How to choose a yacht charter company in Phuket
Choosing a yacht charter company in Phuket comes down to a few checks you can make from your phone before paying a deposit: a tourism licence number you can verify on the Department of Tourism website, a quotation that names the boat, prices in Thai baht, and a review history that is large, recent and answered. This guide walks through each check and ends with the eight-criteria method this site uses to rate companies, without naming or recommending any operator.
The tourism licence: what it is and how to check it
What the licence is
Tour and charter operators in Thailand are regulated by the Tourism Business and Guide Act B.E. 2551, published in the Royal Gazette in February 2008 and amended in 2016. The licence is issued by the Tourism Business and Guide Registration Office of the Department of Tourism, part of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Everyone calls it a TAT licence, but the Tourism Authority of Thailand is a marketing body and does not issue it.
A licence is valid for two years from issue and requires a fee and a security deposit. There are four categories: specific area, domestic, inbound (visitors arriving from abroad) and general. The licensee must display it openly at the place of business named on it. Operating without one carries up to two years in prison, a fine of up to 500,000 baht, or both.
Why a charter company should publish its number
The Act also requires that an advertised tour programme comes with a document stating, among other things, the operator’s name and licence number, the price and payment method, the vehicle, the route, meals, the guide and the accident insurance. A licence number on the website and in the quotation is therefore what the law expects, and it tells you which legal entity you are paying, since the licensed name often differs from the brand.
How to verify it, step by step
- Open dot.go.th and click the blue License Check banner, or go straight to esvcs.dot.go.th, LicenseInformationPage.
- Choose the tour business tab (ธุรกิจนำเที่ยว), not the guide or tour leader tabs.
- Enter the licence number or the registered company name and search.
- Read the result: operator name, licence number and status. ปกติ (normal) means the licence is in good standing; since licences expire after two years, this matters more than a scanned certificate.
- Compare the licensed name with the name on the invoice.
What the number format tells you
A licence number is two digits, a slash and a five-digit serial, for example 34/0xxxx. The first digit reflects the issuing office: in the public member list of the Thai Travel Agents Association, Phuket companies carry numbers beginning 31/ and 34/, Bangkok companies 11/ and Chiang Mai companies 21/. The Phuket branch of the registration office covers Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Phang Nga and Ranong.
The second digit is the category: 1 general, 2 domestic, 3 specific area, 4 inbound. A Phuket operator serving international guests will usually show a number starting 34/, a general licence from the same office 31/. A number beginning 11/ belongs to a company registered in Bangkok: not a fault, but the licensed office is elsewhere.
Named boats, not categories
A serious quotation names the yacht. “Catamaran, 40 feet, up to 20 guests” is a category, and a category can be swapped on the morning of the trip; a named boat can be inspected before you pay.
The boat’s page should show recent photographs of that exact vessel rather than stock imagery, the licensed passenger capacity (the figure on the boat’s registration, lower than the number of seats), the crew, the year of build or refit, and the berth it departs from. If capacity or berth is missing, ask. If the answer is a different boat of the same class, treat the quotation as a category price.
Boats under the company’s management or an agency catalogue
Two models operate side by side in Phuket. An operator with boats under its own management sets the crew, maintenance, calendar and price for those boats, and answers directly when something changes. An agency or brokerage sells from a catalogue of boats run by other companies: it handles your enquiry and payment, and the boat’s operator handles the day.
Neither model is wrong. A catalogue gives choice; a managed fleet gives one line of responsibility. What matters is knowing which you are dealing with, because that decides who makes the call on the day: who judges the sea too rough, who picks a replacement if an engine fails, and who refunds. Ask plainly whether the boat is under the company’s management or booked from another operator.
Prices in Thai baht per named boat
Thai operators invoice in baht, and their costs are in baht. A baht price for a named boat is a fixed figure you can compare across sites and hold the company to. Other formats need translating first.
| Price format | What it usually hides |
|---|---|
| “From 25,000 baht” | The cheapest boat, shortest route, lowest season or smallest group. |
| Price in USD or EUR | An exchange rate chosen by the seller; the baht invoice may differ. |
| Price on request | Often an agency quoting from another operator’s list. |
Our guide to Phuket yacht charter prices in 2026 gives baht ranges by boat type.
Who answers, in which language, and in which time zone
Check three things in the first exchange. Language: is support genuinely available in yours, or is a translation app carrying the conversation? Time zone: Phuket is UTC+7, so a sales desk in Europe replies in your evening, and a question at seven in the morning on the day of the trip may reach nobody. Person: the number you hold should reach someone on the island who can speak to the captain, so ask where the person writing to you is sitting.
How to read Google Maps and Tripadvisor reviews
Both platforms publish rules worth knowing. Google removes reviews that are paid, incentivised, posted from several accounts by one person or written under a conflict of interest, and lets a business ask for reviews only without offering anything in return. Tripadvisor accepts first-hand reviews only, submitted within a year of the experience, one per visit; it bans reviews from anyone connected to the business and penalises properties caught buying, exchanging or gating reviews with ranking penalties and warning badges.
Read four things, in this order.
- Count. Thirty reviews can be moved by a handful of guests; two thousand cannot. A 5.0 with 30 reviews says nobody has complained yet; a 4.9 with 2,000 says the company has stayed consistent across many seasons. Neither is a guarantee.
- Recency. Look at the dates of the last ten reviews. A company running boats every week in high season gathers reviews every week.
- Replies. Tripadvisor posts management responses under the review, visible to every reader, and Google shows the business’s replies in the same place. A company that answers criticism calmly and specifically is showing how it handles a problem.
- Content. Reviews that name the boat, the captain and the route are worth more than “amazing day”.
Transparency before you pay
Before a deposit leaves your account, the following should be in writing, ideally on the site itself:
- What the price includes (fuel, crew, drinks, meals, snorkelling gear, towels, transfers) and what it excludes (national park fees, alcohol, tips, overtime).
- A written quotation for the named boat, date, hours, route, guest count and total price in baht.
- Deposit amount, balance due date and accepted payment methods.
- Cancellation terms, both when you cancel and when the captain or the harbour authority cancels for weather. The Act itself requires a refund when an operator changes a programme after payment and the tourist declines to travel, and it bars charges not stated in the programme document or agreed in advance.
The guide to what is included in a yacht charter lists the usual inclusions line by line.
Departure point and the route it suits
Phuket has several piers and marinas, each suited to a different route. Boats at Chalong in the south reach Racha, Coral Island and Phi Phi quickly; boats at Ao Po or the Koh Kaew marinas in the north-east are placed for Phang Nga Bay, Hong Island and Koh Yao, so a Phang Nga Bay day quoted from a southern pier includes two extra hours of transit. Our guides to Phuket marinas and piers and Phuket yacht routes give distances and timings.
How this site rates Phuket charter companies
The rating on the home page is built from eight criteria, each scored from public information and weighted as shown below. The full method, with data sources and update dates, is on the methodology page. No company pays to be listed or scored.
| Criterion | Weight | Scoring |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps rating | 20 | 5.0 gives 20, linear down to 4.0 gives 0 |
| Number of Google reviews | 15 | logarithmic: 10 reviews gives 5, 100 gives 10, 1,000 gives 15 |
| TAT licence published and verifiable | 15 | published 15, not published 0 |
| Prices in Thai baht per named boat on the site | 15 | all boats 15, some 8, none 0 |
| Boats under the company’s own management, not only an agency catalogue | 10 | 3 or more 10, 1 to 2 gives 6, none 0 |
| Years on the market | 10 | 10 or more 10, 5 to 9 gives 6, under 5 gives 3 |
| Support languages | 5 | 3 or more 5, two 3, one 1 |
| Booking transparency: inclusions, written quotation, cancellation terms on the site | 10 | full 10, partial 5, none 0 |
The maximum is 100 points, and every input can be verified with the steps above.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check a Phuket yacht charter company's TAT licence?
Open dot.go.th, click the License Check banner (it opens esvcs.dot.go.th), choose the tour business tab, enter the licence number or registered company name and search. A valid entry shows the operator's name, the number and a status; ปกติ means the licence is in normal standing. Licences run for two years, so check the live status, not a certificate image.
What does a licence number like 34/0xxxx mean?
Two digits, a slash and a five-digit serial. The first digit reflects the registration office: Phuket companies hold numbers starting 31/ and 34/, Bangkok companies 11/, Chiang Mai companies 21/. The second digit is the category: 1 general, 2 domestic, 3 specific area, 4 inbound, meaning visitors from abroad. A Phuket operator serving international guests usually shows a number beginning 34/.
Is a 5.0 rating with 30 reviews better than a 4.9 with 2,000 reviews?
They are different signals rather than a ranking. Thirty reviews can be moved by a handful of guests, so a 5.0 mostly says nobody has complained yet. A 4.9 across two thousand reviews shows consistency over many seasons. Read the dates of the latest reviews and the company's replies before weighing either number.
Does this site recommend one company as the best?
No. It publishes a rating built from eight weighted criteria that anyone can check from public information, and the method is explained on the methodology page. The rating is a shortcut for the checks in this guide, not a substitute for them.
Sources
- Thai Parliament research note on the Tourism Business and Guide Act B.E. 2551 (Act name and date, two-year licence validity, four licence categories, duty to display the licence, required contents of a tour programme document, refund rule, penalties)
- info.go.th, government service guide for issuing a tourism business licence (Act B.E. 2551, six regional registration branches, Phuket branch covering Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Phang Nga and Ranong)
- Department of Tourism, Thailand, home page with the License Check banner (verify a tour business, guide or tour leader before buying)
- Department of Tourism e-service, licence information search (tour business, guide and tour leader tabs, search by number or name)
- Public Relations Department, Region 4, how to check a real tour company online (steps, result fields, status ปกติ, penalties for unlicensed operation)
- Office of the Information Commission, citizen guide on paying the two-yearly tourism business fee (renewal cycle, regional offices including Phuket and Krabi)
- PTN Insurance Broker, what the tourism business licence number means (second digit: 1 general, 2 domestic, 3 specific area, 4 inbound)
- Thai Travel Agents Association member directory (licence numbers beside provinces: Phuket 31/ and 34/, Bangkok 11/, Chiang Mai 21/)
- Google Maps user generated content policy, prohibited and restricted content (fake engagement, incentivised reviews, conflict of interest)
- Tripadvisor Trust and Safety, review posting guidelines (first-hand only, one year limit, one review per experience, affiliated reviewers, incentives, review gating, penalties)
- Tripadvisor Trust and Safety, management response guidelines (responses posted under the review, visible to all readers)