In February 2025, we attempted to book a yacht charter through
Searadar.
We selected a catamaran for a week in June 2025 and completed the booking
process using SeaRadar.com.
We had a quick call with one of Searadar's representatives to confirm the details of the booking
and the payment arrangements.
At this point, we were told that, once the payment is received, we will be receiving
a confirmation email with the charter confirmation details within few days.
The booking section of the platform had a glitch and we were sent an invoice instead.
The invoice appeared legitimate and in line with the other booking platforms we have used.
The first payment was due two days after the booking.
We promptly paid the first installment as per the instructions provided.
There was no booking confirmation following the successful payment.
After we asked for a confirmation, we received the following payment slip:
After more than a week of no confirmation, by chance we found out that our boat is available again via another agent.
We made multiple attempts to contact Searadar for clarification about our booking status.
Calls to their provided phone number consistently went unanswered, despite ringing through.
We were only able to establish communication via WhatsApp messages.
Although they eventually responded, their replies were evasive and lacked clear explanations
about the nature of the problem or any concrete solutions to resolve our situation.
We independentlydiscovered that the charter company never received our payment.
The charter company had released our booking dates due to missing payment.
After escalating our concerns to multiple stakeholders,
we finally gained Searadar's attention to our case.
Searadar acknowledged there was a "delay in payment" but provided no specific details
or explanation for this issue.
Most concerning was that they had never notified the charter company
about any payment delays or any other issues regarding our booking.
From the charter company's perspective, our reservation appeared completely unpaid,
effectively rendering our booking nonexistent despite our payment to Searadar.
At this point we still have no clear path to resolution.
Charter company has not received any payment nor was there any communication from Searadar in regards to delay.
Our boat was available for booking again and we were not able to secure it
in spite of having paid in time and according to the terms.
Below is a screenshot of an email sent from the charter company:
Following this fiasco, we immediately requested the refund of our payment.
Full day went by without any response from Searadar.
We learned from the charter company contact that Searadar has just submitted
the payment to the charter company.
Important: this happened after we explicitly requested the refund and
after the booking has been released.
Effectively, Searadar sent this payment unsolicitedly to the charter company.
At the moment the payment was submitted, there was no reservation associted.
...
With several messages exchanged and significant pressure form us and other stakeholders,
we managed to find a resolution in which we can still proceed with our charter booking,
while completely cutting ties with Searadar.
The following is purely our speculation.
We noted that the amount received by the charter company was approximately 82% of what we paid to Searadar.
While some percentage may account for payment processing fees, this suggests Searadar's commission could be around 15%.
In theory, this 15% represents the value of peace of mind and booking convenience that Searadar failed to deliver in our case.
We acknowledge this is speculative analysis based solely on
the observed discrepancy between our payment and the amount transferred to the charter company.
Nevertheless, it questions the business model and incentives at hand.
