How We Built Propeller
The all-in-one SaaS platform powering the future of boat rentals.
Sneak peek
What we built - Product scope
The platform was designed around four core operational areas of a boat rental business.
From the start, our goal was not just to build a product, but to design a complete operational platform for an entire industry:
- Fleet management: inventory, multilingual descriptions, availability calendar, dynamic pricing, owner revenue-share logic
- Booking and distribution: full inquiry-to-fulfillment flow, skipper assignment, multi-channel sales, embeddable widgets
- CRM and lead management: lead capture widgets, sales pipeline, internal notes, email and SMS communication
- Payments and finance: Stripe/Authorize.net/WorldPay integrations, take-rate automation, refunds/voids, VAT-ready rules
The challenge
The challenge
Propeller approached us with an ambitious vision:
“We want to build the operating system for boat rental businesses - a single platform that simplifies everything from fleet management and customer communication to bookings and payments.”
The challenge? The boating industry was stuck with fragmented tools and manual processes. Fleet owners juggled spreadsheets, emails, and booking platforms that weren't built for them, and most operators were not used to modern CRM tools.
- Fleet availability in spreadsheets
- Leads coming from multiple sources (website forms, agents, brokers)
- Contracts and customer communication across email and SMS
- Payment reconciliation and owner payouts managed manually
- No existing software covered the full lifecycle: listing -> inquiry -> booking -> contract -> payment -> owner payout
- A real-time booking system for fleets and charters
- A flexible payments and commission system
- Integrated CRM tooling for customer relationships
- An intuitive UI for both tech-savvy operators and small business owners
- Infrastructure for multi-market operations (currencies, VAT, global processors)
The scope - from discovery to delivery
Product discovery through maintenance and support, delivered end-to-end by one team.
The result
The result
Propeller went from an idea to a polished SaaS product that is transforming how the boating industry operates.
Key outcomes:
- Seamless booking & fleet management in one intuitive dashboard
- Reduced operational overhead
- Scalable architecture ready for international expansion
- Integrated CRM system centralizing all customer data
- Unified messaging (email + SMS)
- Automated notifications & reminders
- Flexible pricing (dynamic rates, discounts, seasonal packages)
- Multi-channel distribution (direct, agents, brokers, ambassadors, websites)
- Embeddable booking widgets for partners
- Automated contracts with digital signatures
- Automated commission calculations and payouts
- Boat maintenance workflows reducing downtime
Propeller is now positioning itself as the all-in-one operating system for boat rental companies, and we are proud to be the technology partner behind that transformation.
“The development team did not just build our vision - they enhanced it. Their ability to combine business insight with technical excellence made Propeller a powerful, scalable product from day one.”
Co-Owner & Hamptons Boat Rental Owner
