What is the pier fee used for? Pier maintenance or something else, extortion? $12/week is nothing relative to your vacation price. Cozumel folks must be the most budget motivated divers on SB.
It is not about the $2 - there is so, so much more to it - all has been discussed ad nauseum on this forum.
ANOAAT Cozumel (watersports association) will be discussing this topic at our next meeting. We are 40+/- operators strong with thousands and thousands of USD impact if/when we stop servicing their property all together. We continue to fight not for our "right" to pick up our divers, but for the "rights" of our divers to have a choice of who they dive with.
Copied from my post on Cozumel 4 You:
It IS NOT about the $2 fee at all. Our position as dive shops is that if they want to charge a fee for their guests to be picked up at the hotel pier by the operator of their choice, then that is up to them and it is up to the guests whether they are ok paying that fee.
What is NOT ok is the ridiculous notion that the dive ops who are providing a
courtesy pick-up for their guests should be fee collectors for the hotel. Even more ridiculous are the hoops and hassle we were required to go through the obtain the bracelets in the first place. Myself and other dive shop owners have more important things to take care of than wasting half a day to purchase pier bracelets for a hotel. We refuse to be the middle men.
It would be a very simple solution for them to charge a resort fee to cover this like most other resorts do, or have a convenient method for guests to buy pier bracelets for the week or day at check-in or add to their bill at the end of their stay. Again, this topic has been discussed ad nauseum here and elsewhere - it's not the measley $2 - it's the inconvenience, hassle and delusion that the hotel claims it's a fee for the operators!
This is NOT simply a "cost of doing business". Over 30 dive shop OWNERS here who live on the island have been dealing with this for months. It got better and now they think we've softened or relaxed out position. WRONG, we are only getting stronger with the official formation of the watersports association.
In response to another post:
Nothing to do with contracts or dive shops trying to profit either - when dive shops pick divers up at their hotels, it is a courtesy to the guests rather than requiring them to go to the Marina - most seasoned Cozumel Divers pick their dive shop first then their hotel. If a hotel makes it difficult for the guest to choose who they want to dive with, they are more likely to change hotels than dive shops. Cozumel divers are a special breed and they have built relationships for many years with their favorite dive shops and dive masters, not with any specific hotel - especially as often as this hotel in particular changes ownership, management and staff.
