- Model Patxi Areitio rents seven boats on the GetMyBoat boat rental app in Miami, Florida.
- During the summer, he can earn up to $100,000 in income per month, but there are also off-peak times.
- Maintenance, gas and labor costs, as well as weather and customer reliability, also reduce its revenue.
This narrated essay is based on a conversation with Patxi Areitio, a 34-year-old model and owner of a boat rental business in Miami, Florida. Insider verified his $100,000 month of earnings with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I moved to the United States three years ago to completely change my life. I was born in Madrid and grew up in Barcelona, then went to university in England and got my masters in management in Barcelona before moving to China and Chile — I like to move and I love adventure. My grandma lived in Miami when I was a kid and used to visit in the summer, so I decided Miami would be my next stop.
I didn’t know what I was going to do at first, but I appreciate how in the United States you can reinvent yourself with hard work and dedication. This is the place to be an entrepreneur.
I also work as a model. All of my modeling gigs disappeared during the pandemic due to COVID-19 restrictions, but by then I had started a boat rental company through the platform GetMyBoat which went from a secondary hustle to a more cohesive work.
Now I can earn up to $100,000 in income in a single month during peak season. Here’s how I started.
When I arrived in Miami, I bought a boat for me and started renting itbut demand was higher than expected
I was initially renting out my boat to cover costs like gas, but as demand increased I began to see more of the potential for additional income.
I originally found GetMyBoat through a friend and rented on the platform with my friends. I think it is the most effective boat rental platform.
In Miami, you can rent boats 365 days a year, so I bought a second boat and carried on – and now I have seven identical boats, which are 26-foot Sea Ray decks that can accommodate up to 11 people. They are very spacious and comfortable.
On weekends, reservations are quite full. We have already recorded 300 hours of bookings per week, but on a single Saturday, between the seven boats, we have reached more than 85 hours.
I have several people in my team who help me organize bookings on GetByBoat – we work on it practically all day
Overseeing anything business related can be difficult. I had to learn to delegate, train and hire experienced people. Renting is the easy part — the hardest part is maintenance, inventory, logistics, and coordination. This is where I need help. Managing more than 20 clients a day can be difficult to manage alone.
We have a one minute response rate on GetMyBoat, so if you want to rent a boat, someone from my team will get back to you within a minute. Thanks to this, I managed to become a “great owneron the platform and was ranked among the best of 2021.
We also have managers and captains that we offer through our service, but we don’t hire captains directly – we give clients a list of captains and they select the captain they want and pay them directly. We generate work for about fifteen captains in rotation.
From January to June, we received approximately 12,000 requests, of which approximately 1,200 – or 200 per month. Sometimes in just 10 minutes we can get five reservations – and it gets to the point where it’s stressful.
How much money I earn per week depends on the week
We can easily make $80,000 to $100,000 a month during peak season, but there have also been weeks where I only made $2,000 or almost nothing. The net benefit to me varies during peak season versus low season. I make $40,000 to $50,000 in my best months.
Winter is a slower season, so we have to compensate by making more money during the high season during the summer – and it’s important to realize that the money we make isn’t just for profit. I can’t keep all the income. GetMyBoat takes 15% from the owner and 15% from the customer, more or less. How much we can keep depends on what we spend on labor for mechanics, gas, and other maintenance issues. I spend about $3,000 a week on gas and an additional $3,000 on maintenance, per week, minimum.
But generating cash flow for these mechanics who help us with maintenance makes me feel good. Since we all receive a percentage of revenue, the more we earn on the platform, the more everyone earns.
I’m happy with the economics of this business, but it also means a lot to me that we provide great service that makes people happy
The number of returning customers is incredible. We offer accessible boating, which was once considered a luxury or a very exclusive activity.
You no longer need to be super rich to enjoy an experience on a boat. You can rent a boat for four hours in Miami with 10 people for $500, which is only $50 per person, cheaper than any club or restaurant in the area. You’ll have a lot more fun too, which makes me happy.
Overall, managing my time is the main factor in running this business. Modeling resumed, so to keep track of everything I’m working on my phone. I can be anywhere in the world for a photoshoot and make it all work.
From responding to customers to preparing parts for servicing, I can confidently say that we are one of the most efficient boat rental companies in Miami. Now our next goal is to enjoy life outside of the company as well, as we have been going non-stop for months this summer.
Do you have a rental business and want to share your story? Email Lauryn Haas at [email protected].
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