Modern marina management software takes on long term dockage contracts

NEWPORT, RI – January 16, 2019 – Dockwa, the marina management software used by more than 740 marinas throughout the U.S. and Caribbean, has expanded its capabilities to include contract management for long-term dockage. Marina operators now have an online solution to drastically reduce the time spent creating, sending, and tracking down the return of individual contracts.

With Dockwa's new Contracts tool, marinas can easily create personalized contracts with custom rates, timeframes, and add-ons, then send contracts to customers, monitor contract completion statuses, and process payments. A real-time dashboard displays the status of all guest contracts in one place, and marinas can process contract payments right within Dockwa's free cloud-based software, just as current customers do with transient reservations.

Dockwa launched in 2015 as a transient reservation platform, which marinas have used to streamline their operational efficiency, improve their guest experience, and expand their marketing. Since its initial entry into the marine industry, Dockwa has improved upon its transient booking tool while also conducting extensive research into the methods marinas employ to manage long term dockage.  

"This iteration of the Contracts tool, while based on 4 years of input from our partners, is just the beginning. Dockwa Contracts is both transformative as well as still in the early stages of development, and we are eager to continue to simplify the process for marina teams and boaters alike," said Mike Melillo, Dockwa co-founder and CEO. 

The most frequently heard pain points with regard to long term dockage included the man-hours spent creating contracts, the distribution process, and the time involved in contract collection. Kathy Donovan of Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore, New York, has been beta testing Dockwa Contracts as the software neared finalization. "We’ve run the gamut of contract management processes, and we love the customization [of Dockwa Contracts]. Customers are accustomed to DocuSign documents, and adding an end-to-end system that handles both the contract signature as well as automatic payment processing was a huge benefit," Donovan said.

Regarding the tool's efficiency, she added, "There is also a definite time-saving component – once a customer signs the agreement, the automatic payment processing is scheduled and eliminates our team from having to track down customers for payments.  We are very excited to launch our contract processing through Dockwa this season."

In eliminating paperwork and a lack of visibility, Dockwa Contracts alleviates much of the labor associated with managing long term dockage contracts. That means marina operators can spend less time on minutiae and more time focused on the aspects of their job they care about most.

Dockwa Contracts is available to all marinas at its standard credit card processing fee. Marinas interested in using Dockwa for long term contract management and/or transient reservation requests, can request a demo at dockwa.com/contracts.