Exciting news: CharterWave is featured in an article called “Chartering Your Own Course” in the July issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, which just hit newsstands here in the United States. This magazine has millions of readers, so I’m quite excited to be among the charter industry professionals who are quoted.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I’m unimpressed with the article overall–and that it’s yet another example of why you really do have to be careful whom you listen to for advice regarding private yacht charter vacations.

I can’t speak for any of the other people mentioned in the article, but I know that I was misquoted. The article has me saying that most yacht charter prices are all-inclusive, which any reader of CharterWave knows is certainly not the case (unless you’re talking specifically about the Virgin Islands).

I also find it unacceptable that the magazine chose to print a few photographs of yachts that any reputable charter broker can book, but that are listed as being available only through a single charter agency that perhaps made some kind of side deal with the magazine.

There’s also a chart that copycats a page here on CharterWave explaining the differences between cruise ships and charter yachts. Unfortunately, the writer added some information that paints a distorted picture of reality. She indicates that you can only have an air-conditioned cabin onboard a cruise ship (rubbish!) and that if you eat onboard a yacht, it will be outside all the time (nonsense!).

I don’t want to hit Conde Nast Traveler too hard here, because it’s a nice change of pace to see yacht charter getting some ink instead of cruise ship companies that spend big money advertising in these kinds of magazines.

Still, as you know, my continuing goal is to help people get reputable information they can trust when booking charter vacations of any kind. And though we here at CharterWave don’t have a few million readers of our own yet, we definitely have better-informed readers than those who see this particular article.

I received an e-mail yesterday from a travel agent in Ontario, Canada. She apparently found CharterWave on the Internet and mistook me for a charter broker. Here is what her e-mail said:

“Dear Kim, I have a client who is interested in hiring a catamaran during Christmas in Belize. They would like to hire it for a period of only three or four days. Do you have a minimum rental for this period? They require four cabins and a full crew. If you could provide me with options I would appreciate it, and also if this booking would be commissionable to us?”

I share this with you here because I think it’s a classic example of why anyone booking a private yacht charter vacation should work directly with a reputable charter broker instead of with a travel agent.

This particular travel agent is quite clear about showing she knows absolutely nothing about charter yacht vacations, yet wants to keep the client away from a reputable charter broker who does, simply to keep her commission intact.

It’s an all too familiar tale, one that I hear all the time in the charter industry. Scenarios like this almost always end up frustrating the broker as well as the client, as the travel agent refuses to step aside even though she has no idea what she’s talking about when it comes to chartering yachts.

Even if your travel agent has been great in the past, the odds are that when you ask her for a private yacht charter, she’s sending out random e-mails like this one to people she doesn’t even know, trying to figure out how the charter industry works. Is that really the way you want your vacation to be organized? I seriously doubt it.

Go to the charter broker directly to get the best service, not to mention some basic assurances that you’re working with and actual broker in the first place.

Yesterday, I blogged about how you have to be careful when choosing to charter in an emerging destination–but how doing so can be a fantastic vacation if all the pieces fall into place. Today, I’m going to introduce you to what appears to be just such an opportunity, a yacht in the emerging charter area of the Great Lakes that has the potential to be a great deal.

I found out about the 102-foot motoryacht Liquidity from Crom Littlejohn, a broker with Merle Wood & Associates in Fort Lauderdale. He and I were chatting at the Newport charter show last week, and he mentioned that Liquidity’s current captain used to be his own mate. Thus, he knows both the yacht and the Great Lakes area better than most other charter brokers, and he recommends it for charter this time of year.

“In my opinion,” he told me, “that’s going to be one of the next big spots. More and more guys from the Midwest are buying big boats now, and there’s just wonderful cruising up there. I did it for about five years, Cleveland, Chicago…”

My advice from yesterday still holds, of course: Be ready to be flexible when chartering in an emerging destination, and work with a reputable charter broker, in this case, ideally someone like Crom who knows the location personally.

Liquidity’s weekly base rate is $27,500 for eight guests with four crew. She’s accepting bookings now.