Deposit and balance for a group trip: how to collect from friends for one boat

A group charter is one booking in one name, and the name is yours. You send us the occasion, the headcount and the dates, we send a written quote, and you pay what the quote says. Your friends never see our invoice unless you forward it.

In effect, you become the group's bank. You front the deposit, hold the money until the balance is due, and you're the person we write to if a date or the headcount changes. It runs smoothly as long as you decide how the money moves before anyone is asked to send a penny.

Below are the two payments that matter, a timeline to copy and some worked examples. The rates are the boats' 2026 rates, and the payment terms are our booking terms.

A private charter has two payments. The first is the deposit of 50 percent of the whole-boat total, paid when you accept the quote. It secures the date and the boat. The second is the balance, due 30 days before sailing.

Count back from the sailing date and the calendar looks like this:

• The day you accept the quote: the deposit is due from you.
• A week before our balance date: your own deadline for friends to pay you their share. This one is yours to set, not ours.
• 30 days before sailing: the balance is due to us.
• Before sailing: passport or ID details for every guest, on the date your quote gives.

Leaving a week between your deadline and ours costs nothing and saves a lot of stress. International transfers take their time, someone always pays on the last day, and group chats go quiet at weekends. A week soaks all of that up.

The organiser's note: put both dates in the group chat on the day you book, with the amount per person and the way to pay. One message with the figures in it heads off most of the chasing.

Twelve friends on Carnaby 1. The whole boat for 3D2N is IDR 75,000,000 (≈ USD 4,601), so each share is IDR 6,250,000 (≈ USD 383). Each friend's part of the deposit is 50 percent of that share, and the rest is due with the balance. The 11 to 14 guest band covers up to 14.

For 15 on Carnaby 2, the 13 to 16 guest band applies. The boat is IDR 129,000,000 (≈ USD 7,914), which is IDR 8,600,000 (≈ USD 528) per person. Sixteen is the top of that band, so a 16th friend costs the group nothing extra on the whole-boat rate.

Eighteen on Carnaby 2 moves into the 17 to 21 band. The boat is IDR 140,000,000 (≈ USD 8,589) and the share is IDR 7,780,000 (≈ USD 477). The step into that band happens at 17, so the boat rate rises at the 17th guest, and the share per head falls again as the boat fills toward 21.

Per-person figures on this site are rounded, so they can differ from your own division by a few thousand rupiah. We settle on the exact amount in the written quote.

Two things need settling before you tell anyone their share. If the group covers the guest of honour, divide the whole-boat total by the number of paying guests and not by the headcount. And park tickets sit outside the fare, at IDR 250,000 for a foreign guest and IDR 50,000 for an Indonesian guest on a weekday, IDR 75,000 at weekends. Collect those on top, and say so in the first message, so nobody reads the boat share as the whole bill.

Who pays for what: the fare covers the boat, crew, harbour transfer, meals, coffee, tea and water, snacks and fruit, towels, life jackets and snorkelling gear. You pay the park fees, flights, hotel, insurance and crew gratuities. A guide and documentation on a private charter are on request, quoted separately.

We take a credit card payment link, Wise, Revolut, PayPal, QRIS, Alipay, WeChat Pay through a payment partner, and a bank transfer in rupiah. The card link shows its fee on the invoice. PayPal carries a 7.2 percent fee.

Your friends needn't use any of those. They can pay you through whatever app you already share, and you pay us once, whichever way costs the group least. If your friends live in three countries, you still make a single transfer to us, and the exchange cost sits between you and your own bank.

Keep a single, simple record. A shared sheet with each name, the amount owed, the date paid and the method is enough, and it answers every question about who has paid. Write the amount you collected next to the amount you sent us at the balance date.

As for two people sharing the deposit, the booking still stays in one name. If you want a second payer on the invoice, tell us when you accept the quote and we confirm in writing how it is handled.

Cancelling the whole trip follows KEXI's terms. If you cancel 60 or more days before sailing, 50 percent is refunded. From 30 to 59 days it is 25 percent. Inside 30 days nothing is refunded. A change of date 30 or more days ahead costs nothing, and from 14 to 29 days ahead it costs IDR 500,000.

One friend leaving is different from the trip ending, because the whole-boat rate is set by the band. Eleven guests on Carnaby 1 pay IDR 75,000,000 (≈ USD 4,601). At ten the band is 7 to 10 guests and the rate is IDR 73,000,000 (≈ USD 4,479). A change of headcount after the quote is a new quote, and we confirm the new figure before it affects what you owe.

So decide early who carries the risk if someone pulls out late. Some groups take the full share up front and refund it if the friend finds a replacement; others agree the share is non-refundable once the deposit has gone. Either is fine. What goes wrong is a split nobody agreed before the money moved.

If the booked Carnaby cannot sail for a reason beyond our control, we arrange a boat of the same class on the same date at no extra cost. Or we refund you in full within 14 days.

Keep it short, with the figures in. This order works:

• The occasion, the dates and the boat, so nobody asks what they are paying for.
• The amount per person for the boat, and the park ticket as a separate line.
• Your deadline, a week ahead of ours, and how to pay you.
• What is not in the fare: flights, hotel, insurance, crew gratuities and any drinks. Travel insurance is recommended.
• What you need from everyone: the name as written on the passport or ID.

Send it once and pin it. Don't accept the quote until enough friends have said yes, because the deposit is yours to carry until they pay you back. If the group is still deciding, ask us for the quote first and keep it in the chat so everyone sees the same figure.