We have stopped booking direct with the charter companies, preferring to utilize a broker (we have used Lynn at LateSail a few times recently). Our budget is on the lower end of things fyi.

The benefit is to have an expert third party plugged into the industry working on your behalf. When something goes wrong, I send her an email....and boom it gets fixed. When we arrive and the boat we had chartered was unavailable we get upgraded vs. downgraded. We get to see inventory not publicly available and get to discuss what we are looking for with her before we move forward.

Not sure ill ever book direct ever again.

The old days of TTOL membership having benefits are long gone.