Awkward silence
My Friends Call Me Peaches
Not mentioned is the information you get from Golfnow. You can see reviews especially if you havent played a course before. Big help in my book and super easy to book a tee time at your desk.
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I'm new to golf and use golfnow almost religiously. I live in Atlanta and basically play where I can get a good deal. I play most of my rounds <$30. I try to kick in a few dollars for range time and food/drinks.
Either golf evolves or it will be left behind. Golfnow or some similar service will always be around. This is how we consume now. Crowd sourced reviews and consolidated information for booking.
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All five of our courses have, and I am the one who does it at Painted Hills.Yeah the fee has climbed and many times it's about the same price as the course regular rate, unless you're booking one of the "hot deals".
As far as the course offering a similar price at an odd time of the day, most courses haven't gone to a dynamic pricing like that yet.
I was more interested in the business aspect of the article, than how it affects me as a golfer. I was interested to read about some courses starting to shift to dynamic pricing, which is long overdue IMO.
We price lower, higher and the same as GolfNow throughout the day. They don't get anything other than the booking fee on the times that are not the Hot Deals. On those, they get 100%.I just went and looked at a popular local course. On GolfNow, there is a 29.71 rate, but if you go to the course's web site and use whatever system they have in place there, the same time of day (+/- 20 minutes) is 28.40.
Could the course be undercutting GolfNow if, and I'm assuming here, they get all the money instead of roughly 1/2?
Not really undercutting... The course dictates the rates on GolfNow, except for a couple tee times per day which GolfNow can sell for whatever they want and keep the profit. They call it "tee time bartering" because the course is essentially trading a couple tee times a day for advertising and marketing that GolfNow brings them. I'm not sure if GolfNow gets paid anything other than their "booking fee" if it isn't one of the couple tee times that they "own". Maybe someone that runs or manages a course can pipe in on that.
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This problem is bigger than a simple solution. Too many courses charge the same price when the course is damaged as when it is at its best. One course has 18 severely damaged "Bermuda grass winter kill" greens and only 3 workers on the course and wants to charge the same prices as when it was at its best. I happen to belong there. management is complaining that there is no outside play. And blaming it on Golf Now.
In my world the management needs to see if the quality of their course matches the price they are charging. I can join the best course in the area for the same price as some of the mid level not that good courses.
I use Golf Now hot deals for my Wednesday afternoon traveling foursome. Golf Now only has one hot deal for a foursome per course - per day. And My Wednesday afternoon traveling "hot deal" foursome is usually the only foursome on the course. The weather is near 100 degrees and not many people are going to play in that heat. And owners are blaming Golf Now for no customers. Management needs to open its eyes.
I want to be known by name and treated like family, not like an inconvenience. When most if not all the employees are in a bad mood it says more about management / owners than the employees.
Some people don't understand. They expect something for nothing. Its a waste of time to talk to them.
Pace of play and Attitude towards new golfers I feel are the biggest threat to this game.
Online booking is relatively new to the golf industry, so it will take time for the old line operators to realize the benefits.
Being in revenue management for a hotel company, I can tell you the third party sites are not the biggest threat to our business, although that was said 10 to 12 years ago when they started popping up.
Once the course learns how to use them to its benefit. They will realize just the opposite. It brings them business it absolutely never would have had.
What is funny is that I can find a better price on a room going directly to the hotel website now. A lot of them have a low price guarantee if you book on their website now.
I agree with most people in that sites like Golfnow offering two discounted tee times a day can't be hurting golf courses that much. Each golf course probably has their own issue. At the course I play most one of the issues is something they allow/caused themselves. They allow members to schedule tee times three weeks in advance which which is great.....bad thing is that sometimes they don't show up....which causes a loss in revenue because there is an empty tee time that could have been sold.
A lot of courses around nothern VA make host a lot of tournaments...which seems to be good $$ makers.