GolfNow kinda sucks

[chris975d]

I for one, would have not thought that booking (as an example you used) for an 11:50 tee time to show up at 9:00 and expect to get off. The tee time you were given (selected) was 11:50. You should expect to get off at 11:50, and if you are lucky, maybe you get off a half hour early if no one is ahead of you and you are early.

 

The sad thing about the review function is the customer is only going to include the negative information, and their side (often I expect slightly skewed facts).

 

The problem is that, society as a whole (I've discussed this in other threads) is moving more increasingly to a "me first" society. They want what they want right then, and most of the time at the expense/inconvenience of others. This type of customer is still thankfully in the minority, but I see it growing each year. And the problem with that is that (trying to give good customer service) if I work with the people in my example, and get them out early but explain to them that the HotDeal system isn't designed that way, but we appreciate their visit and will move them up to help them out TODAY, it's not viewed by them as a customer service favor, it's expected. Then it they just keep trying it each time, trying to skirt the system, and the first time you don't....they turn on you and trash you online and with any other outlet they have. It sucks.

 

To be fair, that's not just GolfNow customers...it's through all customer bases. People are getting less and less friendly and courteous every year that passes.

 

 

And the review system is crap...pure and simple. I've fought GolfNow (finally won in every case) to pull down reviews that were clearly BS and not even remotely about my course. There are no houses on my course...mention that in a review and I know it's not me. Fought for months to "prove" to GolfNow that's not my course, when my area rep knows its not. And those reviews are like the wild west. I've had more than one ex or current employee of courses tell me that their course has one/multiple GolfNow alias who's sole purpose is to get on GolfNow/Golf Advisor and post negative reviews of competing courses, and positive reviews of their facility. That's just crap. But that's in most review systems out there. Yelp is notorious for it as well. I have a friend whose family owns restaurants, and that's a pretty widely used practice in that industry as well. There is no vetting of these reviews at all. I've discussed this with GolfNow people many times, they admit it's an issue, but "want the customers to feel free to say anything they want."

[North Butte]

Ever bought a golfclub or putter and quickly end up with "buyers remorse"?

 

A lot of clubs felt they really truly NEEDED to sign a contract with GolfNow or risk being locked out of a major part if their target market. After a while they developed a sort of contract signers remorse and have come to brlieve they gave up way too much and opened themselves up to constant hassles in return for too little benefit or profit.

 

They may or may not be seeing the situation clearly but in any case they feel trapped and stuck with GolNow for at least the term of their contract. IMHO they're making the worst of an already bad situation when they take it out on some unsuspecting customer who shows up having booked a round that somehow isn't quite right from the perspective of the guy behind the pro shop counter.

 

 

 

[gripandrip]

A lot of courses resent GolfNow especially the Hot Deals. The agreement with GolfNow is typically that the revenue from the Hot Deals goes to GolfNow and their parent company The Golf Channel / NBC for payment for the "marketing" on the GolfNow website.

 

I often call and see if the pro shop will match a GolfNow price, that way I know if they will honor the voucher and I give them an opportunity to get my business directly.

 

I have done this as well with pretty good success. They would much rather be paid directly without the Golfnow fees. On a similar note. I am starting to see more and more courses going to what they are calling "Dynamic Pricing". Supposedly it is to offer different rates based on course usage to try an balance out play. Maybe this is the beginning to the demise of applications like Golfnow? I tried this for the first time this weekend... saved about 10 bucks on a round.

[SHIVAN]

I don't think what Arb8889 has much to do with the course not "accepting that for the contract price", it has to do with people trying to game the GolfNow HotDeal system and book a HotDeal time (typically a more undesirable time that the course has surrended) and then show up during a high demand time when the course shouldn't/doesn't have to give golf away. If a course operator does like I do, and only schedules tee times based on golf cart availability, then a group (any group) showing up hours early in the middle of a high utilization time demanding to go out then can mess up the whole finely tuned system. If we are discussing "contract terms", then the course really shouldn't allow golfer who, by "contract" (your words) doesn't have a tee time until 11:50 to go out at 9:00-9:30. The "contract" needs to be upheld both ways.

 

Then don't allow them to go out early. Pretty simple stuff. Request that Golfnow allow a response from the course manager to feedback posts. If they won't, hire a CS major and program your own.

[chris975d]

I don't think what Arb8889 has much to do with the course not "accepting that for the contract price", it has to do with people trying to game the GolfNow HotDeal system and book a HotDeal time (typically a more undesirable time that the course has surrended) and then show up during a high demand time when the course shouldn't/doesn't have to give golf away. If a course operator does like I do, and only schedules tee times based on golf cart availability, then a group (any group) showing up hours early in the middle of a high utilization time demanding to go out then can mess up the whole finely tuned system. If we are discussing "contract terms", then the course really shouldn't allow golfer who, by "contract" (your words) doesn't have a tee time until 11:50 to go out at 9:00-9:30. The "contract" needs to be upheld both ways.

 

Then don't allow them to go out early. Pretty simple stuff. Request that Golfnow allow a response from the course manager to feedback posts. If they won't, hire a CS major and program your own.

 

Actually starting to do something similar to this. I've experimented and cut back drastically my reliance and use of GolfNow since this past Fall. Been pushing people back to our more traditional booking channels and seeing an increase in rounds, revenue, and revenue per round by a good bit. Working currently on getting a booking engine on our website that we control fully, not GolfNow's product. More and more courses in my area are starting to push back against GolfNow, and offer their own booking software or partner with a different vendor. One very negative thing is that Golfnow's customer support from a course operator's standpoint is less than stellar...that's pretty much universally accepted in the golf course industry. Problem with that is they have basically been "the only game in town" in the 3rd party tee time booking realm for a long time. So they've rested on their laurels a bit and been a bit of a bully (not listening to course owner input) and thinking that they'd always have the courses by the short and curlies, while technology and other companies have caught up with them. It's just a bit of an initial hassle to move away after a course has let GolfNow and its products permeate into every aspect of the course's operations...tee sheet software, point of sale software, website hosting, after hours call center, etc. But more courses are making a move away.

[Noles]

....Also people will book hot deals at 60% off, show up two hours early and expect to get out whenever they want, trying to circumvent paying the normal GN rate. As a golf course staff member this is extremely frustrating especially when they will then give you a review saying pro shop guy was a jerk, because they wanted to save $30 bucks. GN is what it is its both good and bad but customers must understand that staff isn't just frustrated with that particular customer but all the past experiences built up.

 

Glad you bring this up. The part I bolded in your reply is a fairly big issue, and a frequent occurrence. As a course operator, the only control/input we have into the HotDeals times is the actual tee time itself. To minimize its impact on revenue (if you're smart) you give times that don't usually have a high utilization rate because they are at more undesirable times. This is really the only way to use the trade times/HotDeals times effectively...to put bodies in times that normally don't get used.

 

But when I set a HotDeal to 11:50 (undesirable tee time because I have a price break at 12:00...no one is going to book that time when in 10 minutes they can pay a lower rate) and people book that through GolfNow, but show up at 9:00am (no joke, they will show up this early sometimes) during my peak/slammed time and demand they get on right then, it does leave a bad taste in your mouth toward GolfNow customers. And like you said, if I/we stick to our guns and say you have wait until your tee time, then we get a bad review on GolfNow or Golf Advisor (GolfNow operates Golf Advisor), I'm called all sorts of names in that review, and it's just not a good thing overall.

 

When it comes to courses having a negative attitude toward GolfNow, in all my discussions with fellow course operators, it usually comes back to those reviews. A lot of GolfNow users know they have the "power of the review", and they will use that to their advantage and even point blank threaten you with it. I've had that happen many times when I wouldn't hang the moon and give them things/privileges that I don't give even my normal customers. Trust me...this sucks. Those reviews can hurt, and people can write anything they want in them with no recourse, and the kicker is that you don't even have to play a round at the course through the GolfNow system to write a review there or Golf Advisor. Very frustrating. The review system is broken and can be easily abused.

Understandable that this frustrates you. But if a GN user shows up properly attired, at the appropriate time, should they be given an attitude because of the actions of the others?

[Matt J]

I don't think what Arb8889 has much to do with the course not "accepting that for the contract price", it has to do with people trying to game the GolfNow HotDeal system and book a HotDeal time (typically a more undesirable time that the course has surrended) and then show up during a high demand time when the course shouldn't/doesn't have to give golf away. If a course operator does like I do, and only schedules tee times based on golf cart availability, then a group (any group) showing up hours early in the middle of a high utilization time demanding to go out then can mess up the whole finely tuned system. If we are discussing "contract terms", then the course really shouldn't allow golfer who, by "contract" (your words) doesn't have a tee time until 11:50 to go out at 9:00-9:30. The "contract" needs to be upheld both ways.

 

Then don't allow them to go out early. Pretty simple stuff. Request that Golfnow allow a response from the course manager to feedback posts. If they won't, hire a CS major and program your own.

 

Actually starting to do something similar to this. I've experimented and cut back drastically my reliance and use of GolfNow since this past Fall. Been pushing people back to our more traditional booking channels and seeing an increase in rounds, revenue, and revenue per round by a good bit. Working currently on getting a booking engine on our website that we control fully, not GolfNow's product. More and more courses in my area are starting to push back against GolfNow, and offer their own booking software or partner with a different vendor. One very negative thing is that Golfnow's customer support from a course operator's standpoint is less than stellar...that's pretty much universally accepted in the golf course industry. Problem with that is they have basically been "the only game in town" in the 3rd party tee time booking realm for a long time. So they've rested on their laurels a bit and been a bit of a bully (not listening to course owner input) and thinking that they'd always have the courses by the short and curlies, while technology and other companies have caught up with them. It's just a bit of an initial hassle to move away after a course has let GolfNow and its products permeate into every aspect of the course's operations...tee sheet software, point of sale software, website hosting, after hours call center, etc. But more courses are making a move away.

 

Very smart of you. I think a little front end capital investment into an independent booking system and your own marketing plan will save you money, result in better exposure, better customer service, and more control of your future. The club I play at uses EZ Links. I think it's part of TeeOff and is affiliated with the PGA Tour. I know that several courses in our market are run by multi-state management groups and they all use EZ Links. Excuse me, one actually has a different interface that was built by Cybergolf.

 

Perhaps you could buy yourself some time to make the switch by negotiating fewer "HotDeals" tee times with GN for the immediate future.

 

Best of luck!

[chris975d]

....Also people will book hot deals at 60% off, show up two hours early and expect to get out whenever they want, trying to circumvent paying the normal GN rate. As a golf course staff member this is extremely frustrating especially when they will then give you a review saying pro shop guy was a jerk, because they wanted to save $30 bucks. GN is what it is its both good and bad but customers must understand that staff isn't just frustrated with that particular customer but all the past experiences built up.

 

Glad you bring this up. The part I bolded in your reply is a fairly big issue, and a frequent occurrence. As a course operator, the only control/input we have into the HotDeals times is the actual tee time itself. To minimize its impact on revenue (if you're smart) you give times that don't usually have a high utilization rate because they are at more undesirable times. This is really the only way to use the trade times/HotDeals times effectively...to put bodies in times that normally don't get used.

 

But when I set a HotDeal to 11:50 (undesirable tee time because I have a price break at 12:00...no one is going to book that time when in 10 minutes they can pay a lower rate) and people book that through GolfNow, but show up at 9:00am (no joke, they will show up this early sometimes) during my peak/slammed time and demand they get on right then, it does leave a bad taste in your mouth toward GolfNow customers. And like you said, if I/we stick to our guns and say you have wait until your tee time, then we get a bad review on GolfNow or Golf Advisor (GolfNow operates Golf Advisor), I'm called all sorts of names in that review, and it's just not a good thing overall.

 

When it comes to courses having a negative attitude toward GolfNow, in all my discussions with fellow course operators, it usually comes back to those reviews. A lot of GolfNow users know they have the "power of the review", and they will use that to their advantage and even point blank threaten you with it. I've had that happen many times when I wouldn't hang the moon and give them things/privileges that I don't give even my normal customers. Trust me...this sucks. Those reviews can hurt, and people can write anything they want in them with no recourse, and the kicker is that you don't even have to play a round at the course through the GolfNow system to write a review there or Golf Advisor. Very frustrating. The review system is broken and can be easily abused.

Understandable that this frustrates you. But if a GN user shows up properly attired, at the appropriate time, should they be given an attitude because of the actions of the others?

 

No, and I haven't said they should be or are given attitude at my facility. I've mentioned more than once that I stress good customer service. Where do you see me saying others wise?

[chris975d]

I don't think what Arb8889 has much to do with the course not "accepting that for the contract price", it has to do with people trying to game the GolfNow HotDeal system and book a HotDeal time (typically a more undesirable time that the course has surrended) and then show up during a high demand time when the course shouldn't/doesn't have to give golf away. If a course operator does like I do, and only schedules tee times based on golf cart availability, then a group (any group) showing up hours early in the middle of a high utilization time demanding to go out then can mess up the whole finely tuned system. If we are discussing "contract terms", then the course really shouldn't allow golfer who, by "contract" (your words) doesn't have a tee time until 11:50 to go out at 9:00-9:30. The "contract" needs to be upheld both ways.

 

Then don't allow them to go out early. Pretty simple stuff. Request that Golfnow allow a response from the course manager to feedback posts. If they won't, hire a CS major and program your own.

 

Actually starting to do something similar to this. I've experimented and cut back drastically my reliance and use of GolfNow since this past Fall. Been pushing people back to our more traditional booking channels and seeing an increase in rounds, revenue, and revenue per round by a good bit. Working currently on getting a booking engine on our website that we control fully, not GolfNow's product. More and more courses in my area are starting to push back against GolfNow, and offer their own booking software or partner with a different vendor. One very negative thing is that Golfnow's customer support from a course operator's standpoint is less than stellar...that's pretty much universally accepted in the golf course industry. Problem with that is they have basically been "the only game in town" in the 3rd party tee time booking realm for a long time. So they've rested on their laurels a bit and been a bit of a bully (not listening to course owner input) and thinking that they'd always have the courses by the short and curlies, while technology and other companies have caught up with them. It's just a bit of an initial hassle to move away after a course has let GolfNow and its products permeate into every aspect of the course's operations...tee sheet software, point of sale software, website hosting, after hours call center, etc. But more courses are making a move away.

 

Very smart of you. I think a little front end capital investment into an independent booking system and your own marketing plan will save you money, result in better exposure, better customer service, and more control of your future. The club I play at uses EZ Links. I think it's part of TeeOff and is affiliated with the PGA Tour. I know that several courses in our market are run by multi-state management groups and they all use EZ Links. Excuse me, one actually has a different interface that was built by Cybergolf.

 

Perhaps you could buy yourself some time to make the switch by negotiating fewer "HotDeals" tee times with GN for the immediate future.

 

Best of luck!

 

EZLinks is a good competitor in the "total package" arena now (course point of sale, tee sheet, and online booking engine software) now. They've come a long way in the past 6-8 years. I see more and more courses going with their all inclusive package over GolfNow's offerings.

[Noles]

....Also people will book hot deals at 60% off, show up two hours early and expect to get out whenever they want, trying to circumvent paying the normal GN rate. As a golf course staff member this is extremely frustrating especially when they will then give you a review saying pro shop guy was a jerk, because they wanted to save $30 bucks. GN is what it is its both good and bad but customers must understand that staff isn't just frustrated with that particular customer but all the past experiences built up.

 

Glad you bring this up. The part I bolded in your reply is a fairly big issue, and a frequent occurrence. As a course operator, the only control/input we have into the HotDeals times is the actual tee time itself. To minimize its impact on revenue (if you're smart) you give times that don't usually have a high utilization rate because they are at more undesirable times. This is really the only way to use the trade times/HotDeals times effectively...to put bodies in times that normally don't get used.

 

But when I set a HotDeal to 11:50 (undesirable tee time because I have a price break at 12:00...no one is going to book that time when in 10 minutes they can pay a lower rate) and people book that through GolfNow, but show up at 9:00am (no joke, they will show up this early sometimes) during my peak/slammed time and demand they get on right then, it does leave a bad taste in your mouth toward GolfNow customers. And like you said, if I/we stick to our guns and say you have wait until your tee time, then we get a bad review on GolfNow or Golf Advisor (GolfNow operates Golf Advisor), I'm called all sorts of names in that review, and it's just not a good thing overall.

 

When it comes to courses having a negative attitude toward GolfNow, in all my discussions with fellow course operators, it usually comes back to those reviews. A lot of GolfNow users know they have the "power of the review", and they will use that to their advantage and even point blank threaten you with it. I've had that happen many times when I wouldn't hang the moon and give them things/privileges that I don't give even my normal customers. Trust me...this sucks. Those reviews can hurt, and people can write anything they want in them with no recourse, and the kicker is that you don't even have to play a round at the course through the GolfNow system to write a review there or Golf Advisor. Very frustrating. The review system is broken and can be easily abused.

Understandable that this frustrates you. But if a GN user shows up properly attired, at the appropriate time, should they be given an attitude because of the actions of the others?

 

No, and I haven't said they should be or are given attitude at my facility. I've mentioned more than once that I stress good customer service. Where do you see me saying others wise?

I didn't mean to imply that you did. In fact the opposite. SInce others had said that they were getting an attitude at other clubs just for being a Golf Now customer, I just wanted you to agree that this should not be the case.

[swish16]

The majority of the mid to high level public courses in the Philadelphia area have dumped GolfNow. Probably because it kind of sucks.

 

I haven't seen that at all in the Cleveland/ Akron area. Most public courses worth playing in the area are on GolfNow. There's only a couple really nice-to-decent within an hour of me that aren't on GolfNow, and of those that aren't the vast majority are on Golf18Network or TeeOff. I fully acknowledge that this bears no relevance to what's going on in Philly.

 

 

I've seen with courses in the akron/canton area that the listed prices on golfnow with the fee added will actually be more expensive than if you call and book through the shop. But that was also during early season before summer pricing went into effect. I will NEVER book through golf18network again though i've used GN for 3 years now and never had a problem but i booked 1 time through golf18network and get an email a week later that my card information was comprised then a call a few days later from my bank questioning transactions and proving that indeed my card information had been stolen!

 

Any more unless i'm booking a hot deal i will call the course and ask what their current rates are and as long as they're within a few dollars i'll usually just book through the course instead of using GN say the course wants 31$ for a round and GN has it listed for 27 when you add the fee you're looking at a whole 1$ savings and it's really just not worth the stink eye you get from the guy in the club house for the 1$ savings. I do love golf now though for the fact that it has opened me up to just how many courses are in my area and given me a ton of chances to play courses i never would have been able to play without using GN

[pierso2]

From the few experiences I've had using GN, I've never had a problem really...Although course selection is very limited and prices aren't amazing, it's still easier than calling up every course that shows up on google and trying to figure out what their availability is.