Permits, park fees and transfers for a group: the three lists behind boarding day

The manifest is the document everything else is built from. The sailing permit, the park tickets and the pickup schedule all draw on the same list, so an error in one name is an error in three places. Send the list once, correctly, before the cut-off written in your quote.

Each line carries four things: the name exactly as on the passport or the Indonesian ID card, a marker for Indonesian or foreign, the arrival flight, and the cabin pair from the rooming list. A swapped surname or a missing middle name is the usual reason a ticket is re-issued, and re-issuing costs a day that a busy sailing date may not have.

Replace a name before the cut-off, not after. After it, a replacement may not fit the permit, and we say so in writing. The date is set in the quote because it depends on your sailing date.

Producer's checklist, the list itself. Names as on the ID; the Indonesian or foreign marker; arrival flights; cabin pairs; one person at your end who signs the list off.

A Zada fare never contains the park ticket or the ranger fee. Park entry is IDR 250,000 per foreign visitor for each day inside the park, IDR 50,000 per Indonesian on a weekday and IDR 75,000 on a weekend, so a mixed list is priced in three lines. The park fees page has the calculator and the rules behind the tariff.

The ranger fee is paid on the day, separately, by the group. Bring cash for it, and name one person on your side to carry it, so that the PIC is not collecting change at the station.

A drone needs a park permit, which we arrange on request and quote separately, and we promise no footage. Tell us in the first message if aerial pictures are part of the plan.

On a private charter the guide and the photo and video documentation are not in the fare either; they are arranged on request and quoted separately. Budget them as lines of their own beside the park fees.

Airport, hotel and harbour pickup in Labuan Bajo is included. Above 12 guests a second vehicle or a coach is quoted as its own line. A Toyota HiAce seats up to 12, so the count follows the head count.

Two boats of a combination at 40 or 60 guests multiply the arithmetic, and the vehicle plan is set from the arrival list. Staggered flights are the real job: a group that lands over six hours is collected in batches on a timetable, and the producer proposes it when the manifest of arrivals is in.

Check-in is at 11:00 on the first day of a private charter, and the open-trip meeting point is Labuan Bajo by 10:00. The pickup time and the meeting point are confirmed in writing, and bags go in the vehicle with the guest: soft bags are easier to stow than hard cases.

On boarding day the PIC holds four papers: the manifest, the rooming list, the pickup timetable and the cash line for the ranger fee. The producer on your file holds the same four, so a question from either side has one answer.

• Count heads against the manifest at the vehicle, at the pier and at boarding.
• Hand out cabin keys against the rooming list, not by who arrives first.
• Keep copies of the passport or ID pages in the PIC's bag, not only on a phone.
• Confirm the return time in writing before anyone books an onward flight.

Arrive in Labuan Bajo one day before sailing. A delayed flight then costs the group an evening, not its boat, and the pickup the next morning starts from a hotel on the list.