[Mark Davies]

Sometimes these things are easier said than done, especially on the most expensive trips which carry the highest risk for the organiser.

For instance, I put my name down for a week long Scapa trip only to find the organiser pulled out of it! I then found I had to take over the trip if I wanted to save my summer holiday. A number of other people pulled out and then we found ourselves struggling to keep the trip alive. The cost of the trip was the best part of £300 each and anyone who has ever organised a trip knows just how difficult it is to get that kind of money out of people in one go. In order to get enough people to sign up for the trip and keep it going I simply wasn't in a position to demand the full sum and could only ask for deposits.

You're left taking a risk - and now with just over a month to go two people have pulled out. I'd hope they will pay for their spots if they can't be filled, but the threat of 'naming-and-shaming' is far from any guarantee of payment and I could easily be left £450 out of pocket. The fact that someone may no longer be welcome on future trips hardly gets you your money!

I've organised quite a few trips over the years and so far have suffered no losses - YD is in general a very good bunch. However, there are many trips being posted and despite the increasing membership it's actually getting harder to fill trips and at times in order to fill your boat you are accepting people on a trip that you don't know from Adam - so you are taking a financial risk. As YD gets bigger and bigger this becomes an increasing problem. YD thrives and survives on the fact that we dive together and know each other and simply wouldn't be the place it is if we didn't organise trips, but with the risks increasing are people simply going to stop doing it?

I've often wondered whether there was scope for the site to offer some form of 'insurance' for people organising trips through the site to cover them for the no-shows.