BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
Bed linen kit and final cleaning: what's not always included on a weekly sailboat charter
On a weekly sailboat or catamaran charter, bedding and end-of-charter cleaning are often separate options from the listed price. What to check before booking.
Unlike a hotel, a sailboat or catamaran chartered by the week doesn't always arrive with the beds made. Two line items keep coming up in the booking options, outside the listed price: the bedding kit and the final cleaning fee — two easy things to overlook when comparing two offers with the same base price.
The bed linen and towel kit, a common option
On most weekly charter platforms, as detailed in our guide to Saturday-to-Saturday charter, sheets, pillowcases and towels aren't automatically supplied with the boat: they show up as an extra, sold as a per-person "kit". Some crews prefer bringing their own sheets to save on this line, as long as they check the berth sizes beforehand.
The final clean, often optional too
The end-of-charter "deep clean" — bilges, heads, galley — is also frequently offered as an option rather than included by default. Choosing it means you don't have to leave the boat spotless yourself on the last morning, a chore that eats into the final day's sailing.
Why it matters between two crews
A weekly-chartered boat changes crew every week during high season, which makes bed linen a real hygiene issue, not just a comfort one. An older but still widely cited study, published by Walter and Schillinger in 1975 in Applied Microbiology, found that a sufficiently hot, complete wash cycle reduces bacterial survival on fabric to an acceptable level for shared bedding (see the study on Google Scholar) — the main argument for professional cleaning between two rentals rather than a quick once-over.
Where to check before booking
Every listing on Boataround, SamBoat or Click&Boat lists these options separately from the base price: better to tick them at booking time than discover them at check-in, a moment already covered by our guide to check-in and check-out. Also worth revisiting our list of what to pack, which usefully covers what the boat won't provide.
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