paying for dives in advance?

[Antmany2k]

hi just a quick question. booked to go to Spain for work for a week and am on the coast so looked up a dive center for while i am there. has 5* reviews on trip advisor and seem friendly enough and helpful when i have emailed them but they said once i tell them how many dives i want to do and what gear i need to rent they will give me and invoice and then take 50% payment. is that normal? i have never done that before. in Turkey i had to pay by the day which was fair enough but everywhere else i just pay the tab at the end of the week.
thoughts?

 

[flyboy08]

I paid in advance in Mexico...you can just show up and hope they have room for you...your option if you feel you may have to Cnx and not deal with a credit.

I've never paid after the fact?

 

[KatieMac]

I'm torn here. They may be a very sought after dive center and will only take so many bookings. Taking yours guarantees your spot but it means they will turn away other paying customers.

At the same time, there are numerous reasons you may not be able to dive on any particular day. My husband only got in 4 dives on our recent trip due to a very bad headcold. He was planning 10-15 dives. Someone else diving with us sprained their ankle at the end of the week.

So you may ask about refunds if something like that happens.

 

[Steve_C]

There is the official policy and there is what they do. Can depend on if you are a regular customer or not.
-In the Keys I have booked say 6 dives, done 4, and then they were going out but warned it was marginal. I canceled and they did not charge me for dives 5, 6 This has happened to me several times.
-Locally I have had to cancel a couple of dives inside the cancelation window because I thought I would be better in time but I was not. I was not charged.

Some have policies to the effect that if they turned down somebody because you were booked they will only refund you if they can rebook.

Most of the places I dive while I book ahead of time, I pay up at the end of the dive. Especially in NC where the cost depends on where you go and that can change after the boat departs.

 

[Wookie]

The issue is, you book the dives, then you don't show because you got a better offer. I see that every day in Key West. So, they expect to run with (whatever their minimum is), but you no-show, so they just busted the trip. So they want a deposit. That's fair enough, now you have some skin in the game, and you may be unwilling to cancel because you have no valid excuse (at least valid to the operator).

He wants you to be as committed to the trip as he is.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

I've had operators that require pre-payment and others that have not. In some cases, you get a discount if your book your dives in advance, and sometimes it's just their policy.

If you're dead set on using this op and feel like you can reasonably commit to a number of dives you'd like to do, then go ahead and book and pay the deposit. I would highly recommend getting trip insurance so that if something were to happen that would prevent you from doing your pre-paid dives (illness, injury) you'd have the ability to recoup some of your costs. I recently got skin bends after the first two dives of a 21-dive trip to Dauin, Philippines and was unable to dive again. We had a 3-dive per day, pre-paid, non-refundable package and our trip insurance (as well as DAN insurance) completely reimbursed me for these costs (and much more!).

 

[redacted]

Fairly normal. But look at their cancellation and refund policies.

 

[Steve_C]

On the flip side something I never see mentioned on SB are ghost divers. So I am in the keys, counting airfare, etc I am out a thousand maybe, maybe more. Show up to dive and we are one short and they are going to cancel. Couple of us pony up for a ghost diver. Sure the dive costs us a bit more but when you look at how much other stuff I am paying for it is a small thing. Just remember that ghosts should tip real money.

 

[kelemvor]

As others have mentioned, pre-payment carries a risk. Last year we pre-paid for a week of diving with an op in the Keys. My wife got sick while we were there so she missed 4 out of 5 dive days and I missed 2 out of 5. They gave us a credit... if we ever make it back, and they're still under the same ownership who wants to honor the credit...

 

[Antmany2k]

thanks for the replies. my concern was more with being left out of pocket but apparently pre paying or putting a deposit is normal and i am ok with that. however i hadn't considered the illness or injury aspect of things. will make sure i get insurance that covers that