Whole boat or shared cabins in Komodo: how many guests make a private charter worth quoting

Elrora Liveaboard sells open-trip seats by cabin type, per person, for a 3D2N sailing. The Master cabin is IDR 11,500,000. A Deluxe seat is IDR 9,750,000. A Superior seat is IDR 7,500,000. The Family cabin is IDR 6,500,000 per person and is sold to four guests together.

Two guests share each of the other cabins. The boat has 6 cabins and 14 berths: one Master, two Deluxe, two Superior and one Family. An open-trip sailing runs only when at least three cabins are sold, and July and August are open trips only.

Meals, drinking water, coffee, tea and snorkelling gear with life vests come with the seat. Park tickets, other drinks, crew tips, flights and insurance do not. A private charter has the same list, with one difference. A guide and photo or video documentation are not in a private price. Both can be added on request.

The private price itself is on request, quoted in writing for your dates. So this piece cannot give you a break-even figure. It gives you the other half of the sum, which you can fix today.

I filled the cheapest cabins first for each party size. Totals are the printed seat fares multiplied out, before park tickets.

• 4 guests: the Family cabin, 4 seats. Total 26 million rupiah, or 6.5 million per head.
• 6 guests: Family plus one Superior cabin. Total 41 million rupiah, 6.8 million per head.
• 8 guests: Family plus both Superior cabins. Total 56 million rupiah, 7 million per head.
• 10 guests: Family, both Superior cabins and one Deluxe. Total 75.5 million rupiah, 7.55 million per head.
• 12 guests: Family, both Superior and both Deluxe cabins. Total 95 million rupiah, 7.9 million per head.
• 14 guests: every cabin, Master included. Total 118 million rupiah, 8.4 million per head.

A different mix costs more. Eight guests who want the Master cabin, one Deluxe and the Family cabin pay 68.5 million rupiah. Pick the cabins you would really choose, not the cheapest ones, and total those instead.

Call your cabin total S and the written private quote Q. Subtract S from Q. That gap is the price of having the boat to yourselves on a date of your choosing.

Three outcomes are possible. If Q is below S, the whole boat costs less than the seats, and the choice is made. If Q equals S, privacy is free. If Q is above S, the gap is what you pay for the empty berths, the free choice of date and the absence of strangers on deck. Only you can price that.

There is a second test, and it is blunter. Compare Q with 118 million rupiah, the cost of every berth. A quote under that figure is cheaper than buying every seat on the boat. It says nothing about a smaller party, which pays only for its own seats, and that is why S is the figure that counts.

Divide Q by your head count to get a per-person figure, and put it next to the per-head column above. Compare like with like. Park tickets sit outside both totals, and so do drinks, tips and flights.

Seat totals also show how much of the boat you are buying anyway. At 4 guests the seats are 22 percent of the 118 million. At 8 guests they are 47 percent. At 10 guests it is 64 percent, and at 12 guests it is 81 percent.

That is why I treat 10 as the point where the quote deserves a request. Beyond it, most of the boat is already paid for in seat terms, and the extra money buys the last few berths and the date. Below 8 guests, I would ask for a quote only when the date or the privacy matters, since the seat total is the sum a private price has to beat.

I cannot give a harder number than that, because the private price is not published. It would be easy to invent a break-even point and defend it. I would rather leave the line open and let your written quote close it.

One reason can override the arithmetic: the calendar. A wedding, a school holiday or a grandparent's birthday fixes the date. An open trip sails on the dates the boat publishes, so a party with one possible week has no real choice to compare.

The minimum of three cabins matters more than it looks. A party of 4 fills one cabin. A party of 6 fills two. Neither reaches three, so their sailing depends on other guests booking the remaining cabins. If a date does not reach three, we say so in writing and offer another date or a refund under the terms.

A party of 8 in the cheapest mix fills three cabins and secures its own date once the deposit is paid. A party of 10 fills four. Larger parties carry no such risk, because they sell the sailing themselves.

Shared sailings also bring the other half of the open-trip format. You sit with other guests at meals and meet them on the paths. Some parties like that. For others it is the whole reason to charter, and no seat total changes the answer.

Stops and hours on a shared date are set for the whole boat. On a private charter your party sets the tempo, inside the limits of the weather and the captain's judgement. Weather orders the stops either way.

Seat fares are printed per person for two sharing a cabin. A party of 5 or 7 leaves one seat without a partner. Ask how that last seat is priced and have it written down. The fare list prints no rate for one guest alone in a cabin, so that seat is quoted in writing.

Children aged 0 to 2 travel free with a parent or guardian. From age 3 the full fare applies, so a child of 3 counts as a seat in every total above. The Family cabin is sold to four together, so a party of 3 is better placed in two cabins of the other kinds.

The same rule works the other way round. A family of four that fits the Family cabin saves most by taking it. For a private quote, tell us the ages when you write, so the cabin plan and the quote use the same head count.

We publish 14 guests as the capacity. A party larger than that needs a second boat, whichever format it chooses.