D
Deleted member 25172
Guest
I'm changing club come June. Will go from £1,450 or so to £1,950. So I'll be seeing a 35% increase on the cost.
Cost of Annual Membership at your Club
- Thread starter Swango1980
- Start date
spongebob59
Journeyman Pro
Our is 1450, including bar levy and affiliations .
If you pay before the end of the month you get additional credit on the bar card.
If you pay before the end of the month you get additional credit on the bar card.
Orikoru
Tour Winner
They did the same at my club. Additional £85 was added to my clubhouse balance.
Neilds
Assistant Pro
Our subscriptions have remained the same as last year (£1114 for 7 day) bu the County fees have increased, apparently back to the pre-covid rates. As an incentive to renew on time, there will be a draw for the following:
Free like for like membership for the following year
Free driver and fitting form the Pro shop
£200 bar credit.
Free like for like membership for the following year
Free driver and fitting form the Pro shop
£200 bar credit.
federalexpress
Member
In the end, our course opted for a 6% over CPI increase bring it to around £1300. This was rowed some way back from the original proposal of 8% over CPI for 1 year followed by 4% over CPI for a further 3 years which it seems was regarded as over aggressive and I suspect for some, unaffordable.
This is I know a long way over what the vast majority on here have faced but at least the revised lower proposal was voted for by a large majority, and thus avoided a major fracture in the club membership.
This is I know a long way over what the vast majority on here have faced but at least the revised lower proposal was voted for by a large majority, and thus avoided a major fracture in the club membership.
D-S
Well-known member
I’m really fascinated about clubs who have zero increases this year (there are a couple in the local area) - are these clubs unaffected by inflation? Have they frozen all staff wages? I assume they must be all on fixed energy tariffs for the next year and are not planning on investing in any new machinery, but they will have to buy course materials which will be at a higher cost than last year.
Or are they worried about member retention?
D-S
Well-known member
How much was the % increase in total? 6% over CPI would be around 16% wouldn’t it?
doublebogey7
Head Pro
Our's havent increased this year in recogniotion of the cost of living crisis. The last two years have seen us make good profits due to: good financial management: government assistance through the pandemic: increased memebership. Director's felt that leaving the subs as they were would give the club the best chance of retaining those memebers who joined during the pandemic, and that in any case an increase was not neccesary at this point as we have sufficient cash in the bank to cover cost increases.
federalexpress
Member
16.7% I believe. Plus roughly a quarter of the members face a staged increase above that, due to withdrawal of discounts previously available, for example a 10% discount for 2 memberships for couples. Hence mine is actually 19.2%.
It is pretty severe and I'm not over the moon about it, not least because it is pretty obvious we are an outlier on increases for the current year, but as I said, at least there was a large majority voting in favour. This sort of thing has a horrible tendency to divide a club and I feared that is where we were heading but so long as it's a one year 'correction' and they don't keep continually jacking up the price way above CPI, that has been avoided.
It is pretty severe and I'm not over the moon about it, not least because it is pretty obvious we are an outlier on increases for the current year, but as I said, at least there was a large majority voting in favour. This sort of thing has a horrible tendency to divide a club and I feared that is where we were heading but so long as it's a one year 'correction' and they don't keep continually jacking up the price way above CPI, that has been avoided.
D-S
Well-known member
I think you are still getting good value though even at the higher rate.
federalexpress
Member
How would you know?
D-S
Well-known member
I have quite a few friends at Minch and play there regularly and as I also play in Gloucestershire, I play a lot of courses in the County and I obviously know the fees paid at them. Given the year round conditioning, facilities and choice of two courses I believe it is good value for money versus others in the area.
Barking_Mad
Well-known member
Mine up £120 a year to £1200.
They're opening a new practice ground and driving range which will be worth it. Although they've hinted use won't be free for members after this year.
They're opening a new practice ground and driving range which will be worth it. Although they've hinted use won't be free for members after this year.
federalexpress
Member
This is what our board tell us but it rather misses the point. We are a members club not a business trying to optimise profit by pricing versus local clubs. What matters more is whether the cost is higher than it was in the past and whether the product is better. On the former, it now is in real terms on the latter, that is subjective, but if you know the courses, do you think they are better than 7 or 8 years ago? I don't think they are. If anything, I'd say they are maybe not quite as good as back then. I certainly don't believe that are noticeably better.
That makes it poorer value for money, does it not? What other clubs charge is immaterial to me, since I'm not a member there.
D-S
Well-known member
I did state "I believe it is good value for money versus others in the area" - not necessarily what you consider good value for you (I cannot be the judge of that), nor did I say that the value for money has changed for good or ill over the past years. You are right in that I have not seen any improvement in the courses over the last 7 or so years - I would like to think there are plans to do so.
I would assume that given the increase over CPI and a higher increase than all others in the area there must be some plans as to what they will do with the increased revenue?
sjw
Well-known member
Or have they been overcharging for the amount of work they do currently?
Imurg
The Grinder Of Pars (Semi Crocked)
It seems we've lost around 40 or 50 members this time around.
The usual "moving away" and "retiring through age" but more than normal so the cost of living is biting...
Recruitment drive forthcoming
The usual "moving away" and "retiring through age" but more than normal so the cost of living is biting...
Recruitment drive forthcoming
D-S
Well-known member
Good point.
upsidedown
Tour Winner
Ours went up by 7% , had around 30 resignations but these have been filled now so are offering "Restricted" membership , which is effectively our waiting list
federalexpress
Member
Being good value versus other courses in the area has some resonance in the context of attracting new members, who may be in a position where they are picking from several options. But not, for the reasons I say, if you already are a member and it's your local course.
You make a reasonable point, are there plans to use the extra real terms revenue to significantly improve, which would of course alter the value for money for existing members, even with higher real term subs. Not as far as I can tell. Every club has ongoing maintenance, refurb and capital costs it pays out of its operating surplus and we have those too, including one particularly big ticket item, but I don't see anything beyond that. The rationale appears to be, we need this to pretty much stand still on quality terms. Moreover, while the courses are already pretty good and arguably among the top 3 or 4 in the county (I realise that's not a very high bar), it is moot as to what one can actually do to improve them beyond a certain point. They are located on farmers fields, not links or heathland, and the soil is poor. The biggest problem is that it is over played and the fairways especially suffer accordingly. Short of a maybe a vast multi million pound makeover, I'm not sure the marginal returns would be there.
You could I suppose put money into the clubhouse etc, but actually that has already had a lot spent on it and while a ritzy clubhouse is nice, it's not really why we play golf.
