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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.