Caversham Boat Services

Fantastic experience: Very nice staff and great services!

Fantastic experience: Very friendly and helpful staff. Thank you for a great holiday on the Caversham King boat. it was very easy to get there on the train, right near to Reading station.

Fantastic experience: Great fun. Very helpful when we arrived and would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Hired daydreak boat for four hours with 3 friends. We got a couple of hours into our trip and realised we were having such a nice time we rang to extend the booking - no problem. Dealt with Terry and Emma, both straightforward and pleasant. Will return

Fantastic experience: What a pleasure it was dealing with CAVERSHAM BOAT SERVICES and all the staff who made my mums 70th birthday such a day for us all to remember. I did not realise until I spoke to Pauline about a boat booking for next year ,that you could book a (self-drive steer/pilot/helm) or what ever you call it !! boat so late in the year. We all can not wait untill the new year for our next trip I

Fantastic experience: Full day family boat with exceptional price. Would definitely recommend

Fantastic experience: Rented several day boats from this company. Good friendly service and always enjoyable days out but it does feel like going into a timewarp to the 1970s and it would be nice if they could spent a bit of money on the boats to make them a little more up to date.

Fantastic experience: Spot on customer service. Boat was as expected. They were happy enough to hire it out to 8 guys in our mid 20's. We're very likely to come back for more next year!

Fantastic experience: Really good boatyard and very helpful. Looking to go back next year.

Fantastic experience: Excellent service!!!

Fantastic experience: Very friendly people. The boats you can hire are very nice and maintained well.

Fantastic experience: Great company, relaxing ride to Pangbourne going through locks, will do it again, tx!

Fantastic experience: The staff is very friendly. The place is very nice.

Fantastic experience: Friendly place to stop for diesel, gas, coal/wood and water. Big fat hose pipe so doesn’t take long to fill.

Negative experience: We couldn't get on this boat as there are lots of people with their camping gear to the Reading Festival this coming day.

Fantastic experience: Friendly and professional staff, excellent service. Can I give 6 stars?

Fantastic experience: Brilliant place, we hire 2/3 boats a year. I recommend this highly to anyone.

Fantastic experience: Great friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Friendly helpful!

Positive experience: Well situated, helpful staff. Least expensive for service and you can get an ice lolly to go.

Fantastic experience: My review is not about the actual boat service but the incredibly friendly, kind and helpful staff that work there. Yesterday, whilst feeding the ducks with my daughter, my ring flew off my finger into the river. David was our super hero, he jumped into the water to retrieve my ring. Such a kind thing to do, we will definitely be using the boat service this summer for a trip down the Thames with our young family. Thank you David.

Fantastic experience: We had a lovely day We hired for the day and it was a fab experience The staff were so lovely Right from booking to getting the boat and everything we needed to know The boat was clean and well equipped And was easy to operate If we had booked to sleep we probably wouldn’t because me and my partner are very tall but really not a negative for this boat it was a great day and the process from booking , checking in to checking out was smooth and very efficient I would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff who assisted us you were all so lovely and made the experience a good one Thank you Nic and steve

Fantastic experience: My partner and I hired a speedboat for the evening. The experience was magnificent, the views were unreal and something that we would do again. The speedboat was easy to use and we were given clear instructions and a contact number in case of emergencies. Would definitely recommend and do again

Fantastic experience: Nice place

Fantastic experience: My son and I rent a boat for the weekend every year, and thoroughly enjoy it. Staff are always cheery and helpful, and the boats are easy to drive.

Fantastic experience: Easy to deal with very friendly and competent staff. Great day out on the river. Reasonable priced

Fantastic experience: Had a great birthday trip in Daybreak! Very friendly and helpful staff; given a useful and comprehensive briefing before we set off. A great little boat (basic but with all the facilities for a day trip), so a good time was had pottering upstream and back on a very peaceful stretch of the Thames.

Fantastic experience: Very nice place, lovely staff members. A pleasure to visit.

Fantastic experience: Great place to hire a boat. Easier to drive and handle locks than I thought, but you get a great induction anyway. Great day out family loved it and the service was brilliant

Fantastic experience: Although the Cavandish Duke was smaller than expected the boat was easy to use and we had a great time in it. The water pump gave out and an engineer was with us in an hour. We were on our way again a few hours later. They sent us water fizzy drinks and beer while we were waiting for the repair. If your renting the cavandish Duke I would not suggest anyone of 5ft8 in height though we did manage. Next time we use Cavandish boats we will get a bigger boat.

Fantastic experience: Perfect service. Will book again.

Positive experience: Nice but the boat given was quite old

Positive experience: What a wonderful way to spend the day. Staff were friendly and helpful - really good experience and we will be back

Fantastic experience: We were super impressed with CBS. After looking at other boat companies we were pleasantly surprised with the price and size of the boat we got verses competition. It was well organised, the information we received was timely and informative. The introduction to the boat was first class. Would not hesitate to recommend.

Positive experience: Not the place to Moor overnight l found it too noise

Fantastic experience: Fabulous people

Fantastic experience: Very helpful and friendly service

Fantastic experience: First time on canal trip this was an older boat and not difficult to operate we had a great time in it even when it rained, like camping on the water/pub crawl

Fantastic experience: A family run business. We hired the Caversham Emperor. She has had a hard life but was well maintained. One of the best provisioned boats I have charterd. Gally was very well equipped. Max introduced us to our boat. He was a star. Thank him.

Fantastic experience: Just back from a week on the Caversham Emperor. A friendly welcome from the start to the end of our holiday. Max was very thorough in his handover of the boat, including some mooring tips. Clear instructions for car parking, once we had all our kit onboard. The Emperor is an older boat, but well equipped and maintained. The bedding was fresh and bright, with blankets included as the weather in October is cold in the evenings. The well equipped galley, is well laid out with all utensils provided. The heating worked well, a bonus with October sailing. The boat performed well. My only niggle was the smell of diesel, which seemed to linger. Great week on the Thames, highly recommend this family run business.

Fantastic experience: Great experience - rented a boat for my wife's birthday in April 2020 but had to be put on hold due to Covid. They were great at holding my credit and I eventually rebooked for early September 2021. The whole experience was great. Picked up the boat as instructed, had a quick tutorial and we were off. Spent the day going through locks and exploring the river with some great friends. Would recommend this service!

Fantastic experience: No frills boat rental great for couples

Positive experience: Had a lovely time saying up the Thames and visited wonderful places. What a shame the boat was old and very uncomfortable. It looked very unloved and could do with a good clean. Washing facilities were awful.

Positive experience: Very friendly and efficient, had a great day.

Positive experience: Had a boat for 4 days , caversham night . Nice size boat for two of us . Fridge stopped working but no big drama . Would definitely use them again .

Positive experience: Had a great week, boat is showing it's age but all the staff were great. Update and overhaul the boat and it would be 5 star.

Fantastic experience: very helpful

Fantastic experience: Had a great experience on one these boats, good teaching and guidance beforehand, 6 of us went out and 6 came back x

Fantastic experience: Fantastic service as allways. Always friendly and helpful

Fantastic experience: Just popped by for fuel and stern packing rope that I knew needed doing soon on our Narrowboat. Not only did they have it but the gentleman who organised the fill-up. Explained how to adjust the existing setup as it was gushing but for the moment just needed tightening up and how to fit the replacement stern packing when I had run out of adjustment. And the lady in the reception was happy and cheerful again. Didn't ask the fuel price, I never bother anyway. But the service was first rate. In world of call centres, this is how to run a business. I bet their hire service is good too.

Fantastic experience: Visited Wednesday morning for boat "pump out", thus avoiding hire craft change over days. Most extremely helpful person appeared and assisted mooring alongside. He managed the whole process himself without my assistance. Very pleasant and helpful, contactless payment cheaper than other similar facilities. Perfect! Russell Bracegirdle

Fantastic experience: Wayne and his team were super. Great service.

Fantastic experience: We hired a day boat for my daughters birthday, great experience on the water, everytime I called the office nothing was too much trouble, the only criticism would be the information pack was not sent until late. The staff on arrival were great showing us all how to navigate around the boat maintaining social distance, even sanitation fluid available for all the family, at the end of the trip I was unsure about parking up, one of the staff jumped aboard and parked the boat for me which I thought was lovely end to the day. Well done to all staff and keep up the hard difficult work you do in these trouble some times.

Positive experience: We hired The Caversham Earl for a week. This boat is fine for a day trip ... Possibly a weekend but even for a couple it's very cramped. The facilities onboard are very dated and tired looking and the WC leaves a lot to be desired. The Caversham Earl needs to regain its nobility and not look like a poor relation.

Positive experience: Very friendly helpful staff. Boats are a bit tired though & basic.

Fantastic experience: We hired a day boat. The staff were most pleasant and patiently briefed us on the basics of skippering a boat. We were soon on our way and enjoying the pleasures of the River Thames.

Fantastic experience: Excellent service.everything we could possibly need for the boat trip.friendly staff. Perfect day out on the Thames.

Fantastic experience: We (cetec marine did a survey here). They have a good slipway and knowledgeable people very helpful and friendly. They also have a hire fleet and day boats.

Fantastic experience: Great boat, well priced, excellent service. Top day

Fantastic experience: Great if you own a boat, they've got everything

Fantastic experience: Had so much fun. Very comfortable and has many amneties in the boat. Good service. Everyone enjoyed it so much.

Fantastic experience: Friendly helpful service. Only accessible by boat selling the usual supplies and chandlery including diesel, coal, water and for us a Beta38 oil filter

Fantastic experience: Friendly and well priced

Positive experience: Excellent company to deal with. We hired Caversham Royal for a week on The Thames and this must be one of the best equipped boats we have been on. The boat is large, sleeps 12, but would recommend less, especially for a week. Its a little tired, but everything works and has two flush toilets, which is a big bonus. The staff are very friendly and responded to a problem with the boat at Marlow, very quickly. Just wish the Thames had more facilities for boaters (water and pump outs), plenty of private boat yards, but only Bray welcoming. Would certainly use this boatyard again if we came back.

Negative experience: Called before hand and was told last boat is at 4:30pm. Got there at 4:05pm and some nonse just shouted across the river that he was too busy? Very poor service would not recommend.

Fantastic experience: Fast and efficient

Fantastic experience: I use this à lot with my boat. Good price on diesel. They have experienced engineers when faced with technical issues. They undertake a quality pump-out and they sell bottled gas. The owners, Gordon & Anne are always very accommodating.

Fantastic experience: Friendly service and very good boat for the money. GBP 30 for an hour you can't go wrong.

Fantastic experience: Excellent place

Positive experience: Good

Positive experience: Quite expensive for a boat which was tired and dirty (needed a complete refurb). Repairs are make do so unsurprised when they broke again.

Positive experience: Clean and tidy

Positive experience: Great customer service

Positive experience: Great day out, friendly staff and boat was in good working order. One thing to note was the toilet. It stank to high heavens of chemicals once you open the door. Not pleasant and probably not healthy either. My eyes were burning. Had to hold my breath and close my eyes.

Positive experience: Lovely relaxing trip along the Thames. A helpful and knowledgeable staff team went through how to drive and park the boat. Was a lovely birthday treat.

Fantastic experience: Great

Fantastic experience: Nice people

Fantastic experience: Will nice

Negative experience: Grotty old boat with smelly engine

Fantastic experience: Excellent company with understanding, patient staff, dealing with clients usually fairly new to boating. Craft are very well appointed and the touring area of the upper Thames is beautiful.

Fantastic experience: I didn't get sea sick as we were cruising down a river

Fantastic experience: Easy to organise and good value

Positive experience: We had a lovely week aboard the Prince of Caversham in October 2016. It was about our 8th holiday afloat. The Thames is the best - we love it. Our only grouse was that the Prince is very old and tired. The interior really needs a total refurb - curtains all faded and don't open and close easily, tiling around the cooker all cracked and lumpy, heating not good, paint tired and worn, doors don't fit well. With diesel and car parking the week cost well over £1000, and this boat just ain't worth a thousand for one week in October. Lovely holiday, but not good value.

Fantastic experience: Very good service

Negative experience: The Caversham King - A trip down the Thames was completely spoilt by renting a boat which was not fit for purpose - it was dirty, damp, tatty, the windows leaked when it rained, the wash boards in the bathroom flew up every time you stood on them - which was incredibly dangerous and the electrics kept cutting out. The one positive was that when we phoned to complain about the wet bedding which was a result of the leaking windows, the guys on the ground couldn't have been more helpful - they came straight out, fixed the windows and provided fresh bedding. We did also complain about the boat when we returned it, and the customer service from Caversham Boat Services was brilliant - they resolved the issue there any then. If you book with this company, they are slowly refurbishing their boats, so try and get one of the newer ones, if you have a problem on the boat - phone them and let them know.

Negative experience: A lovely trip down the Thames which was completely spoilt by the terrible boat we rented from cavendish boat services. It was falling apart, dirty, mouldy, with several quite dangerous "fixes" including windows which leaked when it rained soaking the bedding, and wooden wash boards in the bathroom which shot up every time you walked on them. I will be writing an official complaint to the company and have taken a number of pictures so people can see how bad the boat really was. Don't book Your holiday through this company, go somewhere else. The only good thing was the customer service, when we phoned about the leaking windows they couldn't have been more helpful, an engineer came out to seal the windows and provide new bedding - but why would you let a boat go out with leaking windows in the first place, in England!!

Negative experience: We arrived at kaversham boat services at 16:50, 10 minutes before closing time, after a terrible 2.5 hours drive in heavy traffic from London, they decided not to show us how to operate the boat, and ultimately they told us to get our stuff out of their boat, ... ... and to go home. We had even paid 100% in advance, this was a terrible experience , fortunately there are a lot of other companies operating in the Thames.

Negative experience: Cost is high for boats that are not clean and tidy