Occupancy rate is a measure of how much of your dock space is rented to customers over a given period of time. While each marina is different in terms of how their docks are configured, every marina has a finite and calculable amount of space, measured in total lineal feet The total lineal feet of dock space is the sum of all your finger piers and face docks and is either occupied with boats or empty slots.
Linear feet available. Note: This is what you sell not your physical footprint. For example, med-mooring configurations can create sales greater than your physical footprint allows.
Total linear feet sold
If you're calculating occupancy for you entire season and you're not open all year long, then the number of days you're open will be a factor in determining this metric.
Also keep in mind that you can calculate this by season, month or year, but if you're beginning to use some of these advanced metrics at you marina, calculating this on a daily basis will give you the best look at the overall health of you marina.
Occupancy Rate can be calculated using the following formula:
Occupancy equals total linear feet sold, divided by your marina's total linear feet available.
Occupancy rate is really the foundation of metrics for a marina. It helps you get beyond relying on observations about how full you are into data you can rely on. When compared to a benchmark report or to your known peers in the space, occupancy rate will help you spot levers you can pull across your business to bring in more revenue. So for example, say your occupancy rate is 100% in a given season, while other nearby marinas are sitting a 60%, that may be an indication that there's room for you to test higher rates. Or, for example, if your occupancy is historically low in a given week, you may choose that time to run promotions to transient boaters to drum up business.
In order to reliably track your occupancy rate, it helps to be on a marina management platform like Dockwa, which can automate that tracking and report on it - whether your assignments are transient, short-term or long-term. (Incidentally, Dockwa can also help you spot and backfill temporarily open slips so you could actually achieve an occupancy rate over 100%). However you track it, occupancy rate is a key metric for understanding your marina's value and potential.