How visitors book today
A couple on holiday nearby want a round tomorrow afternoon. They find your website, which has a green fee table from last year and a phone number. They ring during lunch and nobody answers because the pro shop is busy. They try an online tee time marketplace, which lists a nearby course. You never hear about them.
Visitors who do get through are booked by phone, their names written on the tee sheet, and they pay when they arrive. Some do not arrive. Some arrive with a different number of players. Some ask for the twilight rate at half past two.
Why online visitor booking is hard for a members' club
Members come first, and they are rightly protective of their tee times. Opening the tee sheet to the public feels risky, so many clubs keep visitors on the phone where a person can decide. The phone becomes the gatekeeper, and a busy gatekeeper turns people away without meaning to.
Green fee pricing is also complicated: weekday and weekend, summer and winter, twilight, members' guests, reciprocal clubs, junior visitors, and deals with local hotels. Putting that online means writing down rules that have lived in the pro's head.
Finally, the payment goes to the pro shop till or the club, depending on arrangements, and working out who gets what is another reason to keep things manual.
What phone-only visitor booking costs
| Issue | Result |
|---|---|
| Visitors cannot book outside opening hours | Rounds lost to courses that take online bookings |
| Pay on arrival | No-shows with nothing paid |
| Pricing applied at the counter | Inconsistent rates and arguments |
| Phone taken up by visitors | Members and counter customers wait |
| No record of visitor details | No way to invite them back |
Most clubs are not trying to fill the course with visitors. They want the times they are willing to release to be sold properly.
How we open visitor booking safely
- The club decides which times are released to visitors, by day and season, and the rules are set in the tee sheet or in our booking layer. Members' times, competitions and societies are never shown to the public.
- A booking page on your website shows available visitor times with the correct green fee for each, calculated from your price rules, including twilight and seasonal rates.
- Visitors book and pay in advance through Stripe or a similar provider. Handicap or membership evidence can be requested where your club requires it.
- The booking is written to your tee sheet, if it supports this, with the visitor's names and a paid marker, and the pro shop gets a daily visitor list.
- Visitors receive a confirmation with directions, dress code, the course status and the pro shop number, and a reminder the day before.
- Cancellations and refunds follow the terms your club sets, and payments are split or reported so the club and the professional can see their share, if that is how your arrangement works.
Many tee sheet systems include a visitor booking module. If yours does and it is simply not configured, we help set that up first.
The next visitor
The couple on holiday find your site at nine in the evening, see three afternoon times, book and pay. The pro shop sees them on the visitor list in the morning, already paid. When they arrive, the assistant welcomes them by name and hands over a scorecard. A week later they get a thank-you email with an offer to come back.
- Visitors book at any hour, only into released times
- Green fees applied consistently
- Paid in advance, with fewer no-shows
- A visitor list you can use again
Signs your visitor booking needs work
- Visitors can only book by phone.
- Green fees are paid on arrival.
- Your website green fee table is out of date.
- The rate charged depends on who is behind the counter.
- Visitors who book and do not turn up cost you a tee time.