Weddings, incentives and New Year
A corporate charter for twelve
How does a corporate or incentive yacht charter work in Phuket?
The short answer
How does a corporate or incentive yacht charter work in Phuket?
A licensed charter yacht carries no more than twelve guests, so a corporate group of twenty is two yachts cruising in company rather than one large one, which operators arrange routinely. Beyond that, an incentive charter differs from a leisure one in three respects: connectivity has to be specified rather than assumed, the itinerary needs a fixed return time that is contractually real, and the invoice needs to be addressed and itemised in a way a finance department will accept, including the 7 percent Thai VAT as its own line.
The three things to specify
- 01Connectivity. Mobile coverage is good in Phang Nga Bay, patchy at Phi Phi and absent in the Similans. If anyone has to join a call, that decides the itinerary. Ask whether the yacht has a satellite data connection and what it costs, because it usually comes out of the APA.
- 02A hard return time. On a leisure charter the captain adjusts to the weather. If there are flights or a dinner that cannot move, the return has to be built into the itinerary with margin, and stated in the contract rather than agreed verbally.
- 03The invoice. Company name, itemised base rate, APA, VAT against a Thai tax number. Sort this at the contract stage, not afterwards.
Two yachts is often better than one
Groups of twenty routinely assume a bigger yacht is the answer and are told about the twelve-guest cap. Two yachts cruising in company solves it, and it usually produces a better event: two anchorages side by side, a tender running between them, and the option of splitting the group by day.
Gratuity on a corporate charter follows the same 10 to 20 percent convention and needs to be approved in advance by whoever signs the expenses, because it is not on the invoice.
Last checked 6 September 2026. Rates, fees and regulations in this market change every season, so figures on this page are correct as at that date and not afterwards. How the figures are gathered.