Shower - $1.00 for 5 minutes

[rwidman]

BandB

Pray tell what is "Restaurant charge"?

He's just trying to add up random things to make the list longer. He has three lines for "tax".

He is stubbornly trying to not understand my point.

 

[Bigsfish]

Wes

Once I was in NY for business and took my parents with me for a little vacation. I usually stayed at the Algonquin Hotel and we had lunch in the hotel one day. The check came and I was gig timsign it when my Dad grabbed it and saw a B & B charge on it. He called the waiter over and asked what it was. He explained it was a Bread and Butter charge. My dad explained that none of us had any bread and butter, the waiter looked at me who he knew. I looked away, my dad asked for the manager and had it removed. I was paying but it was the principle to him. Some people are effected differently by nickle and dime charges.

 

[BandB]

BandB

Pray tell what is "Restaurant charge"?

Food you've had delivered by room service to your boat at a marina that has room service available. We've docked at several marinas that provide it, most in resorts, but some located adjacent to regular hotels.

 

[BandB]

He's just trying to add up random things to make the list longer. He has three lines for "tax".

He is stubbornly trying to not understand my point.

Those are actually three very different taxes. Sales tax is a state tax. Now some cities have additional sales tax and some have special hotel taxes that include marinas. Then property tax is a special California issue where you pay property tax on your boat but also on your dock space. I've seen all these things as separate line items. I haven't seen them all yet on one bill. I was responding to Bigfish's comment about it looking like a cell phone bill. The cell phone bills and the cable bills have multiple lines for taxes.

 

[Bigsfish]

BandB

Interesting, I have never seen that before. So the marina charges the restaurant tax not the restaurant?

How about if you had pizza delivered?

 

[Bob Cofer]

Here in the PNW the answer is it depends. Most of the public marinas charge. Some of the private resorts, Rosario comes to mind, do not. Ladysmith, BC does not but most other marinas do.

For us it really makes no difference in where we choose to go.

Bob

 

[BandB]

BandB

Interesting, I have never seen that before. So the marina charges the restaurant tax not the restaurant?

How about if you had pizza delivered?

Not a restaurant tax, the charge for the meal. Marina part of a resort with room service to the boat. Restaurant bills your slip, just like it would bill a room. Marina adds it to your bill. We've encountered that a couple of times. This is when they're all part of one entity. A pizza delivered by an unrelated party you'd pay directly. Some places give marina guests all the same perks and benefits as hotel guests. The most recent we encountered that had great amenities was Westin Savannah. I don't know if they would have charged golf fees to the slip or not as we didn't play golf.

 

[tbodine88]

I was researching on Active Captain for next year's cruise. Just off the Hudson River (New York State) is a marina that lists showers at $1.00 for 5 minutes. This is the first time I've seen a marina charge separately for showers. Is this unusual? Do other marinas (in the USA) do this?

Happened to me in Jolly Harbor Marina. $2 EC for a shower. I was staying in the cheap slips though. in 2001.

 

[Bigsfish]

BandB

Sorry I misunderstood. The charge is for the meal being delivered to your boat and not an additional charge. I thought the charge was in addition to the cost of the meal. That makes sense.

When we are at a marina we usually go out to eat.

Thanks.

 

[BandB]

BandB

Sorry I misunderstood. The charge is for the meal being delivered to your boat and not an additional charge. I thought the charge was in addition to the cost of the meal. That makes sense.

When we are at a marina we usually go out to eat.

Thanks.

We normally either cook on board or go out. Room service has been only a couple of times in all our cruising.

 

[BruceK]

Wes

Once I was in NY for business and took my parents with me for a little vacation. I usually stayed at the Algonquin Hotel and we had lunch in the hotel one day.....

I stayed there years ago,quirky hotel with great literary history. Did you meet "the Algonquin cat"? (No doubt one of a series).

 

[Last Tango]

Seems odd that charging a dollar for five minutes of shower would get so much anger when most charge about double what they pay for electricity and many have high rates for parking and some charge for WIFI or gym use or whatever. I care what my total cost is, don't really care how they get there. I have a problem with hotels charging resort fees on top of the room rate and some charging for WIFI. Not like you can stay there and not be in the resort. What about boatyards and auto shops with environmental fees or small parts charges? It just is what it is and I have the choice of accepting it or going somewhere else and I'm not going to penalize myself over a small nuisance charge.

At the Galion resort on Key West, they wanted $3.00 per foot. I asked what amenities that included, and it only included shower privileges. No towels. Power and water extra.

To have access to the pool, tennis courts, 1 hr complimentary bar with food, I would need to rent a room. $145

So, for $150 to tie my boat to their dock got me no access, yet if I anchored and rented a room, I got the full deal. Go figure.

 

[BandB]

At the Galion resort on Key West, they wanted $3.00 per foot. I asked what amenities that included, and it only included shower privileges. No towels. Power and water extra.

To have access to the pool, tennis courts, 1 hr complimentary bar with food, I would need to rent a room. $145

So, for $150 to tie my boat to their dock got me no access, yet if I anchored and rented a room, I got the full deal. Go figure.

I've seen places with the rules of the Galleon. I might tell them that unless they can get you day use of the facility at a reasonable price, you'll just dock in one of the three other marinas right beside them. I've known hotel managers to be willing to accept a rental fee for hotel access. Some even have it in their private price lists. Otherwise the only choice is renting their cheapest room. I've been very pleased with hotels willingness to allow marina guests to use the facilities.

Even in just the last two or three years, I've seen fewer places following the Galleon policy. Most would like you to eat at their restaurant, to buy food and drinks by the pool, to play golf, paying greens fees as even a hotel guest has to do. Now, I don't know, but it may be that the marina isn't run by the hotel/resort, that it's leased to a third party who has no relationship with the hotel.

I've never docked at Galleon. We normally do Conch Harbor or Stock Island or even up to Faro Blanco.

I read a complaint regarding a Tokyo hotel that they charged even guests to use the pool.

 

[BandB]

I will add that on one occasion we did rent a room for full use of the facilities. Didn't like having to do so, but while marina was located at the Hotel, it wasn't owned or operated by the same people. We were honest with them on how many of us there were and they said, no problem. Most resorts do have rates at the tennis courts for non guests. Also, many very nice hotels sell seasonal pool passes. I've never had one but use to have friends who took their family to the pool at the nicest hotel in town regularly on a season pass.

 

[BDofMSP]

Unlikely I'll ever get the boat to Alaska, but feel much of the remote areas in Lake Superior are as enticing.

Superior has already exceeded expectations. Sadly it's a detour off the Great Loop that requires weeks, maybe a month commitment to make it worthwhile. Already planning the next trip here.

Ted

Sorry to continue this thread derail but I have to make a pitch for our Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It's the San Juan's except without the mountains and whales. And salt. OC I'm assuming you're coming back that way?

 

[O C Diver]

Sorry to continue this thread derail but I have to make a pitch for our Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It's the San Juan's except without the mountains and whales. And salt. OC I'm assuming you're coming back that way?

I'm in Superior / Duluth now. Will likely spend up to a week in the Apostle Islands as I head East. When I was in Grand Marais, MN, saw a lake Superior shirt:

No salt
No sharks
No worries

Ted

 

[ranger58sb]

Come to think of it, I wonder if my marina could charge a deposit on carts so people would bring them back to where they belong.

That would just be another one of those itemized fees OP doesn't like.

Oh, wait...

-Chris

 

[rwidman]

That would just be another one of those itemized fees OP doesn't like.

Oh, wait...

-Chris

No, it would not.

Aldies (the supermarket chain mentioned somewhere) has a machine that takes a quarter and releases a cart. Bring it back and it returns the quarter. This saves the labor cost of sending employees around the parking lot to collect carts.

There's no paperwork and no extra cost.

 

[ranger58sb]

And aside from amount, that's somehow different from a separate shower fee?

I had a quarter in my pocket once... probably last year sometime, can't remember...

-Chris

 

[rwidman]

And aside from amount, that's somehow different from a separate shower fee?

I had a quarter in my pocket once... probably last year sometime, can't remember...

-Chris

I don't normally carry change. I seldom use cash and I don't normally take my credit card with me when I go to take a shower.

And that's the whole point. $50 for the night plus $2 for two showers is the same as $52 for the night but $52 for the night is simpler.

 

[BandB]

We docked at the Apostle Islands Marina in Bayfield and spent a day just exploring the islands in our RIB's, then more time as we cruised by them. Beautiful.

 

[ranger58sb]

I don't normally carry change. I seldom use cash and I don't normally take my credit card with me when I go to take a shower.

And that's the whole point. $50 for the night plus $2 for two showers is the same as $52 for the night but $52 for the night is simpler.

I wouldn't want to use cash to do showers either, but I don't see much difference between charging cash for a shower and charging cash for a cart deposit.

Just as $52/night is simpler, so it would be with "cart deposits" (or whatever) included.

That said, paying for what you use -- no more, no less -- conceptually resonates with me, too... but a) averages are mostly easier, and b) I don't usually sweat the small stuff. And almost everything is small stuff...

-Chris

 

[Northern Spy]

The intent of charging a nominal fee for the showers and a deposit for shopping carts is to deter those who would otherwise abuse the privileges.

Is it really that hard to understand?

 

[rwidman]

The intent of charging a nominal fee for the showers and a deposit for shopping carts is to deter those who would otherwise abuse the privileges.

Is it really that hard to understand?

It's hard to understand how they are related.

Marinas on the east coast of the USA usually do not charge separately for the use of the shower facility. The one that prompted this post apparently does. Why? We don't know. We only know that Active Captain reports that it does.

 

[Northern Spy]

Pay showers encourage shorter duration showers, which in turn, saves a modicum of water, but more importantly, may limit the duration of one individual tying up a common shared resource. It likely acts as a deterrent to non-marina customers using the facility, as well.

Quarter locks on shopping carts encourage otherwise lazy people to return shopping carts to corrals so they don't litter the parking lots.

They are both normal items in other Westernized countries to engineer desired outcomes from undesired behaviors.

Maybe you (or I) don't require these devices because of the way we were raised, but there seems to be more and more inconsiderate people these days.

Agreed that it might be an inconvenience, but I think the net benefit is worth it. It is a form of societal engineering which seems to work quite well.

 

[psneeld]

Spy, totally agree, heck in the first 2 pages and 40 posts were a number of reasonable reasons why it is done and why at some marinas and not others.

Your post is yet another realistic explanation

Yep, hard to imagine why it is hard to understand.

 

[BruceK]

Spot on, NS! Well reasoned and well explained.

 

[sbu22]

Poor analogy, NS. Nobody is trying to steal the shower and leave it sitting on the end of the pier.

The typical "control" down here is: when you pull into the marina, you get the code or the card that unlocks the head/shower, security gate, wifi, pumpout, and other services the marina offers in their cost per foot fee schedule. The code/card is turned off at the end of your stay.

Of course, to make that work, you need sufficient facilities to meet the demand and the marina owner needs to understand his cost structure to amortize his expenses.

I may be unusual in that I find the current and pervasive "nickle/dime" business model objectionable. I don't waste a lot of time about it (except on TF) - I just take my business elsewhere when I encounter it.

 

[rwidman]

Poor analogy, NS. Nobody is trying to steal the shower and leave it sitting on the end of the pier.

The typical "control" down here is: when you pull into the marina, you get the code or the card that unlocks the head/shower, security gate, wifi, pumpout, and other services the marina offers in their cost per foot fee schedule. The code/card is turned off at the end of your stay.

Of course, to make that work, you need sufficient facilities to meet the demand and the marina owner needs to understand his cost structure to amortize his expenses.

I may be unusual in that I find the current and pervasive "nickle/dime" business model objectionable. I don't waste a lot of time about it (except on TF) - I just take my business elsewhere when I encounter it.

That mirrors my experience with marinas and my sentiment about the "nickel and dime" approach as well.

 

[psneeld]

I guess the test of time is relavent.

If these marinas keep the nickle and dime approach or feel it loses more business than it gains.

Seems regional to public opinion, like deposits on bottles and things. Some places have kept it for years, others never have had it or got rid of it quickly.