What makes your dive op different? Dive Shop Survey

[Jayfarmlaw]

Most of the Cozumel regulars have our own favorite dive operation and we have found the "right" dive operation for our own personal tastes. Whether is be tank size, SI location, convenience of location, price, free rental, or whatever, I think there are very few bad operations on the island but most are different in one way or another.

I started a spreadsheet to compare dive ops and their differences. What other categories would be important to divers looking for a dive op? I'm not sure where this is going, just kind of a personal project for now, and a quick response to the "Which Dive Op" requests that get posted regularly. I'm setting it up in Excel with the following headers:

Name
Website
2 tank AM dive cost
Multi day discount
Tax included
Departure location
Transportation provided
Departure time
Surface interval location (Beach, Beach club, boat)
SI Facilties (Bar, food, bathrooms)
Standard Tank size
Optional Tank Size
Nitrox cost
# of boats
Standard # of divers per boat
"Other Information"

I may add
Cruise ship options
PM Dive Options
North dive sites available
Group surface (Yes, No, DM choice)

This may become to big of a pain depending on participation, It may get scrapped before it begins, it may end up just being for me, not sure yet. The plan is to contact the op directly with the questions so their responses come direct from the source. They may tell me to just go away.

What else sets your dive op apart, and what is their website?

Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Jay

 

[DFDubb]

I know it's winter, cold, and depressing, but my goodness, why? Haven't we had enough Coz dive op threads?

 

[rmssetc]

Most of the Cozumel regulars have our own favorite dive operation and we have found the "right" dive operation for our own personal tastes. Whether is be tank size, SI location, convenience of location, price, free rental, or whatever, I think there are very few bad operations on the island but most are different in one way or another.

I started a spreadsheet to compare dive ops and their differences. What other categories would be important to divers looking for a dive op?

You'll need a column for the date of data entry.


SNIP!

This may become to big of a pain depending on participation, It may get scrapped before it begins, it may end up just being for me, not sure yet. The plan is to contact the op directly with the questions so their responses come direct from the source. They may tell me to just go away.

What else sets your dive op apart, and what is their website?

Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Jay

This looks to me like a project that is well-intentioned, a lot of work, extremely difficult to keep up-to-date, difficult to ensure accurate responses, difficult to search without normalized data.

I applaud you for the attempt...

This would probably make a great service/revenue stream for Scubaboard... Imagine a searchable, on-line database accessible only to registered members. The database would have characteristics of various dive ops. Think TripAdvisor specfically for dive ops.

Companies could pay a small fee (ie., advertising) for a listing. A larger fee would pay for Scubaboard staff time to research/verify the data -- those results would be flagged as having been reviewed (not just submitted) and would have more credence. Members could also update existing entries (again, increasing the validity of the data, keeping it current). A little PHP, some SQL, a dash of marketing...voila! A new app!

 

[scubadada]

Most of the Cozumel regulars have our own favorite dive operation and we have found the "right" dive operation for our own personal tastes. Whether is be tank size, SI location, convenience of location, price, free rental, or whatever, I think there are very few bad operations on the island but most are different in one way or another.

I started a spreadsheet to compare dive ops and their differences. What other categories would be important to divers looking for a dive op? I'm not sure where this is going, just kind of a personal project for now, and a quick response to the "Which Dive Op" requests that get posted regularly. I'm setting it up in Excel with the following headers:

Name
Website
2 tank AM dive cost
Multi day discount
Tax included
Departure location
Transportation provided
Departure time
Surface interval location (Beach, Beach club, boat)
SI Facilties (Bar, food, bathrooms)
Standard Tank size
Optional Tank Size
Nitrox cost
# of boats
Standard # of divers per boat
"Other Information"

I may add
Cruise ship options
PM Dive Options
North dive sites available
Group surface (Yes, No, DM choice)

This may become to big of a pain depending on participation, It may get scrapped before it begins, it may end up just being for me, not sure yet. The plan is to contact the op directly with the questions so their responses come direct from the source. They may tell me to just go away.

What else sets your dive op apart, and what is their website?

Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Jay

I believe you bit off significantly more than you can chew

So many more things I would want to know about an operator on Cozume, many important to me.

Fast boats/slow boats?
Not only # on boat, but max and usual #/group?
Are members of group matched by ability?
By North dive sites do you mean Barracuda and San Juan or far North, I would include the latter
Large boat for inclement weather?
Provision for diving East side?
Take care of gear?
Provide boat coats?
Pick up at hotel docks?
Night dive? How many divers to go?

Off the top of my head, could probably come up with more

 

[MMM]

Snacks on the boat! Types of tanks (steel vs. aluminum)... (Working) safety equipment on board that crew know how to use. Policies for cancellation of dives due to inclement weather or illness (or, I don't feel like diving today..) Camera rinse tanks (of sufficient size for several)... And of course that one that sends the Cozumel forum members into orbit: rinsing and storage of wetsuits.

You DO know that there are approx. 100 dive ops on the island? (So I'm told...a lot of them you won't ever even hear about on the board.) If you can convince the board owner to pay for my dives, I'm more than happy to offer my services to verify reviews by acting as a secret, anonymous shopper.

 

[deepsea21]

Great idea BUT you will end up with a spreadsheet miles wide and long. I think you'll end up driving yourself crazy trying to put it together. May as well add covered or uncovered boat for rain/sun protection, on-board head, water entry style, dive your tank/DC, afternoon dives (single or 2 tank) plus departure time, courtesy gear set-up and tank change between dives... the list will go on and on and on.

 

[gopbroek]

#1 question, do you feel comfortable and relaxed both prior to entry and after exit.

 

[flyboy08]

May as well add DM's name and overall appraisal of his/her abilities.

 

[northernone]

Make this a wiki style list and the dive community would thank you. Perhaps expanding globally

Huge project with ongoing updates needed to be meanful and relevant.

Difficult, but great idea.

Good luck,
Cameron

 

[ggunn]

Another thing to consider is the liability you take on for the effect on their businesses. What happens when a bad review or piece of erroneous information finds its way into your spreadsheet that negatively impacts an op's ability to do business, like when one of your contributors has a personal axe to grind or figures the way to make their favorite op look better is to make another one look worse?

Asking ops to pay a fee is tantamount to asking them to pay for a good review; do you want to go there? Consumer Reports doesn't accept ad money so that they don't get caught in conflicts of interest.

The best way to approach this, IMO, if you decide to proceed, is a very simple listing where you click on an op's name and you get a summary of the features they offer (big tanks, small boats, where they pick up, etc.) and a link to their website with no attempt at ranking and rating. Otherwise, you smack the tar baby.