From parks to pontoons

This article was also published in issue 154 of Marina World magazine. Click here to read the online version.

Elite Dynamics reveals how they navigated the transition from holiday park to marina management software.

When you step into a new industry, there’s a moment when the similarities stop being helpful. From a distance, moving from holiday parks into marinas might look straightforward. Both sit within the leisure industry and both manage physical space such as pitches and berths, both work with long-term customers such as holiday home owners and berth holders, and both manage operations with multiple layers such as bookings, billing and compliance. It’s only when you get closer that the reality proves more complex than the comparison suggests.

Having spent years embedded in the holiday park sector, Elite Dynamics were used to a certain operational rhythm. We understood how sites run, where inefficiencies creep in, how revenue is shaped and how customer relationships evolve over time. That experience gave us a strong foundation and informed our early thinking.

Our entry into the marina sector was driven by customer demand. When holiday park groups started purchasing marinas and vice versa, they saw the similarity too and those conversations started to become more consistent – how can you help? 

At first, it felt familiar, we treated a berth much like a pitch, a berth holder like an owner. Service workflows were mapped against familiar processes. It made the transition feel logical, even comfortable. It just wasn’t quite right.

The more marinas we spoke to, the clearer the gaps became not only in their tech stack but in how well it supported day-to-day operations. There were systems that didn’t quite connect, processes that had been built on workarounds and technology that wasn’t fully supporting the way marinas actually operate. It was indeed a different world but there was a recognisable sense of friction that we had seen before and worked through in the holiday park sector.

When the detail doesn’t match the diagram

The shift in our own understanding came gradually, through a series of conversations with early adopters who believed there had to be a better way forward and trusted us to help shape that future. Over time, those small mismatches that we were introduced to revealed something more fundamental: a gap between how marinas actually operate and how their systems were built to support them. That’s what led to EliteMarinas.

For example, boatyards introduce a level of logistical complexity that doesn’t translate cleanly from park operations. We saw this first-hand after an early conversation with a marina operator about how their yard runs day to day. What had sounded straightforward at the beginning - lift, service, relaunch - quickly became something much more involved once we started to unpack it. 

We ended up bringing members of the team together to work it out, starting out with the trusty whiteboard and some pens. We mapped it out, using different coloured pens for different inputs on the sequence of events that will drive the outcomes that affect both the marina operator and their customers.

What happens when the boat is lifted and the scope of the originally requested work is changed? If an issue has been found in the hull, the marina can’t simply go ahead and fix it without involving the customer. And what happens to the original quote that’s been accepted?

We mapped it out, challenged each other over the smallest details that turned out to be not that small at all. We revisited the original plan and started again more than once, fuelled by plenty of coffee, until we were positive our concept accommodated the actual needs of the marina and their customer at every touch point. We then built it and we continue to build on it.

Even the language carries weight. Terminology in marinas isn’t interchangeable and this reflects how the sector understands itself. A berth isn’t just renamed from a pitch, it comes with a different set of expectations around access and availability. Pitches are a static relationship, people don’t simply take their caravan and go somewhere else for a few weeks, and berths aren’t neatly packaged into a single transaction. 

While that might be a subtle difference on the surface, giving a marina the ability to quickly bring the berth into their available sellable spaces is a bigger change in how a marina actually operates in comparison to a holiday park.

Letting the industry speak for itself

Mark Brown, of Oregon’s Port of Newport, saw that their previous systems “simply weren’t designed for the scale and turnover of our operations", adding that "staff were frustrated, customers were frustrated and we were spending huge amounts of time patching problems instead of serving people".

 “With Elite Dynamics we have found a solution provider that understands our business model, and with EliteMarinas we have found a solution that efficiently supports each department’s business processes. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Business Central, it will save us an estimated $140,000 to $180,000 a year in staff time and efficiency, and gives us the tools to deliver the kind of customer experience our community expects. For me, the real win is that it will bring all sides of the port together – commercial, recreational, and international – into one cohesive system.”

We test ideas in real environments, refine what works and adjust what doesn’t in house. It’s driven by real world usage and feedback because this is what keeps the solution relevant.

Credibility isn’t transferable

One of the more understated challenges in crossing sectors is reputation. We might have a long history in holiday parks, but we are relatively new in marinas. That changes the dynamic. The first major marina event we walked into was the 2025 ICOMIA World Marinas Conference in Venice, Italy. Only a handful of people knew who we were and our presence in the marina industry was still emerging, which was daunting. 

But what a welcome we got! The marina industry, much like the park industry, was incredibly welcoming and curiosity about who we were and what we offered was strong. One of the first interactions we had was with an American gentleman: “Why don’t I know you?” This perfectly fair question proved that credibility or reputation isn’t transferable.

Conversations were more probing and our assumptions were tested more quickly, and rightly so. Operators are dealing with diverse environments and high-value assets, and they need confidence that any new system will support their operation and, more importantly, offer a return on their investment.

Earning that trust takes time and what helped was honesty. We had to be clear about where our experience applied, and where we were continuing to build sector-specific understanding. It created a different kind of dialogue, where the product fit became more important than its positioning in the market. We left ICOMIA knowing we were on the right path and there was a need for the technology we offer.

Internal shifts

While the external transition is visible, the internal transition was just as significant. We needed a reset across teams and sales conversations needed to reflect different priorities. For many years, holiday parks shifted from singular revenue models to broader and more layered operations, and we’ve supported that transition as it happened.

So when the sales team speaks to marinas, that experience shapes how those conversations start. The focus naturally shifts to how operations evolve over time, how different revenue streams connect, how acquisition and expansion play a role, and how technology supports that as part of the wider journey. We know that road and get real joy from showing the industry the art of what is possible. 

Although marketing had to adjust its language and learn a whole new set of terminology, we realised it would be better to bring actual experience into the team. A marketer that had not only worked in marinas, but also experienced life as a boater, both professionally and personally, a nautical translator, if you like. Someone that has seen the frustration first hand when tech doesn’t match the expectations of the person using it. We continue to build that alignment with the industry through exposure, repetition and learning by actively engaging and being part of the conversations.

Looking ahead

Our aim is fairly simple. We want to make using this system feel as frictionless as it can be, just as much in the short-term day-to-day operations as in the long-term evolution of the business and industry. It needs to be software that can work both for a moment in time and support what comes next.

It is important that marina management software continues to evolve and adapt as the sector does. After all, the pace of change is increasing and the expectations around how technology supports operations are only getting higher. The job, as we see it, is to keep operators at the forefront of tech and make sure the people running marinas aren’t the ones carrying that weight.

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