Your Boat Club Minnetonka

When joining I was sold the stars. But in reality they didn’t deliver. Boats were limited unless you went on a week night after work or went directly home to try and book after boating on a weekend. Hardly ever got the actual lake I wanted. Corporate office was just rude after they had my money. The one compliment I will pay is the dock workers were great, corp could learn a lot about customer service from them.

You have to be retired or plan to use beaucoup vacation days (week days) to make this make economic sense. If you plan primarily weekend use, this is what will happen. You can only make one reservation at a time, and cannot make the next reservation until that reservation is canceled or completed. As a result, when you rent on a given weekend, you will find the next weekend is completely booked by the time the system will allow you to make the next reservation. That means that you will max out with every other weekend.
Figure 8 months maximum boating season (including cold spring and fall months). That would be ³²⁄₂ or 16 weekend rentals possible per season. If you do anything else in your life during summer (vacation, golf, etc.) deduct those weeks from your possible rental days. Rain? Deduct several weeks. This is going to net out to about 12 boat trips per season, excluding week days.
Last year, there was a late start to the season because of ice on the lake. This year, all lakes were «no wake» until the first week of August. No tubing or water skiing when that happens. Not their fault, but nature will limit your time aboard.
At the end of each season, they offer «free rest of the year» to new customers. This only serves to increase the customer to boat ratio. They will tell you «we get very little participation in that promotion». If so, why do they do it and aggravate their paying customer?
Overall, the boats are in great shape. The service is excellent. You can’t beat the convenience. I just can’t make the cost/​ride ratio get much lower than $ 500. For $ 5,000 you could buy a boat and trailer every spring, and sell it in the fall with less depreciation than the cost of this membership.

LOVE Your Boat Club and spending summers on the water instead of taking care of the boat. I spent two years enjoying YBC with my colleague and finally decided to get my own membership. We enjoyed it so much that we’ve already signed on for next year. The staff is incredible-​you pull into the parking lot, they unload your car and bring everything on to the boat for you. They push you off, they catch you when you return and then bring everything back to your car. What service! You do need to plan in order to get a boat of your choosing on the weekends. But not really a big deal. Just make your reservation a week in advance and you’ve got a boat secured. I was especially impressed when a staffer who knew I wanted a boat one Saturday, but couldn’t secure one, called me at 2pm and said another member just canceled and I have a boat for you now. If you get to know the staff, they will take care of you. What a great summer!!!

Your Boat Club is one of the best conceived ideas I’ve come across. It is not «cheap,» but if you know anyone who owns a boat, the value of the boat club is amazing! You get to enjoy the upside of boating without all of the associated hassle. Micheal and his staff have created an experience that has a feel of luxury to it. You show up, they will load your gear, do safety checks and ensure you have everything you need before untying and setting you on your way. When you return, the staff is there to help you unload the boat and reload your car. Done! They refuel and clean the boat as you drive home with happy stories of your time on the lake! I’ve been a member for 4 years now. I’ve had a few «odd» requests. Micheal has done everything possible to meet my needs!
The system is not perfect to be sure. But compared to owning, this is so much simpler, and I think a better value!

We had the one of the best summers ever with YBC. The staff at the Minnetonka and Prior Lake were super friendly and helpful — and although we didn’t use them I’m sure the other locations were equally as impressive! Michael at the main office was also awesome and responsive. We saved a TON of money over owning, maintaining, towing/​renting a slip, winterizing, etc… With YBC we would just reserve a boat online, show up, have fun, and they would bill us only for the fuel we used. It couldn’t be more simple. The boats are pretty new if not brand new and always clean! Thanks again YBC! We can’t wait for May and the 2015 season to start!

Hi Marc,
Your response to my review is not the least bit accurate and we (four of us) as it was a shared membership (the past two yrs) don’t know how you came up with the numbers. You claim we boated 53, 67, and 76 times. How would that even be feasible when often you can’t get boat reservations? Not to mention that we all work FT and mainly looking at using boat one time each Summer weekend. The most times we have been out in a season is 15 – 16 times (first year). Last year we boated eight times. This can be easily tracked by our gasoline charges. It cost us approximately $ 200 – 230 per time to use a boat with YBC, renting one is in the same range or less. Plus, we can reserve the boat, date, and lake we prefer instead of chasing what happens to be available (if anything is) Example-​running to Forest Lake to boat when nothing was available in Prior Lake (where we live). The Your Boat Club is a great idea in theory.

Our Your Boat Club experience in 2013 was fantastic. Overall, this is a great value to fun ratio if you want to get your family on the water.
Here is what was good:
1) As a former boat owner, the absolute convenience of YBC is outstanding. Show up, enjoy, leave. This is low to no headache lake life.
2) Unlike some other reviewers, I had lots of availability. We would choose a weekend slot and then use the just in time reservations in between. I used the boats weekday mornings, afternoons and weekends.
3) The boats are clean and in great repair.
4) Even if you have never driven a boat, the training was good and the staff helps you in and out.
5) The staff on the docks are super helpful and friendly, especially at White Bear, Forest Lake and St. Croix. Can’t say enough about the good customer service.
6) Dealing with the Your Boat Club offices was smooth. Cindy (not sure of spelling) was cool and helped us choose the right membership and also with renewal at seasons end. Everything she said and did met expectations.
7) the on-​line app and phone apps make setting the boat reservations way easy. Whoever did their reservation system deserves kudos. Wish Delta would hire them.
And here is what was not good, and frankly, not any of it has to do with the company Your Boat Club and more to do with $ and other owners.
1) If you want to get out on the weekends, you have to be smart and work the reservation system. Most of the complaining I hear about YBC is about not getting a boat on busy weekends. It’s like showing up at Seven in Minneapolis at 7 pm Saturday night with no reservation and then cussing out the restaurant because you can’t get seated right away. I was on the lowest level membership, so you can’t make a second reservation until your current one is used. If you are going to only have weekend availability, it is worth the extra money to get the two reservation level. Talk to the company and you can upgrade anypoint in the season. Work the system, members.
2) The few Inconsiderate members. I have never had to step onto an unclean boat, but I get so disheartened when i see the dock staff pulling dirty diapers and garbage from nooks and having to scrub the carpets of god knows what.
3) The other thing is when you have an afternoon slot and the people out in the morning slot «just lost track of time» and you are waiting on them. Doesn’t happen much, but man, be considerate. we are part of a club. Be considerate to your other club members.
4) This is serious. I spent so much time enjoying the lakes in 2013, not a lot got done around my house. Make sure you have the free time.
5) White Bear Lake levels are so low that fishing in some spots requires CAREFUL negotiation so you don’t wreck a prop. Prop danger is also true in Minnetonka, listen to the dock staff’s advice on how to get in and out of the marina.
6) If you take the kids out for tubing or skiing for the day and you are hauling four or five bodies for four to six hours, make sure you factor the gas money in your weekly budget.
So that’s my view. We renewed for 2014 and jumped up to Level 2 boats for even more availability and fun. The kids love it when we take them and Wife and I have the best date time without paying for expensive drinks and dinner. Just sunscreen and gas.

Amazing Idea, HORRIBLE EXECUTION!
So my $ 5000+ mistake this year was to enroll into YourBoatClub. Everything from the outside looked perfect for what my wife and I wanted:
— A way to use multiple boat types so we could figure out what is best for our family.
— The ability to have to not worry about maintenance and hauling
— Accessibility to multiple lakes beyond Minnetonka
When we went through the sales process on of the biggest sales points they made was that they HIGHLY REGULATE THEIR BOAT TO MEMBER RATIO. This was great since this meant we should be able to get boats fairly regularly and make this big investment pay for it self. But here is what we got:
Positives:
— Multiple new boats to try that were all in great condition
— Easy pull up and go service, and fast return and tie up and leave service
— Great staff to help with anything you need
Negatives:
— Boats never available for use, and not able to use their entire fleet. What is never told to you is that Minnetonka only allows YBC to release 20 of their boats. Which means they always have 1 — 2 extra boats that can not be rented. This along with way overselling their memberships makes it IMPOSSIBLE to ever get a boat.
— ROI is HORRIBLE! Unless you can boat in the mornings Mon — Thur you will never get your ROI back from this investment. As of today I am averaging just shy of $ 1000 per use for a boat because we can never get a boat available.
As I near the end of the season I will have to chalk this up to a VERY expensive lesson learned. I just wish they would offer all us members who could never get a boat some refund or something to make up for how bad it was this season.

So we heard about the boat club via the newspaper and being people who enjoy boating, but not wanting all the commitment of owning a boat, we were very intrigued. We called and spoke with the sales lady (Cindy), but once we heard the price we opted to hold off for a bit. We then found they had a Living Social Promotion in which they basically gave $ 500 off any package. So at this point we called and decided to meet up with Cindy.
When we met up she was overbearing and rather high pressure. Had this not been something that we we really wanted I probably wouldn’t have purchased it. Unfortunately, we’ve continued to be disappointed as numerous of her claims have proven to be false/​lies.
1) When we signed up she said that there were 5 boats available for us to use at our price point. We quickly found that there were actually only 3. She was explicit on this point. It was not a miscommunication.
2) She stated that the boating hours were flexible based on what other people wanted of the boats that day. We never found this to be the case.
3) She said that they keep a low boat to member ratio so even if they add more people they will add more boats to keep availability for members. When we signed up at the beginning of July she said they were already planning to add more boats that summer. It became obvious quickly that they were adding membership as boat availability became very scarce. They never added any boats all summer long.
At one point during the summer we had small concern about what seemed like an inappropriate amount of fuel charged to us for a day we used the boat. I called and was quickly put in touch with Luke (owner/​manager). Non-​verbally he made it clear that he was annoyed with my concern. There was no respect or appreciation for me as a customer.
So despite all this there are still some good things about the operation /​company. First, it’s a great concept. You get to use boats without worrying about maintenance, insurance, tabs, license, etc. They have them ready when you show up. All you have to do is show up and bring what you need for that day. When you are done they take care of cleaning, refueling, etc. You can basically just walk away.
The other good thing about the company is the kids who work the dock are very friendly and helpful. This is specific to White Bear as this is the only location that we ever used. I can’t speak to people who work the dock at other locations.
So in conclusion, if you really want to use boats but don’t want /​can’t handle the stress of boat ownership AND you are willing to put up with potentially poor customer service, then give this a shot. Otherwise I would hold off till another company jumps into this market.