On LASHA group charters, free-of-charge (FOC) guest places begin at 15 paying guests — one additional guest sails free — and rise progressively to four free places at 21–22 paying guests, so 26 people can sail while 22 pay. Group leaders typically assign FOC places to organizers, trip hosts or accompanying staff.
GROUP ECONOMICS
What Is an FOC Guest?
FOC stands for free of charge: a guest who occupies a berth, eats at the same table and swims the same reefs, but appears on the invoice at zero. It is the charter market’s standard way of rewarding the person who assembles a large group — the dive-club organizer, the family matriarch, the retreat host — because filling a 26-guest phinisi is real work, and the ship knows it. Few vessels in the park can even host the head counts where the scale matters: at 52.5 metres and 466 GT, LASHA is one of the largest luxury phinisi in the Komodo fleet, built in 2023 precisely for full-group sailing.
On LASHA the mechanism is built directly into the published group-charter structure rather than left to negotiation. The ship carries up to 26 guests in 10 ensuite cabins across four decks, charters run from a 14-guest minimum on the core Komodo band at $700 per person per night leisure ($750 dive), and the free-place scale opens the moment a group passes that minimum. Every figure below comes straight from the 2026–2027 rate tables, published in full.
How Does the FOC Scale Work?
The scale is progressive: the more paying guests, the more free places. It starts at 15 paying guests, which earns one FOC place, and tops out at four FOC places at 21–22 paying guests — the charter maximum on the core band. The exact allocation for group sizes in between is confirmed at booking through Komodo Luxury, the vessel’s official marketing partner, as part of the written quote.
| Paying guests | FOC places | Total aboard |
|---|---|---|
| 14 (charter minimum) | — | 14 |
| 15 | +1 | 16 |
| 16–20 | Progressive — confirmed in your written quote | 17–24 |
| 21 | +4 | 25 |
| 22 (charter maximum) | +4 | 26 |
Two ground rules keep the math clean. First, FOC places are additional people aboard, not discounts spread across the invoice — 22 paying plus 4 FOC genuinely means 26 travelers on the ship. Second, per-person park entrance fees ($25 per person per night on multi-night Komodo charters) are itemised separately in the quote, so the charter desk states exactly how they apply to your final head count before you commit. The current tariff picture is covered in the 2026 park fees guide.
Worked Example 1: The 15-Guest Family Reunion
Take a three-generation family of 15 paying guests on a 2-night Komodo leisure charter — the band minimum. At 15 paying, the whole-boat rate is $10,500 per night, so the charter comes to $21,000 before park fees. The FOC scale adds one free place: 16 people sail. Effective cost per person aboard: about $656 per night — against the $700 per paying guest — with the free place typically given to the grandparent being celebrated or the cousin who did the organizing. The multi-generation layout logic — which cabins suit which ages — is mapped in the family charter guide.
Worked Example 2: The Full-Ship Dive Group
Now a dive club books LASHA at the 22-guest charter maximum for 3 nights on the dive rate. Whole-boat: $16,500 per night — $49,500 for the charter. Four FOC places bring the group to 26 aboard, so the effective rate is about $635 per person per night for a private dive platform with a dedicated dive deck. On the leisure rate the same head count works out to an effective $592 per person per night. That figure matters because it lands inside the $400–600+ band that luxury shared-cabin trips charge, according to published market research — the whole comparison is run honestly in private charter vs open trip.
How Do Group Leaders Use FOC Places?
Three patterns dominate. Retreat and celebration hosts take the FOC places themselves — the yoga teacher, the wedding couple’s planner, the birthday honoree — so the organizer’s seat never inflates what participants pay. Dive clubs assign them to working staff: an instructor, a photographer, a trip leader. And families use them as pure headroom, bringing the nanny or the last-minute cousin without reopening the budget.
For anyone selling seats within their own community — a common pattern for club trips — the scale also simplifies the pitch. At 22 paying guests the per-person price is a clean $700 per night leisure, the organizer’s own travel is covered by an FOC place, and the quote from the charter desk itemises everything so nothing needs to be marked up or explained away. The short-format Komodo 2D1N charter follows the same logic at $900 per person per night, reaching $19,800 whole-boat at 22 paying guests.
Does the FOC Scale Change the Cabin Plan?
No — it is the reason the cabin plan looks the way it does. LASHA reaches her 26-guest capacity through extra beds in specific staterooms: the two Grand Deluxe cabins on the Lower Deck each take a third guest alongside their twin beds, Junior Suites 203 and 204 on the Main Deck accept an extra bed behind their private balconies, and both Master Suites — the ones with in-suite jacuzzi bathtubs and ocean-view windows — carry a double plus an extra. A 26-person group therefore sleeps across all 10 ensuite cabins without anyone on a sofa, and the charter desk drafts the cabin allocation with the quote so FOC guests are placed as deliberately as paying ones.
Which Charters Does the FOC Scale Apply To?
The scale described here belongs to LASHA’s group-charter bands — the Komodo | Alor | Sumbawa | Lombok | Bali routes (2-night minimum) and the formats built on them. For Raja Ampat, Banda Sea, Wakatobi and Maratua expeditions ($750–800 per person per night, 5-night minimum) and the one-day format, FOC treatment is confirmed case by case in the written quote. One month before the maiden sailing of 17 August 2026, the first full-ship groups of the season are being built exactly this way: anchor dates first, head count second, FOC allocation confirmed in writing through the booking process before anyone transfers a deposit.
Plan your LASHA charter — send your expected head count, and the charter desk will confirm your exact FOC allocation and per-person math in a written quote.
Bookings for LASHA Phinisi Cruise are handled end-to-end by Komodo Luxury, the vessel’s official marketing partner. FOC allocations for intermediate group sizes are confirmed at booking.
