I bought a hot tub a month ago and just finished building a cedar deck around 3 sides of it. I also asked on this forum for opinions because couldn't get a straight answer from the dealer. He just kept saying would be fine as long as I kept the main side accessable because "these hot tubs really don't leak". Of course he would say that
. well anyway, I ended up building it around three sides and leaving the main panel side open. It is "sunk" into the deck with about 10 inches sticking out, which makes it easy to get into and I can still use the "cover lifter 3". I like it a lot and it looks good. You could also go with it in a corner of the deck so you could have 2 sides free, Worst case senerio they could slide it out if any of the other sides need to be worked on.
Don't you want to get the hot tub first and then worry about the deck? At least then you would have a nice comfy hot tub to sit in while your saving up money for the deck!