Methodology
Each rating scores the companies of one sector in Phuket from 0 to 100 using eight criteria that a guest can check independently: public Google Maps numbers and facts published on each company's own website. Nothing is scored on opinion, and nothing is scored on facts a company has not published.
Which companies are included?
Each sector has a separate inclusion rule, given in its section below. For yacht charter: charter operators and charter agencies based in Phuket (within about 45 km of the island) that have their own website and a Google Maps listing for the charter business; marinas, yacht clubs, brokerages without a charter offer, dive centres and ferry services are not included, and the list was selected from 102 Google Maps listings in the yacht, boat and charter categories around Phuket. Version 1.0 covers 66 companies in 3 sectors.
A company that has a listing in the directory but no confirmed Google Maps listing for its Phuket charter business is shown without a rank until the listing is confirmed.
What are the criteria and how are they weighted, by sector?
Yacht charter: 24 companies
Charter operators and agencies based in Phuket with their own website and a Google Maps listing for the charter business.
| Criterion | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps rating | 20 | 5.0 gives 20 points, falling linearly to 0 at 4.0; with fewer than 20 reviews the points are reduced in proportion (10 reviews give half), so a perfect score from a handful of reviews does not outweigh an established record |
| Number of Google reviews | 15 | Logarithmic: 10 reviews give 5 points, 100 give 10, 1,000 give 15 |
| TAT licence | 15 | Licence number shown on the company site: 15; not shown: 0 |
| Published prices per named item | 15 | Baht price on every listed boat's page (at most one boat in ten may be quoted in another currency): 15; some boats, or "from" prices only: 8; no prices or foreign currency only: 0 |
| Boats or aircraft under own management | 10 | 3 or more: 10; 1 to 2: 6; agency catalogue only: 0 |
| Years on the market | 10 | 10 or more: 10; 5 to 9: 6; under 5: 3; founding year not published: 0 |
| Support languages | 5 | 3 or more: 5; two: 3; one: 1 |
| Booking transparency | 10 | Inclusions, deposit terms and cancellation terms all on the site: 10; some of them: 5; none: 0 |
| Total | 100 |
Helicopter and jet charter: 13 companies
Thai-certificated operators and Thailand-based brokers and agencies that sell helicopter tours, helicopter charter or private jet charter to, from or within Phuket, and have their own website. International brokers with only a destination page are listed without a rank.
| Criterion | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps rating | 20 | 5.0 gives 20 points, falling linearly to 0 at 4.0; with fewer than 20 reviews the points are reduced in proportion (10 reviews give half), so a perfect score from a handful of reviews does not outweigh an established record |
| Number of Google reviews | 15 | Logarithmic: 10 reviews give 5 points, 100 give 10, 1,000 give 15 |
| AOC / CAAT reference | 15 | Air Operator Certificate (AOC), CAAT reference or an independent safety audit (ARGUS, Wyvern, IS-BAO) published on the site: 15; not published: 0 |
| Published prices per named item | 15 | Price published for every named tour, route or aircraft (any currency): 15; some, or "from" prices only: 8; no prices, quote on request: 0 |
| Boats or aircraft under own management | 10 | Operator with 3 or more own aircraft: 10; 1 to 2: 6; broker or reseller without own aircraft: 0 |
| Years on the market | 10 | 10 or more: 10; 5 to 9: 6; under 5: 3; founding year not published: 0 |
| Support languages | 5 | 3 or more: 5; two: 3; one: 1 |
| Booking transparency | 10 | Inclusions, deposit terms and cancellation terms all on the site: 10; some of them: 5; none: 0 |
| Total | 100 |
Real estate agencies (buying): 29 companies
Agencies with an office in Phuket and a website that sell villas and condominiums to foreign buyers, including projects of other developers. Sales departments of developers are not scored. Companies of one group are shown as one row, through the partner that states it is the group's authorised sales partner.
| Criterion | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps rating | 20 | 5.0 gives 20 points, falling linearly to 0 at 4.0; with fewer than 20 reviews the points are reduced in proportion (10 reviews give half). A listing with no rating yet: 0 |
| Number of Google reviews | 15 | Logarithmic: 10 reviews give 5 points, 100 give 10, 1,000 give 15 |
| Registered company (DBD) | 15 | 13-digit company number in the DBD register, status active, and the company is named on its site (legal name or printed number): 15; not found, or not named on the site: 0 |
| Published prices per named item | 15 | Price shown on every listing or project examined (any currency): 15; some, or "from" prices only: 8; no prices: 0 |
| Listings in the catalogue | 10 | Number printed on the agency's for-sale catalogue. 300 or more: 10; 50 to 299: 6; fewer, or no total printed: 0 |
| Years on the market | 10 | Years since the company's registration date in the DBD register; if no register record was found, since the founding year stated on the site. 10 or more: 10; 5 to 9: 6; under 5: 3; no year found: 0 |
| Support languages | 5 | 3 or more: 5; two: 3; one: 1 |
| Buyer-facing transparency | 10 | Three items, each found on the site or not: who pays the agency; the legal approach (recommends an independent lawyer, or names in-house or partner lawyers); rules for foreign buyers explained. All three: 10; one or two: 5; none: 0 |
| Total | 100 |
- Registered company (DBD): The 13-digit company number in the Department of Business Development register (DBD DataWarehouse+). It counts only when the register shows the company as active and the company is named on its website, by legal name or by a printed number. The profile links to the register page.
- Years on the market: Counted from the year the company was registered in the DBD register, as of 2026. Where no register record was found, the founding year stated on the agency's site is used.
- Listings in the catalogue: The number printed on the agency's for-sale catalogue on the check date. Agencies count different things (properties, lots or projects), and some counters combine sale and rent or cover all of Thailand; the profile says what the counter covers. A larger catalogue says nothing about the quality of its listings.
- Buyer-facing transparency: Three separate things, each found on the agency's site or not: who pays the agency (buyer, seller or developer, stated plainly); the legal approach (the agency recommends that the buyer hire an independent lawyer, or names in-house or partner lawyers; a general phrase such as "legal support" does not count); and whether the rules for foreign buyers are explained.
- Google Maps: For this sector the rating and review count are a manual snapshot of each agency's Google Maps listing taken on 11 October 2026, not data from a provider (for a group, the listing named in its row). An agency whose listing shows no rating or reviews yet scores 0 on both Google criteria.
- Groups: Companies of one group are shown as one row, through the partner that states on its site that it is the group's authorised sales partner. Since 19 October 2026 that row uses the group's Google Maps listing with the most reviews and the earliest DBD registration among the group companies, and the row says whose listing and registration they are. Until 18 October 2026 the group's reviews and age were not counted.
- What the rating does not measure: The rating measures what agencies publish and what customers report on Google. It does not assess the quality, legal title or price of any property, a developer's record of delivery, or any legal advice, and it is not investment advice.
Definitions
- Google Maps rating and reviews: the numbers on the Google Maps listing of the company's charter business in Phuket. If a company has several listings, we use the one whose name or category matches the charter service, and we say so on the profile. Numbers are a dated snapshot; live numbers may differ.
- Licence or certificate: for yacht and boat charter, a tourism business licence number printed on the company's website (Phuket-issued licences usually look like 34/xxxxx); for aviation, an Air Operator Certificate, a CAAT reference or an independent safety audit (ARGUS, Wyvern, IS-BAO) published on the site. Version 1.0 records the reference as printed; it does not yet verify it against the registry.
- Prices in Thai baht per named boat: the boat pages show a price in baht for a stated duration. We count the boat pages linked from the company's fleet or price list; a company scores full points when every page carries a baht price, allowing at most one boat in ten to be quoted in another currency (typically a superyacht priced by its owner in dollars or euros). "From" prices without a boat, boats without any price, prices only in USD or EUR, or a quote-only site do not count as full. The counts are shown on the profile.
- Boats under own management: boats the company describes as its own, operated or managed fleet, as opposed to a catalogue of partner or brokerage boats. If the site gives no such number, the criterion scores 0 even when the catalogue is large.
- Years on the market: counted from the founding or registration year stated on the site, as of 2026. "Over 15 years" without a year is treated as not stated.
- Support languages: languages the site is published in, or languages of support the site explicitly names. The site's own language always counts as one.
- Booking transparency: three separate things, each either published or not: what the price includes, deposit and payment terms, and cancellation terms. Terms "available on request" or "stated in the booking confirmation" count as not published.
Where does the data come from?
- Google Maps listings: snapshot of 10 October 2026, read from live Google search results through a search-data provider; the rating and review count are taken only from the listing that matches the company's Google Maps ID (the date is shown on each profile).
- Company websites: every fact on a profile links to the page where it was found, with the date of the check.
- Tripadvisor: we link to the listing where we found one; Tripadvisor numbers are not part of the score.
The full dataset behind the rating is published as JSON and CSV under a CC BY 4.0 licence: quote it with a link to this site and the data date. The same files are deposited with a citable DOI on Zenodo and mirrored on GitHub, Hugging Face and Kaggle.
Cite as: Phuket Rating (2026). Phuket Rating: ratings of yacht charter and private aviation companies in Phuket, Thailand, version 1.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22912870
How are ties and rounding handled?
Points for the two Google criteria are rounded to one decimal place. Companies with the same total are ordered by Google rating, then by number of reviews, then alphabetically.
How often is the rating updated?
Google numbers are refreshed about once a month and the date on the rating page changes with them. Website facts are re-checked at least once a quarter and whenever a company asks. Criteria and weights change only with a new methodology version and date; earlier versions are listed below.
How can a company correct its data or be added?
If you represent a listed company and a fact is wrong or outdated, write to phuketyachtguide@gmail.com with a link to the page on your site that confirms the correct fact. We check and update the profile within ten working days. Companies that meet the inclusion rules and are not yet listed can ask to be added in the same way. Adding or correcting data is free. A company can also send photographs of its boats for its profile; they are published with a note that the company supplied them.
Is the rating independent?
No company can pay for a place or a score. We do not collect or publish reviews, and we do not mark up third-party ratings as structured data. Ratings and review counts belong to their platforms and are shown here as reported numbers.
What does the rating not measure?
The rating measures what companies publish and what guests report on Google. It does not measure the condition of the boats, the quality of the crew or the safety of an operation. A low score on the transparency or price criteria means information is not published, not that the service is poor. Google counts from a data provider can lag the live listing by several weeks.
Version history
- 1.0 (17 September 2026): first published version, eight criteria; sectors: yacht charter (25 companies), helicopter and jet charter (13 companies).
Data update log
- 10 October 2026: Google Maps ratings and review counts refreshed for all listed companies from live Google results; website facts and weights unchanged.
- 17 September 2026: Google Maps snapshot for all listed companies; company websites checked; boat-page currency counts taken for the price criterion.