Hong Kong startup makes booking a party boat easier than ever

Junk parties are one of Hong Kong’s great pastimes. Rent a boat, load it with food, beer, and 30 of your closest friends, and spend the day or night cruising around the city’s spectacular beaches. But actually organizing and booking a trip is no walk in the park, as most of the providers who run the boats are stuck in the 20th century.

Junks.hk, a new startup from Hong Kong, aims to bring the junk party industry up to speed.

"It’s so much fun to be on one of these, but why is it so damn hard to actually get on one in the first place?" founders Benjamin Hadfield and Matt Nodurfth thought to themselves when coming up with the idea. Prior to starting Junks, the New Zealander Hadfield worked in operations and client management at a large shipping company, while the American Nodurfth was a software engineer. The two bootstrapped Junks as an online marketplace where anyone can easily book a boat for the day.

As things stand, renting a junk – the name for traditional Chinese sailboats that’s come to colloquially refer to party boats and yachts – usually starts with word of mouth recommendations or a Google search. Once a provider is found, there’s no simple call-to-action to instantly find out whether a boat is available on the website. "They ask you for all your personal details, then take you through a seven-step process, just to end with them saying, ‘We’re going to look into this to see if we can find a boat for you,’" Hadfield says. The alternative is a cold call.

"Booking a junk party should be as easy as booking a hotel online. You shouldn’t have to call anybody," Nodurfth says. "It’s not groundbreaking. It should exist. And that’s why we did it."

Junks.hk simplifies the booking and planning process by simply asking users what date they want to rent a boat on. A list of available junks is returned, allowing the user to choose between the day or night shift and see which slots are free. The full price is listed up front, ranging from HKD 4,000 to 10,000 (about US$500 to $1,300).

Customers can choose add-ons like food catering and craft beer, which will be ready and waiting by the time they get on the boat.

Right now, six boats are available from a single provider, but the founders say they are in negotiations with another provider that could add up to 20 more. After building up that initial volume, Junks will start targeting individual boat owners to add their Junks and create an Airbnb-style open platform.

Less than two months since launch, the duo say their startup is already breaking even. Junks takes a commission on each trip, which is included in the displayed price. Hadfield and Nodurfth say they are open to outside investment from someone with expertise in the field, who can help them get into the public eye.

Countdown to peak season

The rainy season is coming to an end, and peak junk party season begins in July. Before then, Hadfield and Nodurfth plan to roll out more features for better customer experience. The first is user reviews, which will help keep up standards and weed out bad boats.

Another priority is group payments. Hadfield says one of the biggest pain points is a single person trying to get everyone at the party to chip in. "We are asking customers to make quite a large investment on our platform," he says. "Really the key then for the customers is how do I get my money back from my friends who are getting on the boat as well?” Group payments will take away the initial risk and help them manage it by collecting payments on behalf of their friends and other guests.