Blackmail by 'professionals"?

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You did the right thing by moving on....that’s why there are always other options....the owner has every right to refuse discounts too...

I wonder if I call each airline and ask for a discount because I’m a professional pilot. I don’t fly for an airline.

Now go splash and have fun.
Do you talk to other pilots?
 
While I appreciate your candor and that you sent this after the fact that you had made a decision, I disagree with your 5th point. It's simple bashing and not constructive criticism. No wonder he got miffed.

I also find this statement appalling:
The resort owner posted this on here to retaliate that he did not earn the business, showing him to be a vindictive man that sets a false premise to make himself feel better.

Both the OP and you seem to have over-drawn conclusions based on your mutual rejection. He sees you as some weasel and you see him as vindictive. He didn't name you, so there's no retaliation involved. Re-read his op, and you can tell he was genuinely offended by your request, and took exception with your characterization of his dive op in your letter. You're both letting criticisms get the better of your rational thought. Stop, take a moment and see it from the others' eyes. Feedback is a bonus if you learn from it and both of you should learn how you're coming across to each other.

Bottom line, you don't like each other and you both are trying to make the other out to be a horrible person. I'm kind of glad you didn't do business with each other as it might have been a real catastrophe. How's that for condor?

It's been my experience that there are many people I can do business with and a few where we simply don't mesh. Just a few. I try not to vilify those that see things differently than I do. They have their own burdens and perspectives. I leave it as "we just don't get along" and do business with people I am compatible with.
 
Hello,
I am the Dive Instructor that this resort is referencing. I feel I have to respond to give the entire premise and NOT just a point from the email.
As a group of 4 instructors traveling (yes real instructors, no entitled millennials), we researched an area and sent our requests for booking and of course with request for professionals discounts. This is the reply we received from this resort owner:

"We do not offer special discounts for Instructors, KITAS holders or Indonesian citizens. I never really understood why we should? The only reason people always give me is: others do it too."


AFTER we had made our choice to stay at a different place, and not as a rebuttal, I sent this reply:

"
Greetings Rob,

Thank you for your time and information regarding your resort. After careful consideration we have chosen another resort. I did want to take the time to give information to you as to why you would want to give 4 Dive Instructors professional discounts without the reason of "others do it too", so that in the future, you will not have to answer in the way you did.

  1. Dive instructors do nothing but talk to travelers about diving, the places they have been, and the resorts they have stayed. This includes talking with their students and the travelers with the students. They do this all day long every day to thousands of divers a year. Now multiply that times 4. Can you think of a more cost effective way for your advertising money to be spent? Direct face to face marketing to your target audience.
  2. When it boils down to numbers, everything else being equal, a 10% professional discount will make the difference in choosing your resort or someone else. So if "others do it too", you already know you are going to be more expensive and lets face it, if reviews and accommodations are good enough to reach out to you for pricing, its already come down to availability and pricing. Is it better to make 90% and have excellent advertising? or make 0% and have negative advertising?
  3. Through my 18 years of recreational diving and 6 years professional experience, I have taken more trips from the professional advice of other dive instructors, than I have done so with advice from any other source. It's because they know, and you are supposed to take advice from those that know.
  4. Dive instructors have fewer needs from a dive resort. Dive instructors know how important it is to be careful with gear if they use yours, but most will bring their own. Dive instructors are not going to be the ones bouncing off the coral. Dive instructors will help when needed for attention to less able divers. The 4 Dive instructors in question have collectively over 10,000 dives in conditions all over the world. That allows your employees to have less workload and be more efficient.
  5. Lastly, by not offering a professional discount, you can be sure that Dive Instructors will tell others to stay away. In our experiences, by not incentivizing Dive instructors to come to a resort, usually means that a resort is cutting corners and does not run as good of a dive shop, as safe of a dive shop, or as honest of a dive shop. This is not to imply, but most resorts know that if they aren't up to standards, a dive instructor will know. Again, better to make 90% and have excellent advertising? or make 0% and have negative advertising?
Hopefully this will enlighten you as to why Dive Instructors ask for a professional discount and why you should give one. "

These facts are all true, and have been discussed with many CDs over the years. The resort owner posted this on here to retaliate that he did not earn the business, showing him to be a vindictive man that sets a false premise to make himself feel better. He was never blackmailed, he was never asked another question after giving his rates. His pricing is his choice. Our stays and recommendations are ours.
Thanks for the context to better understand the exchange. Frankly, I do feel you probably went a bit too far with your bullet point #5. All that preceded that may or may not find wide agreement, but your equating the lack of a discount to an unsafe and dishonest operation I feel undercuts all your other points, and invites a more personal reaction to what can easily be received as a personal affront. The OP’s reaction, whether excessive or not, is understandable.
 
Thanks for the context to better understand the exchange. Frankly, I do feel you probably went a bit too far with your bullet point #5. All that preceded that may or may not find wide agreement, but your equating the lack of a discount to an unsafe and dishonest operation I feel undercuts all your other points, and invites a more personal reaction to what can easily be received as a personal affront. The OP’s reaction, whether excessive or not, is understandable.

I appreciate your kind words. And to the point, I gave reasons to give the discount, and that is all. The fact that I have heard other professionals over the years state this very thing is the reason it was included. I didn't say that I did it, or that I would do it, even went as far as to say that it didn't imply, but it doesn't change the fact that dive professionals, including CDs, HAVE made this conclusion and they have made recommendations because of it. Take it how you will, and he can also, it doesn't change the fact that it is a true statement.
 
5. Lastly, by not offering a professional discount, you can be sure that Dive Instructors will tell others to stay away. In our experiences, by not incentivizing Dive instructors to come to a resort, usually means that a resort is cutting corners and does not run as good of a dive shop, as safe of a dive shop, or as honest of a dive shop. This is not to imply, but most resorts know that if they aren't up to standards, a dive instructor will know. Again, better to make 90% and have excellent advertising? or make 0% and have negative advertising?

Hopefully this will enlighten you as to why Dive Instructors ask for a professional discount and why you should give one. "​

Or maybe they run such an amazing resort that they have customers return year after year and typically have no vacancy during the season that they don't need to hand out discounts to instructors? You don't know as you haven't been there.

 
5. Lastly, by not offering a professional discount, you can be sure that Dive Instructors will tell others to stay away. In our experiences, by not incentivizing Dive instructors to come to a resort, usually means that a resort is cutting corners and does not run as good of a dive shop, as safe of a dive shop, or as honest of a dive shop. This is not to imply, but most resorts know that if they aren't up to standards, a dive instructor will know. Again, better to make 90% and have excellent advertising? or make 0% and have negative advertising?
Hopefully this will enlighten you as to why Dive Instructors ask for a professional discount and why you should give one. "

Or maybe you're just an entitled A-hole who will find some niggling bulls*&t to act all bent over and not provide good feedback/advertisement for the dive op. Then they just lost 10% with no return on the investment.

Maybe it would be better to put that "professional" ego aside, pay to play with that dive-op and develop a RELATIONSHIP with them where they learn the kind of person you are and willingly extend you a "professional" discount as a courtesy because they know you enjoyed your experience with them and they have the sense that you will provide positive word of mouth advertising with them.

You may ask why my tone is so harsh...well, if you have never stayed/dived with this operation then why would "negative advertising" ever enter the equation? As a professional, if someone asks if they should stay/dive with an operation that you have no experience with, your response should be along the lines of "I am sorry I really can't comment because I have never used that operation".

Way to go, pro!

-Z
 
5. Lastly, by not offering a professional discount, you can be sure that Dive Instructors will tell others to stay away.
Not so sure about that one. If I've never been to a particular resort, I always find it best to say; I've never been there, so I have no information and send them here or someplace to investigate.

What would your potential customer or student think if you said? Don't go there, they are so cheap they wouldn't even offer me a discount when I inquired.
 

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