Badger Pontoon Charters — Local services in Madison

I can not say enough fantastic things about working with Tony. We had booked a boat rental for my best friend's bachelorette party with a different company months in advance. The day before we were supposed to go, we received communication from the other company that they would be canceling our rental due to it being "too windy." Immediately, we started calling around for other options as many of us came from out of state to celebrate our friend. Tony responded to us immediately and worked hard with us to find a way to still get out on the water. He was able to get all 9 of us in a boat that he captained himself the next day. He was friendly, outgoing, and thoughtful. The boat we ended up having was larger than what a group of our size would have (it was the only boat he had available) and instead charged us based off the size we would have been on not making us pay the additional amount. We had originally had a lily pad with the previous company booked that canceled on us and Tony talked with other captains out on the water and find us a lily pad to use! It ended up being a perfect day on the water (with very minimal wind).

Don't make the same mistake I did booking with someone else - book with Badger Pontoon Charters first to avoid all the chaos. Tony will ensure you have the best possible time when...

My friends and I visited Madison for my bachelorette party and wanted to take a boat out during one of the days. We booked months in advance with another boat charter company, who then emailed us less than 24 hours prior to our rental that they were likely to cancel our trip due to high winds (it wasn’t windy). Even though they stated that they were like to cancel on us, their policy was still that we were not allowed to get our deposit back and look for other rental options without losing our $. Still, I called a couple places and got to speak with Tony at Badger Pontoons. He was so empathetic toward our situation and shared they would be happy to arrange a boat and captain for us, if they other company canceled on us. When this other company took their sweet time to finally cancel on us at 9am the morning of the outing, I texted Tony, and he was so responsive and an overall gem to work with. He also captained our boat and made the day so fun and seamless. I can’t say enough great things about Badger Pontoon, their customer service, or our rental experience. 15/10...

Was very disappointed with this company and our experience. We reserved the pontoon three months in advance for a special occasion. There were seven of us that came from out of town (Milwaukee, Denver and NYC). On July 28th We were all ready to go for an 11 am pick up at Memorial Union and received a call from the company at 10:55 saying they couldn't get the boat started. They said they were working on it and if they could get it up and running within the hour they would pick us up. We waited until noon, no one called us. We called three different times for an update and finally they admitted it was a no go. They barely apologized to ruining our day. If you are in the boat charter business you should make sure your one boat works before 5 minutes of picking up a group. Also, have a back up plan to stick to your commitments. We would of been able to make alternate plans to get on the water if we had more notice than five minutes of the canceled reservation. Really disappointed and still sad that this ruined the day we had...