HarbourSpot Is Airbnb for Boats

Consider it Airbnboat.

Airbnb’s got you covered for houses. (And weirdly, airplane seats.) Now comes HarbourSpot, which will match interested parties with all varieties of temporary nautical homes, from empty yachts-in-dock to active sailors’ land-bound homes.

If you’ve used Airbnb, you’ll find the interface very familiar: Choose your dates and destination, and get going. Interested in bunking in a “brand-new” Dufour 412 in Barcelona’s Marina Port Vell? They’ve got that. A mooring space in Cantiere Tigullio, in Genoa, Italy? That, too. A 44-foot catamaran docked in Knysna, South Africa, on the country’s famed Garden Route? You got it.

A few things to know. The variety of rentals is impressive, from $6,000-a-night super-yachts (crew included) to parking spaces for boats, and the particulars vary greatly between listings.

Many of the listings are surprisingly affordable — like $90 a night for four people on a catamaran. At that price, why not trade a sad IKEA-filled vacation rental for a night on the high (or low) seas?

Meet your guide

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.