ACI Marina Dubrovnik - huge price increases

[cpthook]

Hi there

Having reneaged on an agreement to take my boat out over winter the marina has
now hiked their monthly berthing rates by almost 50% without warning. The first I
knew about this is when I sent six months' funds and a crafty email back stated I
had paid for only five. It was only when I pointed out that a mistake had been
made by them that I got a shirty email back without apology.

The cost now for a 31ft boat is apparently 340 Euros per month (240 Euros last
year). They claim the increase is due to "interest charges" and "price increases"
and there is a reluctantance to give provide more detail.

I strongly advise anyone with a berthing in Dubrovnik (or anyone considering
berthing there) to thoroughly check the 2004 prices and make sure you have any
and all agreements made in writing well in advance.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[neutronstar]

I am replying to your posting however I regret that I am just one of the "pipsqueaks" (an old nautical term).

It looks like the prices over there are getting as bad as in the UK. I think they call it 'market forces', it's probably like the way oil is priced globally ? or something similar.

All I can say (which I hope gives some small comfort), is that by posting messages like yours people read them worlwide and the message sinks in. This will hopefully balance the "market forces" with a bit of "customer response".

p.s. I wonder what your namesake would have done about such charges ..... it would depend upon how many guns his latest aquisition was armed with I suppose !

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[JPGruntfuttock]

I sailed the Dalmation coast, up and down, in 02. Beautiful cruising ground, but yes, according to both my experience and that of friends who went up last year, it is going to the dogs! Well the ravening hounds a gorging on plenty, anyway.
It seems to be a matter of market forces indeed. The Austrians, who apparently owned much of the North prior to a little bit of unpleasantness in 1914-18, the Austrian navy was based at Pula, are now retaking their aquatic playground along with large representation from Germany.
Pensions in Germany are apparently rather more generous than we may be accustomed to, I believe it may be a pound for pound deal, and the pensioners appear to both grow and spend accordingly. They are re-colonising and it is their spending power that sets the pace. Croatia is becoming, again, to all intents and purposes the playground of Germany, as the Greek Ionion has been to the Brits and Italians.
Arguably.


<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[neutronstar]

Thanks for your input. It has made the situation clearer for myself and probably for others who are unfamiliar with this part of the Med.

It appears to be subject to the same economic trend as the east coast of Denmark is, again due to wealthier boat users and holiday makers. The USA influence has done this in many areas of the Pacific and the Carribean. I can only say good luck to those who can afford it, I however must find cheaper safe little corners where things tend not to get pinched or damaged, and the fresh produce is reasonably priced.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Metabarca]

Yes, the Germans are taking over, certainly in terms of investments and summer invasions, but there's more to it than that. The Croatians appear to believe that if they have sun and sea they can charge the same as in St Tropez or Majorca, forgetting that there has to be a service to justify it. Unfortunately, the Germans (like the Brits) are prepared to put up with any horse swill passed their way and think it jolly good, as long as it has chips and enough garlic to make it seem foreign cuisine. I have been cruising the area for years as part of the Italian fleet that kept going there even during the war years. We used to be well received but not any more, because we complain about paying the same as in Italy (which is not cheap) for inferior food and service. Increasingly, we eat aboard and stay away from marinas, not because we are cheapskates but because it's just not a pleasure to eat out any more. But complain and they don't care - plenty more tourists to take our place.
Having said that, there are a few places which are still friendly but they're harder to find.
p.s. don't confuse Slovenia with Croatia. Croatians say they're snotty, but they have a North European notion of professionalism and value for money. But not much coast!
Returning to the business of the price hikes, the only way this sort of thing will stop is through publicity: write to all the mags in Europe moaning - the Teutons have a good sense of the value of a penny and if you can get a letter in a German-language magazine I'm sure it would provoke a response from ACI. Might it be too much for YM or PBO to call ACI and see what it's all about? Note to our web-master, Don Kim: I'm happy to do this and report to YM.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[HaraldS]

Sadly I think not even bad publicity is going to help much. My first 'ocean' sailing was in this area in the early 1960ies. Ocean, for an Austrian Hillbilly used at best to some beautiful lakes in Carinthia.. But fantasic memories remain. Hence I have refrained form sailing there again, just to not spoil those.

My brother has a boat there and a year ago he was so deparate because of the crowdedness, that he thought of selling his boat. He is now trying to stay out of the most crazy months, July and August and it was a bit better that way I hear.

Seems the price hike follows the crowding. Last year I read somewhere that over 1000 new charter yachts had been shipped to the area. Add to this a huge crowd of Italians going for ferogosto, the fact that for Austria this is the only sea nearby, and finally the same is true for much of Bavaria, (not the boats, just that southern part of Germany).

But my brother says it was really fantastic sailing there during the recent war!



<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.taniwani.de>http://www.taniwani.de</A>

 

[Metabarca]

Yes, I tend to avoid all of August now (and head for the hills like Kugy). Even Zara, which used to be free of charters is now so crowded you can't get in after 4pm on a Saturday (and we only went for a crew swap). But there are quiet places... you just have to know about them. Still, the future don't look good, I'm afraid. But then, we (Carinthians, Friuliani, Giuliani et al) have been exceptionally lucky for decades - just think of our poor brethren in other parts of the Med!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[slavkod]

Dear all,

I have been sailing in Croatia for 20 years. And it is getting more and more anpleasent. Service is bad, price high. Theay are charging all they can. I strongly recommend Greece.
My boat is in Slovenia and last year we spend 2 months in Greece. It took as 10 days to get there but it was worth the trouble. Will do the same this year.

Slavko

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Metabarca]

Dober dan, Slavko!
Sadly you're right, but the option still remains (for how much longer?) to avoid populated places as much as possible and anchor in little bays here and there. I won't be deserting Dalmatia just yet, but I will avoid all of August.
Quite a bit of bora out in the gulf today!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[slavkod]

Dober dan to you as well,

I agree with all of your remarks. It is sad that country is developing in this direction. I hope we meet some time in spring or summer.

Slavko

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[branko]

Not agree. Croatians increase prices for Austrians and Germans not viceversa.Who is colonised by whom? Ha,Ha!

<hr width=100% size=1>skipp

 

[branko]

Dear Metabarca,
your experience in Croatia seems were not so good. Thanks God and there is not so many visitors with such bad perception as you have. I have sail around Italy and Greece and know very well that Croatian Marinas are better than in Italy and also in Greece. The Croatian and Greece coast are pearls of mediterranian and - it costs. For you is coming time to explore beauty of your own cost for couple of next years.

<hr width=100% size=1>skipp

 

[Metabarca]

On the contrary, Branko. I have had excellent experiences in Dalmatia and wish to make no comparison with the Italian coast (which I don't know so well, but I'm willing to accept that marinas there aren't quite up to scratch). No, my point is this: that in the past ten years, prices in Croatia have risen massively, up to levels of the rest of Europe, but that services haven't. Perhaps not in the case of the marinas, which are by and large pretty modern, but certainly in the case of restaurants, where frozen fish from the North Atlantic is sold expensively. I'm not saying this doesn't happen elsewhere, but it's happening unscrupulously in Croatia now and, more to the point, used not to. Market forces, perhaps, but what a shame!
Case in point: last May in Novigrad, there were about four boats in harbour. Poor weather, out of season. Two local boats arrive from Italy, one mine: six people. We were the only customers in the restaurant we chose and more to the point, we are clearly the sort of people who come back, and back and back again to restaurants throughout Istra by car and boat when the summer hordes are gone. I don't say we should be treated regally but neither with the 'I don't give a toss' attitude which unfortunately is typical. We were charged the equivalent of about euro 40 each for an indifferent meal. Come off it!! For a bit of standard grilled fish in a country where the average salary is around, what, 4-500 euros a month? Result: we won't go back there again. Shame: we're doing the same cruise in a couple of weeks. But the restaurants don't care: they'll just jack up the prices even more and live with the money they make in August. But at some point, eventually, the punters will get fed up. Not with the prices in themselves, but for the combination of south-of-France prices without corresponding service. Which can sometimes mean just a 'Thanks and have a good trip'.
Zivio!

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Metabarca on 18/04/2004 09:51 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[branko]

Hi amico, first of all my apologize for my last replay - it was little malicious as a result of your impression of "provincial Dubrovnik" and seek others to scribe only negatively about Croatia. Let them scribe about all aspects- positive and negative, not only one side.
You have a bottle of Dingac for that.
But generally I agree with you.Owners of our restaurants sell frozen fish for enormous prices ( as they haven´t enough quantities of fish and collect it during winter and spring). This year Marinas association increase prices for about 20% in all marinas and sport clubs and we Croatians are also angry.But - that is market.With higher prices they will obtain less customers and at the end will come to reality. But there is also one funny thing in that story - with that high prices they will reduce visitors and coast will be for few of us again. Ha, ha!

<hr width=100% size=1>skipp

 

[Metabarca]

"coast will be for few of us again". Let's hope so!
And let's hope the powers-that-be realise that the capital they have - an unspoiled, unbuilt coastline - is worth much, much more than the country can hope to gain by building hotels and houses everywhere.
Fair winds (and let's hope the weather finally clears up)!

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>