listing under the “CHECKED & TRUSTED: Financial Security System” seal of quality, which is used by audited companies to advertise, and the verification costs are negligible for the companies – creditworthiness is what counts most here. But that’s not all: our customers expect that companies that advertise with our logo also have other services and business practices in order. The experiences and feedback of our customers are therefore also part of the evaluation.
If a company does not have this label, there are always reasons for it. Of course, one of the reasons can also be that a company does not want to undergo this annual profound examination procedure. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that every company that is not listed does not meet the requirements of YACHT-POOL per se.
But with those that do, you can be pretty sure that they comply.
Securing the insolvency of the charter company is more important today than ever. Because the Corona years have left some charter companies with considerable financial losses. Much was absorbed by state aid during these years. But not everything everywhere.
The same picture emerges now that state aid has been discontinued, also in other sectors. As we can see from the media, insolvencies in Germany and Austria have also risen by more than 30% this year compared to the previous year. Trust in our profound quality seal and increase your overall security of a satisfactory charter service. For your financial security, we have developed a new low-cost charter price protection based on our renowned insurance certificate that covers your financial risk.
Problem solving:
Alternative 1:
You have the option of securing your charter deposit as part of the Charter Cancellation Insurance Plus. You are not only protected against the insolvency of the charter agency and/or charter company, but also against the loss of a crew member. In case of skipper failure, the entire crew including the skipper is entitled to withdraw from the charter. On request, the deductible can even be reduced from 20% to 0%.
You can find the insurance application here ↗
Alternative 2:
You can only protect yourself against the insolvency of the charter agency and/or charter company with the charter price protection. If the company is not listed in the application, please send us the application online anyway. You will then receive an individual offer after examination.
You can find the link to the charter price protection here ↗
To ensure that you are always up to date, we recommend our YACHT-POOL newsletter, which informs you about current market developments, legal cases, changes in the law and important information about your safety.
If you have any questions, the YACHT POOL crew is always happy to help!
