Five things worth checking before you book a boat in Phuket
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Phuket runs on boats. The island's best-known beaches are not on the island at all. They are on Phi Phi, on Racha Yai, in the limestone bays of Phang Nga, and the only way to reach them is to hire something that floats. In high season a few hundred companies compete for that business, and their websites look remarkably similar. Here is what actually separates them.
A published licence number. Tour operators in Thailand are licensed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and the licence number is a matter of public record. Publishing it on your own website is voluntary, which makes it a useful signal: a company that prints its TAT number is telling you it expects to be checked. A recent survey of 25 Phuket charter operators found that 8 published a licence number and 17 did not. Absence is not proof of anything, because plenty of legitimate firms simply never thought to add it, but its presence removes a question you would otherwise have to ask by email.
A price you can actually compare. This is where Phuket gets slippery. Of those same 25 companies, 7 published baht prices on every boat they listed. Six published no baht price at all, quoting only in dollars, euros or pounds. Two published no prices anywhere, and the remaining ten were partial, with baht on the day-charter pages and another currency on the superyachts. Comparing two quotes across two currencies, with an exchange rate that moves, is a genuinely annoying way to spend an evening. Ask for baht, and ask whether the number is per boat or per person.
A written list of what is included. Twenty of the 25 published one. Fuel, crew, national park fees, lunch, soft drinks, snorkelling gear and hotel transfers all get bundled differently by different operators, and the park fees alone can be several hundred baht per head. A charter that looks 15 percent cheaper often is not, once the inclusions line up.
A cancellation policy in writing. Seventeen of 25 published one. Weather is the reason this matters more here than elsewhere: the Andaman monsoon runs roughly May to October, and a trip cancelled by the captain on safety grounds should not cost you the same as a trip you cancelled because you overslept. Good policies say which is which.
A deposit you understand. Also 17 of 25. The question is not whether a deposit is reasonable, because it is, but whether the amount, the timing and the refund conditions are stated before you pay rather than after.
None of this requires expertise. It requires ten minutes on each company's own website, which is roughly the amount of attention most people give to booking a rental car and considerably less than they give to choosing a hotel. If you would rather not do it yourself, an independent project called Phuket Rating has done the check across the island's charter fleet and publishes both the findings and the method behind them.
Either way, the questions are the same. Ask them before you pay, not after you are standing on a pier in Chalong at eight in the morning.