Silly question, any idea why he didn't just raise the daily rate? If he had bumped it up a few dollars, most here wouldn't have had a problem, and he would have increased his income.
Particularly if he made it understood that it was to cover the winter expenses.
Question, I read in the thread that he doesn't charge for students and instructors in class. The instructors I knew about, but not the students. And not charging instructors is probably a good business decision, it lowers thier costs and encourages them to come back. Fact is for both my classes basic and rescue I paid to dive, didn't think anything of it. Come to think of it the classes from our shop have all paid to dive.
I would suggest to Mike that he should charge students, most don't have a problem with it, any more than going out on a boat to do an open water and having to pay for it. Lets face it $20 plus parking is actually pretty cheap for a weekend considering what the class cost, and possibly hotel. That might also help his income issues without causing a rucus and alienating a bunch of customers.
