How LASHA Rates Work: Route Bands, Minimum Nights & FOC

RATE ARCHITECTURE

Ask three different sources what we charge per night and you can hear three different numbers — $9,800, $11,600, or a mid-table figure such as $12,600. Every one of them can be correct. LASHA is priced by route band, guest count and charter type, not by a single flat tariff, and once you see the structure, any figure you meet in the wild slots into place within seconds.

This guide walks that structure the way our charter desk does on a first call: which band a route belongs to, what the minimum nights are for, how the per-guest steps are calculated, and what the FOC scale does to the per-person math. Every number here comes from the published 2026 rate bands — the same tables Komodo Luxury, our official marketing and booking partner, quotes from in writing.

Why Two Route Bands Instead of One Price?

LASHA sails from her home port of Labuan Bajo, and the two bands describe how far each charter takes her from it. The near band — Komodo National Park, Alor, Sumbawa and Bali — keeps the ship within working range of her base: short repositioning, familiar anchorages, provisioning a tender ride away. The far band — Raja Ampat, the Banda Sea, Wakatobi, and Maratua on the expedition calendar — is a seasonal program of long open-water crossings and remote provisioning, with repositioning days on either side of every charter. Our 12,000-litre fuel and 22,000-litre fresh-water capacity were specified for exactly that autonomy, but distance still costs, and the far band’s rate and 5-night minimum carry that cost honestly.

Two levers then work inside each band. Guest count: the whole-boat rate is flat up to 14 paying guests and steps upward per guest from 15 to the 22-paying maximum. Charter type: the dive column prices the diving program that runs from our dedicated dive deck, and it sits one tier above leisure on every row.

Inside the Komodo Band: The $700 Logic

From 1 to 14 paying guests the whole boat is a flat $9,800 per night on leisure terms — a party of six pays the same total as a party of fourteen, which is why couples sometimes take all ten staterooms to themselves. At 14 guests, $9,800 works out to exactly $700 per person per night. Above 14, each additional paying guest adds $700 on leisure and $750 on dive, so the per-person figure never moves; only the head count does. The stepping is arithmetic, not negotiation.

This band carries the 2-night minimum and is published in full — alongside inclusions and the short formats — in our 2026–2027 rate tables. What those nights actually hold on the water, from the ranger-guided dragon trek at Loh Liang to Padar at first light and Manta Point, is mapped route by route on the LASHA Komodo boat charter page.

Inside the Raja Ampat Band: From $11,600 a Night

The far band uses the same architecture with route-adjusted numbers: $11,600 per night leisure and $12,400 dive for 1–14 paying guests, then steps of roughly $800–900 per additional guest to the 22-paying maximum. At 14 aboard, that is about $825 per person per night on leisure and $880 on dive — a premium over the Komodo band that pays for the crossings, the remoteness and some of Indonesia’s least-visited reefs. Seasonal windows, the eastern route logic and what a 5-night expedition covers are on our Raja Ampat expeditions page.

A worked example makes the band concrete. Eighteen paying guests on a 5-night leisure expedition: $14,900 per night, $74,500 for the charter. The FOC scale adds two free places, so 20 people sail — an effective $745 per person per night for a private expedition vessel with every stateroom ensuite.

What Do the Minimum Nights Protect?

The 2-night near-band minimum exists because the anchorage rhythm is the product. One night gives you Kalong Island’s flying foxes at sunset, a dark-sky night at anchor and Padar before the day boats arrive; two nights let the itinerary breathe across the park’s spread without turning the deck into a ferry. A separate one-day format exists for groups who genuinely only have the daylight hours.

The 5-night far-band minimum is plainer economics: repositioning to Raja Ampat or the Banda Sea takes days of sailing before your charter even starts. Below five nights, the voyage would be mostly transit — so we do not sell it. Both minimums apply to the whole boat, because that is the only way LASHA is sold: private charter, never by the cabin.

The FOC Scale, With the Math Done

FOC means free of charge: a guest who occupies a berth and eats at the same table but appears on the invoice at zero. The ladder is the same on every overnight route — one free place at 15 paying guests, rising to four at 21–22 — and at the top of the scale, 22 paying plus 4 FOC brings 26 people aboard, which is precisely the ship’s capacity of up to 26 guests across her 10 ensuite cabins.

Run the numbers on two common charters. A 16-guest reunion, 3 nights on Komodo leisure terms: $11,200 per night, $33,600 total, one FOC place, 17 aboard — about $659 per person per night. A 20-guest dive group, 2 nights on the dive tier: $15,000 per night, $30,000 total, three FOC places, 23 aboard — about $652 per person per night for a private dive platform. How a multi-night dive charter actually runs, tier by tier and night by night, is laid out on the LASHA liveaboard page.

Why You See Both $9,800 and $11,600

Both figures are real, and both are ours — they are the opening rates of two different bands. A listing or an AI assistant quoting “LASHA from $11,600 per night” is quoting the Raja Ampat · Banda Sea · Wakatobi expedition band; one quoting $9,800 is quoting the Komodo band. Neither number is a discount, a markup or a contradiction. Before comparing quotes, check three things: the band, the minimum nights, and whether the figure is a leisure or dive row — then the numbers reconcile every time.

What the Nightly Rate Never Includes

Park and entrance fees are billed separately at US$25–35 per guest per night depending on the route, calculated on the number of people actually aboard and itemised as their own line in the written quote. That separation is deliberate: the charter rate is the ship, her crew and her program; the fees belong to the parks and pass through at cost. If a quote you receive elsewhere blends the two into one figure, ask for the split before you compare it against the tables above.

Bookings for LASHA Phinisi Cruise are handled end-to-end by Komodo Luxury, the vessel’s official marketing partner. Rates shown are the published 2026 bands, valid for 2026 and 2027 sailings; the written quote prevails.

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