If you have an empty dock, marina slip, lift or mooring, renting it out on PierShare can be one of the most satisfying things you’ve done in a long time. Not only do you get to earn consistent monthly income to help pay your property taxes or mortgage, but you also get to keep a beautiful boat to stare at in your backyard as well! In fact, we started PierShare because we knew that there were great people in local communities across American who could provide infinitely better dock rental experiences than those offered in marinas.

While renting your dock on PierShare can be a great experience, it’s important to keep a few things in mind when listing your space and working with boaters to ensure that the process is as seamless as possible. Following our tips below will help you become a great dock owner on our platform.

A Dock Rental Has a Lot of Moving Parts: Try to Be Flexible as Possible

Boaters enjoy renting private dock spaces on PierShare because we offer a more flexible and friendly dockage agreement than those offered by the typical marina. In addition, the vast majority of boaters looking for a nearby dock rental on our platform do so on a long-term basis, so it is possible that they will look at a number of spaces at one time to compare which one is the best for them. Also, they may need to visit multiple spaces to check them out before bringing their boat, and if they end up securing one of them and making a commitment it could take up to a few weeks for them to dock. Our platform has a structured process that allows you to follow the progress of each boater’s docking at your space as well policies that ensure that boaters arrive in a timely manner so that the rental progresses appropriately. 

Nevertheless, it is important to always keep a flexible mindset when renting your dock. Unlike other rental platforms online that specialize in short-term stays that have definitive start and end dates (like AirBnB), PierShare dockings are typically multi-month and the arrival and departure dates are more open-ended. Boating is a leisurely activity to begin with, but a boater’s movements are dependent on a number of factors such as weather and maintenance, some of which are out of his/her control. In any case, we at PierShare have put together a set of standardized policies and procedures that govern rentals so that both boaters and dock owners can feel equally comfortable renting dock spaces through our platform.

Ensure Your Listing is Accurate and Complete

Being a great PierShare dock owner begins when you list your space on PierShare. Our structured listing process provides tips on how to accurately represent your dock. The following are the most important characteristics of your listing to pay attention to so that nearby boaters know what to expect when completing a dock rental at your space:

• Low-tide draft: Your low-tide draft is the depth of the water at your space during dead low-tide, which occurs twice per day. Knowing your low-tide draft is not as simple as looking at your neighbors’ docks that may have big boats and automatically assuming that you can fit a boat of that size at your space, as your draft may be different due obstructions on the bottom of your sea floor. If you are not confident about the depth of the water at your dock during low-tide, it is a best practice to stick a measuring device into the water to get an accurate reading.

• Electricity: There are a certain set of best practices that must be followed when dealing with marine power since it can be slightly more complicated than traditional household outlets, so if you have a marine power pedestal at your dock or dedicated marine power plugs it is important to know what type of power you can deliver (30, 50, or 100 amp) and whether the electricity is working properly. Check out our handy guide on marine power if you’re not sure how it all works.

• Your rules: It’s important to put some thought into the types of dock rentals you would like to have at your space so that boaters are able to assess whether your space is truly a fit for them. Boaters have different access requirements as well as certain maintenance needs, so you’re going to want to think about how often you would like someone to come to the space to check on their boat and what amount of vessel upkeep you would allow to be performed during the rental. In addition, some boaters are looking to stay-aboard their boats infrequently when visiting their boat from another state or when preparing for a trip, and a small percentage actually live aboard their boats full time. Allowing liveaboard activity at your space will allow you to receive the most inquiries, but you’ll want to ensure that this activity is permitted by your HOA or other local regulations first.

Be Responsive to Dock Rental Inquiries and Questions

When receiving a docking inquiry through our platform, it is always a best practice to pre-approve or decline dockings as quickly as possible. Boaters usually inquire about multiple dock spaces at a time before committing to one, so pre-approving a docking right when you get it instead of waiting until the end of the day can make all the difference between a promising dock rental falling through or not. In addition, our platform curates listings and tracks your responsiveness to ensure that only the most responsive and responsible dock owners are able to list on our platform.

After pre-approving a docking and meeting boaters, it is always best to be open to any questions they may have about your space. Ideally, if the boater would like to come and visit your dock or lift before the rental begins, it is a best practice to give them a tour of your space so that they have a complete picture of what it would be like renting from you. In fact, this personal touch can sometimes make the difference between the rental happening or not. 

Be Accommodating

Lastly, once a boater docks at your space and the rental begins, it’s always good to keep an accommodating mindset and realize that certain unexpected things can happen in boating, both good and bad, that the boater may not have anticipated at the beginning of a rental. A boat owner may need to sell his vessel unexpectedly, or a maintenance issue may pop up out of nowhere. Nevertheless, you can rest easy knowing that if a boater likes your dock he/she is most likely going to stay with you on a very long-term basis, and we at PierShare are always ready to provide you top notch customer support if you are not comfortable with something unexpected that arises during your docking.

Now that you know what it takes to be a great Dock Owner on PierShare, we can’t wait for you to list your empty dock, marina slip, lift or mooring on our platform so that you can start docking with us!