Public Tee time bookings

[Fozzy325]

I would like your opinion on some thing that is urking me.

 

I live in a "city" that has several city owned golf courses. All of these courses are bookable via the Internet / phone or in person.

 

On nearly every occasion I have just turned up and walked on due to people not showing or cancelling at the last moment.

 

I feel this is not fair to people who could fill the space and play. I also feel that it's unfair to the city and it's staff.

 

Yesterday I was there waiting for a spot to open and I was talking to the staff and apparently there are around 50 people or groups of people who cancel each day. That is 2000 a day in lost revenue. 14000 per week.

 

I asked if they had a suggestion box.

I would have suggested that all bookings must be paid for in advance via credit or prepaid accounts/golf card upto a maximum of 4 weeks.

If you cancel upto a week before then ok but between a week and the day you want to play then you lose your payment. And if your not there 1hr before tee off you lose your spot and funds.

 

However if you book on the fourth/third week prior you get a discount on tee times and cart.

Every day it gets closer to the date it gets more expensive.

 

This us how economy airlines work and think it's a great way saving money for the golfers and keeping golf courses working to their optimum.

 

[Roody]

I disagree. I don't normally bail on tee times, but the only time I think it's justified for a golf course to take your credit card to hold the reservation is if you're booking weeks or months in advance, and/or for larger groups.

[scgamecock]

An hour before the tee time you lose your money? Are you serious?

[SixtySomePing]

Give me your credit card # and I'll book it for you

[MidwestGolfBum]

[quote name='scgamecock' timestamp='1438690389' post='12074882']
An hour before the tee time you lose your money? Are you serious?
[/quote]

I was sort of okay with what you were saying until that part. There are plenty of times where I show up to the course and run to the first tee but still make my time.

I can see how as a single who basically waits for a spot to open up at the course that's something that is very easy to suggest. I don't always have the time to hang out and wait to see what might show up at the course. Granted, I belong to a private club so I don't really have these kinds of issues.

[ZBUCK]

Life happens and I'll be damned if a course is going to keep my money because I didn't foresee getting a flat tire on the way to the course (or any other situation)...

[Fozzy325]

OK so how long does it take you to change in to your golfing stuff. If you come directly from work etc. It's OK if you com prepared but most people I see have cage into there golf clothing when coming from work.
Take bag out
Sign in
Get cart if needed
Find your group
Get shoes on
Get balls and glove
Introduce your self
Warm up.
Practice putt if needed

This is about 20 min

This would give the club 10 min to find a replacement if you drop out.

If you ran a business like a doctors or dentist and you regularly had people dropping out. 1. You lose money 2. Others who need the service have to wait longer. This is why they charge a 50 dollar cancellation or missed appointment fee.

I agree you could and should be able to appeal the action. But it's like anything that you need to book in advance you should pay for your lack of commitment.

[golfandfishing]

Why do I have to be there an hour early? I've been playing for 25 years- 20 or so balls to warm up and 5 minutes of putting and I'm ready to roll. I'm not there to learn something before a round.

10:00 tee time, arriving at 9:30 is loads of time to check in, pay and be ready for me. You want an hour? Go for it, no problem.

[Fozzy325]

[quote name='comeffex' timestamp='1438694278' post='12075230']
Life happens and I'll be damned if a course is going to keep my money because I didn't foresee getting a flat tire on the way to the course (or any other situation)...
[/quote]

Well this is the choice of going public or private And I would say there should be an appeal process.
Private courses can do what they want as you pay a membership fee and cab do what you want.

However with a public course there has to be accountability. May be you get 3 strikes in a year then you get banned for the year. Doesn't mean you can't play just means you can't book a game.

[Fozzy325]

[quote name='golfandfishing' timestamp='1438694901' post='12075290']
Why do I have to be there an hour early? I've been playing for 25 years- 20 or so balls to warm up and 5 minutes of putting and I'm ready to roll. I'm not there to learn something before a round.

10:00 tee time, arriving at 9:30 is loads of time to check in, pay and be ready for me. You want an hour? Go for it, no problem.
[/quote]
I replied to this question above.

So do you check in before your 20 balls putting etc or after.
I think before, so yea 30 min is good enough.

20 balls. Under 1 min per ball collecting balls setting up and moving to the putting green in 20 min. Wow that's quick

[Roody]

[quote name='Fozzy325' timestamp='1438694803' post='12075278']
OK so how long does it take you to change in to your golfing stuff.....
[/quote]
The risk the golf course takes that someone doesn't show up for their tee time is part of the cost of doing business. Restaurants assume the same risk.

Nothing would piss me off more if I book a tee time for a foursome, have to give them my credit card number, one of my jack-hole friends decides at the last minute he can't make it, and now I'm on the hook for his portion. That'd set my mood for the round into a real good state.

[Ferguson]

Re: Revenue
They had 14K in potential sales, but they never had the 14K booked, so there is no lost revenue.
It’s lost opportunity.

Re: Prepay for Tee Times
I could understand your prepay idea for an exclusive semi-private club, but a public track?
C’mon dude, you can’t be serious.

Re: Onus should be on the Golf Course
Maybe the golf staff should get off their lazy cans and call each tee time the day prior and confirm? Then, if a cancellation occurs, send an email or text alert to the registered patrons saying “11:30 just opened on 8/6/2015, please call if you’d like to book."

[Fozzy325]

There I got one of the answers I was looking for.
So knowing your going to lose say 14000 a week we now increase the green fee by 20 dollars per green fee.
Now how fair is that. For the regular player or players??

This why I say booking In advance would save money.

[Fozzy325]

[quote name='Ferguson' timestamp='1438695820' post='12075394']
Re: Revenue
They had 14K in potential sales, but they never had the 14K booked, so there is no lost revenue.
It’s lost opportunity.

Re: Prepay for Tee Times
I could understand your prepay idea for an exclusive semi-private club, but a public track?
C’mon dude, you can’t be serious.

Re: Onus should be on the Golf Course
Maybe the golf staff should get off their lazy cans and call each tee time the day prior and confirm? Then, if a cancellation occurs, send an email or text alert to the registered patrons saying “11:30 just opened on 8/6/2015, please call if you’d like to book."
[/quote]
14k of bookings were already booked but people didn't turn up.

I agree with the course should send a confirmation by email and text of booking 48 hrs before. If no reply by the registered golfer/s 24hr before then your tee time is canceled.

[2bGood]

Some course are taking an advanced booking fee - for city owned course this is usually nominal like $5-$10 per booking. It is one way to make sure you are serous.

The simple answer is Economics though. If your City course could do what you are suggesting they would do it as some course do charge you at the time of booking with no refunds. But the course that do this have enough demand that people are willing to pay up front for time. Your City course do not.

[Tcann32]

The way Golf Now runs it's "hot deals" could be run with in this sense. If the course offered a discount for pre-payed tee times, they could eliminate many of these issues, and potentially even grow their business, and people would do their best to make it to their tee times.

I do think it's b.s. that people call around and make a couple different tee times just to reserve a spot and never show up. Being a regular face at the local track I get to get out as a single quite often because of no shows and things of that nature, but I don't like seeing the frustration in the head pro's face when it happens.

Why any course wouldn't keep track of the people who book times seems weird to me. Keep track of people who book the times, keep track of no-shows, three strikes and you have to pre-pay for rounds now.

[Joe Schmoe]

[quote name='Fozzy325' timestamp='1438689211' post='12074804'] And if your not there 1hr before tee off you lose your spot and funds. [/quote]

No No No. You can't take away the spot and the money. One or the other but not both. So far as to say if you're taking my money, I should be allowed to show up 3 hours late and jump into my spot on #14 if I want. I've paid for it, so what if I skip the first 3/4th of the round.


P.S. I don't think I've ever bailed on a tee time, nor been too late to tee off in my slot.

[GWD]

Be aware that golf courses must deal with wankers, hosers, jerk-offs, or whatever, that call up an make tee times and don't even play golf. Then his/her buddy calls and schedules another and so on. They think it is funny. Like those that call up and say, "Is your refrigerator running? Then you'd better go catch it. HA HA" (not). The only way to counter it is to require registration and a valid credit card in the registered name.

Here in Northern CA almost every course requires a credit cart and/or registration. The policy is usually for a 24 hour cancellation time. After that there is a fee, sometimes not the full amount of a green fee.

As a single, usually I am denied the opportunity to make a tee time or even join another group online or by phone. It is just a show up and hope situation. So my tendency is to appear with the morning sun.

The only other recourse is to check the tee times online and try to show up when nobody is scheduled.

[highergr0und]

I'd try to figure out why on earth 50 tee times are being canceled each day. At the very least I'd use caller ID and begin to block repeat offenders.

I'd be fine with the credit card reservation. Charge them the greens fees but not cart fees if they no show.

[MountainKing]

Out here there's various policies but a pretty common one is they require a credit card for a weekend tee time. If you cancel or no show and they can't fill your time some of the courses will ding your card, some won't but when they take your card and you don't know you tend to keep track of it. Weekdays they generally don't take anything, although I've noticed more than a few courses changing that policy as well. I don't totally blame them, that's how they make their money and a no show means they are out that money unless they have singles waiting around to take a slot.

[Argonne69]

Curious, OP, do theses courses allow singles to book ahead of time, either online or by calling the pro shop?

[seajohn]

[quote name='Roody' timestamp='1438690332' post='12074876']
I disagree. I don't normally bail on tee times, but the only time I think it's justified for a golf course to take your credit card to hold the reservation is if you're booking weeks or months in advance, and/or for larger groups.
[/quote]

If someone bails on a "free" tee time reservation, the club will lose the green fees for that day. People who were planning to play will call up or check the internet and find that the tee times they were looking at are booked, and then go find a tee time at another course. That potential business is lost for the day. Less revenue for the course eventually means less course maintenance, fewer staff, deferred clubhouse repairs, carts needing maintenance, etc so a poorer golfing experience for everybody else.

What difference does it make if it is one group making 10 tee time reservations, or 10 groups making 1 reservation each? I also don't understand why you think it makes a difference if you make a reservation months in advance and then don't show up the day of the tee times instead of making the reservation a few days or a week in advance.

[seajohn]

[quote name='comeffex' timestamp='1438694278' post='12075230']
Life happens and I'll be damned if a course is going to keep my money because I didn't foresee getting a flat tire on the way to the course (or any other situation)...
[/quote]

Not sure if you are talking about the proposed 1 hour rule which would be silly if you've already paid for your tee time. If you're talking about having to prepay for a tee time, do you [u][b]"let"[/b][/u] the people running a concert or ball game keep your money because you missed a game, where you already bought tickets, because of unforeseen problems getting to the venue? Should they give you a refund because you missed the concert or game?

[crich88848]

I've never bailed on a tee time. Given that, I could understand a small nominal fee for missing a tee time. Some courses in my area do this. I however would not go for a requirement of showing up an hour early. As long as I am on the tee and ready to go at my tee time, there is no issue. Sometimes I show up at the course an hour early, sometimes I am running to the clubhouse. We all have lives, and time is not an abundant resource for us all. An 18 hole round at my local muni on a weekend already averages around 5 hours, now you want to take up 6 hours of my time.

[seajohn]

[quote name='GWD' timestamp='1438712357' post='12077298']
As a single, usually I am denied the opportunity to make a tee time or even join another group online or by phone. It is just a show up and hope situation. So my tendency is to appear with the morning sun.

The only other recourse is to check the tee times online and try to show up when nobody is scheduled.
[/quote]

GolfNow.com has a lot of deals where you can make a reservation for 1 player but they don't always cover all the course in the area.

[seajohn]

[quote name='Roody' timestamp='1438695456' post='12075350']
Nothing would piss me off more if I book a tee time for a foursome, have to give them my credit card number, one of my jack-hole friends decides at the last minute he can't make it, and now I'm on the hook for his portion. That'd set my mood for the round into a real good state.
[/quote]

If he's a friend, he would pay for his own problem. If he doesn't pay, you need to get a better class of friend. But since you are a threesome, maybe you should get a refund for the 4th since the course could fill in with a single if there are any around. Same thing they would do if you originally booked as a 3 some.

[knock it close]

The course should just take cc# and outline there cancelation policy when you are booking the time. You don't even have to enforce the policy, but if people know you have one and they have your cc on file you will make alterations at the appropriate time.

[seajohn]

[quote name='Ferguson' timestamp='1438695820' post='12075394']
Re: Revenue
They had 14K in potential sales, but they never had the 14K booked, so there is no lost revenue.
It’s lost opportunity.
[/quote]

Wrong, they had 14K booked in advance tee times. Revenue/opportunity/semantics/whatever. Maybe they wouldn't have filled the entire 14K from cancelled bookings, but they would probably have filled a substantial amount of it, especially for prime tee times. At the end of the day, the course will end up with less revenue.


[quote name='Ferguson' timestamp='1438695820' post='12075394']
Re: Prepay for Tee Times
I could understand your prepay idea for an exclusive semi-private club, but a public track?
C’mon dude, you can’t be serious.
[/quote]

Public tracks frequently have high volumes of traffic due to relatively low prices and convenient locations. Yeah dude, he was serious.



[quote name='Ferguson' timestamp='1438695820' post='12075394']

Re: Onus should be on the Golf Course
Maybe the golf staff should get off their lazy cans and call each tee time the day prior and confirm? Then, if a cancellation occurs, send an email or text alert to the registered patrons saying “11:30 just opened on 8/6/2015, please call if you’d like to book."
[/quote]

Well that will certainly work well when the tee time is confirmed and the group doesn't show up for their tee time. I'm sure there are a ton of people living within a 2 minute drive that can drop everything and get down to the golf course. And suppose they contact the reservation holder a day in advance and they say they are going to cancel. Chances are they'll have problems trying to find someone to fill the tee time since most golfers have already made other plans.

[rsj1360]

As other have said - required to be at the course one hour before tee time is ridiculous. I can (and often do) pull into a parking space, get clubs out of the trunk and on to my pull cart, change into my golf shoes, pay, and be teeing off on the first tee all within 3-5 minutes.

[sheppy335]

I know high end courses that require a credit card for booking and they will charge you for a no show without calling ahead.

I can see why they would do that, i am one that if i make a tee time i will be there, even if it is only me.