OPINION | GREEN FEES
How golf clubs can maximise their green fee potential
Chris Knight, director of Revenue Club, reveals some key pointers that will help maximise visitor revenue
IT’S an interesting time for green fees with a narrative of increasing prices across the board since Covid and a buoyant international market.
Here are three key observations I have made as someone working in this area in recent months.
There is a north-south divide
What’s incredibly interesting to me is the difference between the North and South – golf clubs in or near the M25 are in a different world compared to anything above Birmingham, especially in more rural areas.
The revenue opportunity in the South is far greater, particularly through the green fee channel when making the comparison to the costs of operating a golf club, which remain broadly static regardless of region. This is particularly true if the club owns the land or are on a long lease.
What surprises me the most is the impact I can have with the work I do through dynamic pricing and marketing. It’s almost threefold in the South versus the North and things happen much faster in the South. If I turn on a Google ads campaign and I tweak the price, there’s just more eyeballs.
These differences are bought to life by direct comparisons in green fees between similar clubs. For instance, in July a club in the South I work with generated £63k showing a year-on-year growth of 69% (£26k) compared with a similar club in the North which generated £33k showing a YoY growth of 76% (£14k). I started working with both clubs at a similar point in May 2023, and although the percentage increases are similar the revenue impact is greater in the South.
Online booking portals are not always fit for purpose
The technology we have in the golf industry is not comparable to other industries. A large hotel chain will have hundreds of people doing revenue management and use a bunch of powerful systems which are AI powered. I do appreciate the revenue in hotels is greater so the software that supports that tends to be more expensive and more capable. The golf industry is starting to catch-up but still has a way to go.
For example, I’d highlight an e-commerce feature called “abandoned checkout”. I’m sure everyone has done this. You’ve gone on to a website, you’ve added something to your basket, and then – for whatever reason – don’t buy it. The system is then able to email you and say, ‘you’ve left whatever it is’.
“There is more opportunity to increase your green fee revenue in the South and the impact of best practice in the green fee arena has a much greater impact when compared to the north.”
Why don’t we do that as an industry? The tech isn’t there yet and is that because golf clubs aren’t willing to pay more for their systems? I don’t have the answer.
In pretty much every instance where I’ve started working with a golf club, I have optimised their tee booking journey – whether that’s reducing the number of clicks to get to it, improving the appearance, making sure it’s mobile optimised – take your pick.
Every single golf club could likely improve their customer online booking journey in some way with the existing systems they have. I’d recommend they take the virtual visitor journey to booking a tee time. The average club that I work with sees around 1,400 users visit their booking engine every month - with the conversion of lookers to bookers sitting at 10%.
Member guest fees really impact on revenue
Depending on the type of golf club, member guest income – as total green fee revenue – can be anywhere up to 25 or even 30 per cent of its income from green fees. Member guest is often an afterthought. Some clubs say: ‘We’ll give our members five free vouchers this year to bring a guest’.
When I hear that, I generally ask them to re-consider their position by asking them to quantify how much income they’ve brought in through the member guest channel and therefore how much they would potentially be giving away.
Without that prompt, it just doesn’t get the airtime. Reviewing our data, the average club generates between 10 to 15 per cent of its green fee income from member guest fees which amounts to £34,000. But how many clubs know that?
Revenue Club is a business growth agency for the golf industry, which aims to grow visitor income through creating and implementing dynamic pricing strategies and combining them with digital marketing and reporting. They work with some 200 courses across the United Kingdom – from high-end venues to clubs whose green fees don’t top £20.
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