Groupon: Collective Buying Power

We have found that it is best to underrate boats in our ads because we have no control over the size of the people renting and we want to insure our customer's safety. We also find that many customers like to bring an unbelievable amount of heavy gear, like 10 ice chests and the kitchen sink. If your group does not include a lot of larger people or heavy gear we can allow more people (within reason). Obviously it is the overall weight of people and gear that determines whether it is safe to let you go. If you have over 8 you just need to talk to us about the size people and amount of gear you want to bring.

Merle S. answered 5 months, 30 days, 11 hours, and 36 minutes ago

I am not a user, this question was addressed to the owner of the company. Your best guide would be our satisfaction rating from Groupon Users. I have 2 companies who use Groupons, One is Belle Boat Rental, 98% of users who responded to Groupon's survey said that they would refer us to a friend. Typically the one or two who did not either misused our boats and were penalized or they had issues with scheduling. Obviously, we work with customers as much as possible to schedule a date that will work for them but there are a few who purchase the coupon with only one specific day in mind and if they can't have that specific day they are unhappy. Obviously our inventory of boats is not infinite and I cannot produce another boat when they are all already booked but some users do not understand this. Considering all of this a 98% positive rating is pretty good. Our other company that uses Groupon is Belle Harbour Marina. It's positive rating is 89%. This tends to be a little lower because our primary product is kayak rentals and we do get some customers who really should not be kayaking, most of the dissatisfation there comes from people who do not understand the balance and physical ability required to enjoy the kayak trip.

Merle S. answered 5 months, 30 days, 11 hours, and 41 minutes ago

We try to underrate the boats for safety. The boat is USCG approved for more people but their average size person is about 140 lbs. We find that usually groups of adults are larger than that. Whether we can let you safely go with 10 depends upon the size of the people and the amount of gear you carry. If your average person size is not too large and you do not bring 10 coolers and the kitchen sink we would allow 10.

Merle S. answered 5 months, 30 days, 11 hours, and 54 minutes ago