How short sighted is this?

[rudebhoy]

am away for a few days, had a look on GolfNow, local course has HotDeals for £13.99 and every other tee time is £20.

Phone up the pro shop, ask them if they can match the hot deal so they get the money, he says no. I ask what's the best price you can do, he says £25. Very strange attitude.

 

[chrisd]

I quite understand your view but I just wonder if the pro might be concerned that if Golfnow were to hear about what you've done, or maybe even put you up to it to test out the club, how much long term business they could lose

 

[rudebhoy]

I quite understand your view but I just wonder if the pro might be concerned that if Golfnow were to hear about what you've done, or maybe even put you up to it to test out the club, how much long term business they could lose

that's possible I suppose.

I regularly phone up clubs to see if i can get them to match GN prices, and this is the first time I've had an outright refusal.

anyway, phoned another local club who were happy to beat their hot deals price and give me a better tee time, so job's a good 'un.

 

[need_my_wedge]

I did exactly the same earlier in the year, the pro shop I called said they couldn't match the golfnow price and I should take it if it was cheaper.

No idea how the Golfnow deal works for a club, would imagine that there's some caveat in there that means the club can't sell the same time slots. Given that they already have a number of cheap options available, can't see them wanting to sell other times cheaper too.

Whilst I was trying to do the same as you in giving the green fee directly to the club, went with the Golfnow slot as recommended.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I did exactly the same earlier in the year, the pro shop I called said they couldn't match the golfnow price and I should take it if it was cheaper.

No idea how the Golfnow deal works for a club, would imagine that there's some caveat in there that means the club can't sell the same time slots. Given that they already have a number of cheap options available, can't see them wanting to sell other times cheaper too.

Whilst I was trying to do the same as you in giving the green fee directly to the club, went with the Golfnow slot as recommended.

My understanding, from various threads on here in the past, is that GolfNow own and run the BRS system. As part of the deal for managing a clubs BRS they are given a certain number of slots for free, the Hot Deal slots. All of the money from the Hot Deals goes to GolfNow rather than just a cut of the regular fee.

If GolfNow did a mystery shopper scenario and found a club bypassing their Hot Deal then I imagine they would be pretty unhappy and there could be repercussions for the club. Some will take the gamble, some wont.

 

[Orikoru]

Whenever I've tried to get clubs to match GolfNow prices they've always said no. Seen on this forum saying that clubs usually say yes but that was never my experience. I figured they just weren't allowed to, or weren't supposed to anyway. Nowadays post-lockdowns there's only half as many clubs on GolfNow anyway so I don't use it very much anymore.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

Integrity and honesty to a business contract they have signed upto.

Still cant get my head at some of the green fees rates, how can a golf club be run on those rates ?

 

[sunshine]

It doesn't make sense for a golf club to give away more reduced green fees at £13.99 if they can charge £25. Assume they matched the deal, they are losing £11 and then someone else will still buy the £13.99 tee time.

Maybe a couple of years ago, there was a view that £13.99 was better than £0 (ie an empty tee time), but post Covid there is more demand for golf, so they are probably working on the assumption that somebody else will pay the full rate.

 

[rudebhoy]

It doesn't make sense for a golf club to give away more reduced green fees at £13.99 if they can charge £25. Assume they matched the deal, they are losing £11 and then someone else will still buy the £13.99 tee time.

Maybe a couple of years ago, there was a view that £13.99 was better than £0 (ie an empty tee time), but post Covid there is more demand for golf, so they are probably working on the assumption that somebody else will pay the full rate.

there was loads of availability on GN, so I would assume the course was pretty quiet and they lost out on a potential £28 for the 2 of us. The course we ended up playing is of a similar standard, is 4 miles away and was really quiet.

 

[Backache]

If a club gets a reputation for dropping it's prices with a phonecall everyone might try it.
They would perhaps rather have a reputation for maintaining quality and prices rather than give out lots of cut prices and increase the wear on the course without increasing the total income.

 

[KenL]

am away for a few days, had a look on GolfNow, local course has HotDeals for £13.99 and every other tee time is £20.

Phone up the pro shop, ask them if they can match the hot deal so they get the money, he says no. I ask what's the best price you can do, he says £25. Very strange attitude.

It is so why not just book through the website?

 

[sunshine]

If a club gets a reputation for dropping it's prices with a phonecall everyone might try it.
They would perhaps rather have a reputation for maintaining quality and prices rather than give out lots of cut prices and increase the wear on the course without increasing the total income.

This.
Price is linked to perception of quality.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

there was loads of availability on GN, so I would assume the course was pretty quiet and they lost out on a potential £28 for the 2 of us. The course we ended up playing is of a similar standard, is 4 miles away and was really quiet.

Loads of availability doesn't mean they are trying to fill the slots. Members course without tee times so they list on golf now and just filter in players but members may still take those slots on a roll up basis.

Even if the course is quiet they may have finances so membership covers a high percentage and then they take a small amount of top up green fees to raise money and attract new members. They may not actually want that many visitors adding wear to the course, filling the course for members or not joining as they regularly play at that course for cheap.

It seems strange at first a pro not matching it, but actually there are quite a lot of reasons behind it why that would be the case.

 

[peld]

we have this topic every few weeks.

The "hot deal" is usually a time given to GolfNow, so its out the club's control whats charged - not that you pay in full for a hot deal. The club get use of the BRS system in return
The other tee times the club still gets the money - you usually just pay £1 booking fee.

However im not sure why he quotes £25 when you can clearly see £20 is available.

 

[garyinderry]

However im not sure why he quotes £25 when you can clearly see £20 is available.

I'm sure there is sometimes a human element where the person in the office feels like they are being taken advantage of. They then throw up a defence and quote a price like this one.

 

[rudebhoy]

Loads of availability doesn't mean they are trying to fill the slots. Members course without tee times so they list on golf now and just filter in players but members may still take those slots on a roll up basis.

Even if the course is quiet they may have finances so membership covers a high percentage and then they take a small amount of top up green fees to raise money and attract new members. They may not actually want that many visitors adding wear to the course, filling the course for members or not joining as they regularly play at that course for cheap.

It seems strange at first a pro not matching it, but actually there are quite a lot of reasons behind it why that would be the case.

Pretty sure that's not the case here. I had a chat with the pro when I last played it in the summer, and he was having a moan about him being a one man band / general dogsbody as they couldn't afford to hire anyone else.

I actually booked direct with him that time as he gave me a twilight rate which was better than GN. When I booked it over the phone, he said "if the shop is closed, it's because I'll be giving a lesson, come and find me on the practice ground". I did so, and felt a bit sorry for the kid who was having a lesson as he had to leave him and trail round to the shop with me so I could pay.