How Elite Rentals Dubai built its yacht charter business
Kristan De Graaf is Co-Founder of Elite Rentals Dubai, which provides private yacht charters and luxury car rental experiences in Dubai. This conversation traces the move from car rentals into yacht experiences, the role of repeat customers and referrals, and the lesson of building lasting search visibility alongside paid demand.
Build customer trust and lasting digital visibility alongside immediate demand. For Elite Rentals Dubai, attentive service, repeat business and referrals matter more than growth for appearances.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
My brother Julian and I built our experience in luxury rentals into Elite Rentals Dubai. We saw an opportunity to make yacht charters more personal and dependable. Our focus is attentive hospitality, experienced crews and consistent service, with the experience around the yacht receiving as much attention as the yacht itself.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
Our existing car-rental customers helped reveal the demand for yacht charters. We secured bookings early, then built lasting relationships through service. Repeat clients and referrals became central to the business, supported by our website, search visibility and content.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
Moving from luxury cars into yacht experiences changed our direction. Our biggest digital mistake was relying too heavily on paid advertising and investing late in SEO and content. It taught me to build long-term visibility alongside immediate demand, rather than depending on one acquisition channel.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
For me, luxury means personal attention, privacy and dependable service. A distinctive yacht matters, but so does the experience around it. Our response is to focus on trained teams, service standards and controlled growth, keeping the customer experience at the centre.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
Understand your customer before expanding. Invest in reliable people, consistent service and a lasting digital presence. Ignore the pressure to grow for appearances: earning trust matters more than looking successful.
Thank you to Kristan De Graaf and the team at Elite Rentals Dubai for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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