Dealing with that Sea of Luggage

If you work on a private yacht and the owner along with his guests arrive and depart using his private jet, then the system we're going to explain is perfect for you. If you're on a charter yacht or your boss flies commercially, you can still benefit by using some of these great ideas when handling the luggage.

Ever had a guest depart the yacht and arrive home minus their luggage? Hopefully not but if you work in the industry long enough there's a good chance it might happen. People get pretty passionate when their belongings go missing. Worse than that, the blame game kicks in and that is no fun.

Who lost it? Was it the yacht crew, the limo, the private aviation crew? Or maybe the luggage handlers who should have put it into the guest's personal transport upon arrival at their final destination? Where is that bag?

We were exactly in that position (twice) and everyone seemed to think that the yacht was definitely the one to blame. We were pretty confident it wasn't us because there were no bags left onboard, in the tender, or in the transport but all fingers were pointing straight at us. To prevent that from happening again, we created a fool-proof system to protect our guests’ belongings and streamline our luggage handling.

In our circumstance, the pilots had to eat two very large servings of humble pie. Meanwhile, we benefited from the system we developed as it allowed us to work efficiently and prevented further luggage mishaps.

Here are the things you need to buy:

• Cabin Allocation Tags.  Number or name them to match your onboard guest cabins. You'll need about 30 for each cabin, based on providing 8-10 per couple and having 3 sets.

• Owner Luggage Tags.  Make your owner feel special by getting them their very own luggage tags. We chose gold and had the yacht logo printed on them.

• Guest Luggage Number Identification Tags.  How many? This mainly depends on how many luggage your guests typically bring. You can either go for a higher estimate or get two sets of numbers 1-50 in different colours. Work with your yacht's colour scheme but lean towards brighter colours for easy identification. Having two different colours is a good way to visually distinguish different drop-off locations for the jet.

Endless luggage tag options are readily available online. We chose the simple credit card style (like the Emirates one pictured) because they were durable and inexpensive.  Occasionally one would snap in half but overall they worked well.   The new aluminium options might be superior.

Be mindful of the type of attachment device you select because you'll find they don't get returned to the boat if they're not quick and easy for the pilots to remove.  

By choosing a metallic finish and adding some boat artwork you can make these economical options look really nice.

For efficiency purposes, we suggest that you print on both sides so that tags do not need to be turned over to read the number or cabin name. You could also colour code the Cabin Allocation Tags to match the cabin decor.

How to use them:

To avoid confusion, you will probably find it beneficial to go to the Superyacht Operating Systems webpage and download the FREE "Luggage Manifest for Aviation" and "Pre-Arrival Guest Letter." to refer to when reading these instructions.  

1. If at all possible, the captain, purser or owner's personal assistant should send the guests a letter before they arrive. They can use the template from the Superyacht Operating Systems library to create your yacht's own standard welcome letter. If you don't have access to the guests' contact information, the owner's personal assistant will need to be involved in this process. The idea is that you send guests the letter providing them with some information about the yacht to get them excited and take the opportunity to suggest packing the appropriate shoes etc.  Include several luggage tags (specific to their cabin allocation) so they can place them before they leave home and attach a Guest Preference Sheet for them to complete as well.  
2. Have the owner's house staff tag their luggage with their special Owner Luggage Tags.
3. Regardless of whether the guests fly commercially or on the owner's private jet, their luggage is pre-tagged with their cabin allocation so that when it arrives onboard the deck crew know exactly where to take it. The guests can then enjoy their welcome beverage without interruption.
4. After the crew or guests unpack their luggage, the head of housekeeping or chief steward/ess completes the "Luggage Manifest for Aviation".  The Cabin Allocation Tag is replaced with a Number Identification Tag and all the relevant information is recorded on the Luggage Manifest in preparation for departure day. The whole process can be done at your convenience, anytime between arrival and departure, but we suggest getting it out of the way sooner rather than later. 
5. The details can be updated anytime when you notice that the guests have been shopping and have asked you to stow their purchase.
6. The second sheet on the Luggage Manifest provides you with a location to inventory the contents of any bags that are travelling between the yacht and the owner's various homes or offices. This serves both as a tracking record and a declaration for clearance purposes to assist the pilots.
7. The Luggage Manifest enables you to provide specific instructions on where each bag is going.  This is very helpful when the jet has multiple drop-off destinations. 
8. On departure day, update the Luggage Manifest as necessary to complete it electronically.   Print 3 copies and attach them to a clip board.  You can use carbon paper between the copies if you like.
9. Be prepared with some additional number (and owner) tags and have a pen handy in case of unexpected last minute additions. We suggest that you connect the pen to the clip board with a string, for the conveniene of the deck crew along the way.
10. Hand it all over to the first mate so that the checking-off process can begin. The first mate does a bag count to confirm if the number of luggage pieces matches what is recorded on the Luggage Manifest.  He recounts when loading the luggage into the tender and/or the airport transport vehicle, then again on arrival at the airport.
11. The third column is confirmed by the receiving pilots and everyone signs that they confirm receipt of that quantity of luggage pieces.
12. The pilots keep one copy, the first mate keeps the second, and the head of housekeeping or chief steward/ess gets the last copy.  If there have been any manual additions, she should update it electronically and send it to the captain or purser immidiately so they can email it to the staff who needs to have it before the jet lands. These staff are also responsible for attending to the arriving jet and receiving its luggage, which is precisely why they need the manifest ahead of time. In our situation, this meant forwarding it to the owner's Aviation Department and their personal assistant.
13. Everyone knows what to expect and is able to check each stage.  If the numbers don't match the combination of the Number Tag then the bag description allows quick identification of what needs to be searched for.
14. The Aviation staff remove the tags before loading the guest luggage into the guest's transport at their final destination.
15. The Number Tags are sent back to the yacht next time the jet brings inbound guests.  You need enough Number Tags onboard to cover 3 trips in order to deal with the transit periods of tag return but don't worry about the numbers being sequential on the Luggage Manifest. They're strictly for reference so this is not necessary.

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