How does Sportfish Hawaii select boats for its referral business?
There are approximately 125-150 or so charter boats throughout the islands at any given time, as operations come and go frequently. Kona leads the way with around a hundred, Maui is second with roughly 25, Oahu has about 20, and Kauai has about 10. It s an industry standard that a booking agent will charge a fee to the operation for referring business, so essentially anyone can provide a list of boats and take a commission for selling a trip. The skippers generally will not charge a lower rate for a directly booked trip, because they know that type of practice will sever relationships with the booking agents they use, and besides, when they sell a trip themselves, they reward themselves with not having to pay a booking fee. We select our boats based on several criteria. First and foremost is the skipper. As with any business, the person in charge is the lifeblood, and if that person has a good attitude, generally so will everyone else. We select boats that are primarily owner operators
