It is always good when the phone rings, and there is a keen voice at the other end, asking for more details on a particular boat.

Occasionally, there is a hint of excitement on their part, as if they have just discovered something that nobody else knows.

At Boatshed London we mainly sell boats to people who are primarily looking for accommodation. That often equates to helping people who have very little experience of boats and boat ownership.

Before I get too far into the conversation, I like to establish how they intend to use the boat, which basically boils down to whether they want to live on the boat permanently, leading on to explaining the difference between residential and leisure moorings. It is surprising how long it can take before they reveal their actual intention is to put the boat on AirBnB.

Renting boats on a short-term basis is problematic for many reasons. Boats have batteries, valves, tanks, engines and lots of switches and button for small hands to play with. The systems on a boat are unlikely to be familiar to your paying guests, which usually initiates the problems. When something doesn’t seem to work, the gas isn’t on, or the loo gets blocked, your guests often turn to the person walking down the pontoon, or knocking on the boat next door for help. Rather than the owner/landlord dealing with trivial, but frequent problems, it is the local boat owners who get drawn into dealing with your guests, creating resentment.

Therefore, a marina is more likely to say no to renting out your boat, simply because it is easier than saying yes. There are some exceptions, notably St. Katherine’s Dock, where a limited number of commercial licences maybe granted, increasing the mooring fees by 20%.

I can understand people who stumble across a Boatshed listing and immediately think ‘investment opportunity’. However, operating a boat as a AirBnB is far from straightforward. Those that have managed it are often doing so despite their mooring T&Cs, therefore, as a broker, I have to caution against it.