How to plan a private boat charter for a group in Komodo: headcount, money, papers and rooms

Our terms are the same for every group. A 50 percent deposit holds the date. The balance is due 30 days before departure, or on the day itself in cash or by card at the card machine.

Payment fees are small and worth knowing in advance: 3 percent by card payment link, 7.2 percent by PayPal, 3 percent at the card machine. A bank transfer avoids them. The bank that issued your card may add its own charge.

Cancellation follows a scale. Sixty days or more before departure, 50 percent of what you paid comes back. Between 30 and 59 days, 25 percent. Under 30 days, nothing. Moving the date costs nothing at 30 days or more, IDR 500,000 between 14 and 29 days, and under 14 days a change counts as a cancellation. Once the conditions are met, a refund is transferred within 2 x 24 hours.

The order that keeps a group organiser solvent: collect each person's share of the deposit first, pay us second. Tell everyone the cancellation scale in the same message as the price, so nobody hears it for the first time after they drop out.

Every guest who enters Komodo National Park is registered by name. The list is yours to build, and it is the one job a group leader cannot hand to the boat.

• Full name exactly as printed on the passport or Indonesian ID card.
• Passport or ID number, and nationality. Nationality sets the park price.
• Date of birth. Children aged 0 to 2 travel free; from 3 the full share applies.
• Dietary needs and allergies, which we pass to the boat and confirm in writing.
• An emergency contact for each guest, and the flight each person arrives on.

Send the complete list at least 7 days before departure. A name that changes after that is a problem for everyone, so settle the list early and freeze it.

Travel insurance is not part of the charter. We recommend it for every guest, and for school groups the school's own rules decide it.

Arfisyana has 5 cabins and 18 standard berths. With the extra bed in each Master Cabin, on request, she sleeps 20. Every cabin has its own bathroom, air conditioning and a sea-view window.

• Master Cabin 1: a double bed, 2 guests, 3 with the extra bed.
• Master Cabin 2: the same.
• Sharing Room for 4: one double bunk, two double beds stacked.
• Sharing Room for 6: a double bunk and a single bunk.
• Third Sharing Room: bunk beds for 4.

Read the word double twice. Two guests share each double berth in the bunk rooms. Tell the group before they pick roommates, not on the gangplank.

For a school group, one pattern works well: adults in the two Master Cabins, students by gender in the three sharing rooms, and a chaperone who checks each sharing room at lights out. The adult-to-student ratio is your school's rule, not ours. Confirm the two extra beds in writing before you build a plan for 20 on them.

The whole-boat price carries the pickup between your Labuan Bajo hotel or the airport and the harbour, all meals cooked on board, drinking water, tea and coffee, snorkel gear, life jackets and towels.

It does not carry the park package, flights, hotels, alcoholic drinks, tips for the crew, or a guide and photo or video documentation. On a private charter those last two are available on request and quoted separately.

Sometimes a boat cannot sail: a breakdown, or an order from the port or the park. If that happens to Arfisyana on your date, we supply a phinisi of the same or a higher class on the same date at no extra cost, or a full refund. 2027 dates can be booked now: the 2026 rate card applies until the 2027 card appears, and if it changes before your final payment you hear it from us first and may cancel free.

Then send one WhatsApp message: headcount, dates, trip length, and how many guests are Indonesian. That is enough for a written quote.

Here is the plan we would send back to a teacher who writes to us with 16 names, 3D2N, in the dry season.

• Band: 13 to 16 guests, IDR 65,000,000 (≈ USD 3,988) for the whole boat.
• Share per head: IDR 4,060,000 (≈ USD 249), before the park package.
• Deposit: 50 percent to hold the date, collected from the families first.
• Balance: 30 days before departure.
• Rooms: one teacher in each Master Cabin, the 14 students across the three sharing rooms, by gender: 4, 6 and 4.
• Papers: the name list with passport or ID numbers, at least 7 days before.

Now look at what is left over. Each Master Cabin still has a free place on the double bed, and an extra bed on request. Add 4 adults who are content to share, a parent, a school nurse, two more chaperones, and the group moves to the 17 to 20 band. The boat then costs IDR 70,000,000 (≈ USD 4,294), but the share per head falls to IDR 3,500,000 (≈ USD 215). More adults, cheaper students. It is the one sum in this business that pleases everybody.

The teacher's real work is elsewhere: consent forms, the school's own adult-to-student rule, and a phone tree for the parents. We handle the boat, the pickup and the park entry from the list.