Operating a Houseboat Company during COVID 19

Posted Saturday August 01, 2020

Houseboats have been cruising the waterways that spread throughout Kawartha Lakes for generations. Families and friends return year after year to explore the historic Trent-Severn Waterway and Ontario’s Houseboat Capital while making memories that will last a lifetime.

The houseboat operators in Kawartha Lakes are seasoned professionals; they are rarely surprised, ready for anything and employ teams of loyal staff that are experts in their field and keep business running smoothly.

There are plans in place proven to work when issues with weather, rowdy guests or boat props connecting with hidden logs in the water arise. But what happens when a global pandemic takes business into uncharted waters?

We spoke with Jill Quast of Happy Days Houseboats and Lisa Naugler from Egan Houseboat Rentals to find out.

“Back when things went crazy we were worried if we’d be able to stay in business, and were concerned about our ability to keep our staff working,” explained Lisa. “However now we can hardly keep up with the inquiries, requests and questions. We’ve had to hire extra staff not only for all of the additional cleaning and sanitizing but also to keep up with the increase in phone calls, e-mails and social media messages.”

“We’ve learned a lot throughout the pandemic,” added Jill. “It quickly became clear that having a technology strategy for our operations was critical to being successful. For the first time in 20 years, we closed for a day during the week. This was important for us to allow time for more work-life balance. We have come to realize that it is okay to not be okay and take the time necessary to look after ourselves so we can keep business moving forward. We’ve found that 99% of our guests are happy to comply with new policies we have implemented to make sure we are absolutely compliant with public health requirements, and if it comes down to it we are okay with losing the 1% who don’t want to follow the rules.”

As both companies are receiving a high volume of inquries those thinking about taking a houseboat vacation should book as far in advance as possible. Lisa shared that, “Houseboating is a great vacation to take while practicing social distancing as long as you follow the rules in place. Houseboating allows people to be together but also apart. For example, two boats could travel together but each sit on their own roofs and decks and retire to their own separate eating and sleeping quarters.”

Jill explained, “A housboat is a confined space experience and within the boat it is next to impossible to maintain 2 metres of physical distancing. As such, we have chosen to limit the number of addresses for people coming aboard each boat. This ensures our guests are only on the boat with their social bubble or household members. Our focus is on health and safety and we have been reminding boaters that this is not the time to pretened everything is normal or business as usual. We are also asking our guests that will be travelling throughout our area to be sensitive to the crisis our hometown of Bobcaygeon has experienced and to be respectful that there is deep rooted sadness in our community as a result of the tragic loss of life because of COVID-19.”

Lisa noted that turning boats over between rentals has become one of the greatest challenges for their team, “We leave a very tight timeline for turning around our return boats to our outgoing boats. We typically would take 2-3 hours to maintain and clean our boats. We are now taking between 3-5 hours for the extra cleaning and sanitizing. We’ve hired extra staff but when boats come in all at the same time on our return day we need to stagger unloading to keep everyone distanced. This puts a strain on our staff as they prepare to welcome our new customers at 6 p.m. Just as we stagger people coming off the boats, we also need to stagger the new groups as they arrive. We’ve adapted our routine to attempt to be as efficient as possible and have not yet missed our 6 p.m. deadline, but it has added stress to our days.”

In addition to adding challenges, there have been a few upsides to COVID-19 for both houseboat operators. Jill and her team have been able to create a more efficient office space to administer the business and have adapted to use more technology to enhance the guest experience and provide better training opportunities.

During our interview both Lisa and Jill expressed the immense gratitude that they have for their staff. They both noted that it is their team of dedicated employees that helps them through the hard times and motivates them to keep moving forward.

Both Happy Days Houseboats and Egan Houseboat Rentals have seen an increase in demand. As more people choose to staycation within Ontario and looking for alternatives to their usual vacation more people have become interested in giving houseboating a try.