£3.6 Million tee times sold through BRS Golf in 2010
The year 2010 has seen online tee time bookings worth more than £3.6m for the 500 golf clubs that use their BRS system, writes Charles de Haan, an increase of just over £1.5m on 2009. 82% of those tee times booked were made by visitors going directly to the clubs’ websites and paying by credit card. The remaining 18% of online bookings came from the third party marketing channels like Teeofftimes.co.uk (owned by Golfbreaks.com) and Teetimes.co.uk (owned by Online Tee Times).
Clubs need online tee booking systems on their websites
According to Brian Smith, Director, the message for golf clubs is very clear: “If you really want to maximise your green fee income, a club needs to get an online tee time booking system on the club website. But of course it’s not quite that simple: to make online tee time booking really work, clubs need a good website allied to a comprehensive and flexible tee time management system that becomes an integral part of a club’s day-to-day operation.
“The booking system should also enable a club to build a marketing database, use reports to manage their time sheets to maximise yield, and to do their own marketing via e-mail. Over the last 6 years, we have focused on delivering a system that allows clubs to achieve these fundamental requirements.”
Integration with 3rd party marketing channels
Brian continues: “3rd party marketing channels are definitely a good option with which to augment revenue, especially with the emergence of companies like Teeofftimes.co.uk (owned by Golfbreaks.com), Teetimes.co.uk (owned by Online Tee Times) and recently GolfNow (owned by the Golf Channel). But you need to be prepared to offer discounted rates to drive volume. We strongly recommend that clubs speak to these companies to see what they can offer, especially as the BRS system is fully integrated with all of these companies.”
The average value of online tee time bookings per club through BRS in 2010 was £13,000, and as Brian points out, the club gets all the money: “BRS Golf doesn’t take any commission on any of the bookings made directly through their system.”
The BRS system is the result of 6 years’ of development with the input of 500 clubs, as Brian explains: “We have worked with all sorts of clubs from private members clubs, pay and play clubs and resort clubs. The success of the system is down to ease of use, good support, flexibility, robust software and listening to our customers. That’s why BRS Golf has become the market leader and a sound investment for any club. A customer retention rate of 99% over 6 years confirms this.”
More findings that prove BRS Golf’s online point
The results of the analysis of BRS Golf’s sales and booking results for 2010 also reveal a number of other highly significant findings:
- Golf clubs should build their own visitors’ email database and do as much of their own marketing as possible. Over 160,000 marketing e-mails were sent throughout 2010 by the BRS clubs every week, underlining how much clubs with BRS are using this particular feature of the system.
- Online is fast becoming the way visitors book tee times. Bookings through the major marketing channels - primarily Teeofftimes.co.uk and Online Tee Times - with clubs that have the BRS system, grew by 2-3 times in 2010. Every week, over 500,000 marketing e-mails are sent by the 3rd party marketing channels to their various golfer databases, which is helping push thousands of visitors to those golf clubs that want to sell their available tee times.
- Members like going online to book both casual and competition tee times. Over 3.9 million members’ bookings were made this way in 2010 at those clubs with the BRS system.
- BRS Golf customers have access to the largest network of marketing channels and affiliate databases in the UK, and no other tee sheet company offers anything like this level of marketing exposure.