Tee Time Reservation System

[tnord]

What does your club use? what works? what doesn't?

I have been put on my clubs "advisory board" or whatever, and one of the things i threw out there was that the tee time reservation system stinks. It's a system where from 7-8am two days prior you call a special phone number to reserve your time. after 8am you call the pro shop like usual and get the leftovers. furthermore, every 3rd time is reserved for walk-ups/day of play. Here's the problem.......you can't get through on the damn phone line......i have done experiments before where i keep hitting redial about every 15seconds for almost 20min and never received anything but a busy signal.

I've been met with surprising opposition and defensiveness of the system. They tell me that on-line systems don't work for private clubs. They tell me to "get used to it" and I'll grow to like it. etc etc. I don't understand it at all.

So tell me.....what do your guys' clubs use? What works? what doesn't? What ideas do you have?

btw this is for your typical 18 hole 400 member facility.

[jshel]

tnord,

At my current club and a previous club, we used a company called Foretees. http://www.foretees.com/

For me it has been great. I can pull up the tee sheet from my work computer or my iphone. The shop can block times or do whatever. There seems to be a good bit of flexibility.

I like it quite a bit.

[ryancjordan]

So at your private club its super hard and annoying to get a tee time? Yeah, that should be fixed.

[Bonneville85308]

My club tried 2 or 3 online systems, which ranged from mediocre to awful. This year we went with Foretees, and it's awesome. It is designed exclusively for private clubs. The mobile edition for smartphones is handy.

[tnord]

I did find the foretees system just doing some google searching but didn't look that much into it. after a couple recommendations i'll spend some more time poking around at what it has to offer.

[jahopki]

Not a solution to your problem, but certainly something that may help alleviate the problem long term... We have an on-line reservation system for the multiple courses in our area. Problem is, each member of a four-some will book a time at different courses, then they get together and decide which time to actually utilize and (frequently) leave the other 3 times booked but ultimately unused. It's frustrating on a lot of different levels, not the least of which is the loss of revenue and the inability to get a desired tee time for other folks. If the system allowed for tracking of reserved, but unused, times and then establishing accountability (ie: can't make a tee time for 30 days) after demonstrating consistent abuse of the system, then things will eventually get better.

[msd3075]

[quote name='tnord' timestamp='1334086988' post='4694676']
I have been put on my clubs "advisory board" or whatever, and one of the things i threw out there was that the tee time reservation system stinks. It's a system where from 7-8am two days prior you call a special phone number to reserve your time. after 8am you call the pro shop like usual and get the leftovers. furthermore, every 3rd time is reserved for walk-ups/day of play. Here's the problem.......you can't get through on the damn phone line......i have done experiments before where i keep hitting redial about every 15seconds for almost 20min and never received anything but a busy signal.

I've been met with surprising opposition and defensiveness of the system. They tell me that on-line systems don't work for private clubs. They tell me to "get used to it" and I'll grow to like it. etc etc. I don't understand it at all.

So tell me.....what do your guys' clubs use? What works? what doesn't? What ideas do you have?

btw this is for your typical 18 hole 400 member facility.
[/quote]

Sounds very similar to my home course. You can only get a tee time one day in advance, and the phone line to call the pro shop opens at 7:30 am (doors open at 8:00 am). What they do have though is an answering machine that holds about 10 calls at once all in line from when they are received. Every time I call in the morning, I'll get a couple busy signals and then finally an automated voice saying "Please hold, there are 9 calls ahead of you."

All that said, the only times when this usually happens is on Friday mornings calling for Saturday tee times. Any other day it's not an issue, and I think that's the main reason they have yet to change anything.

[davepharmd]

ForeTees is the best!! My club (private, approx 300 members) had it the last 4 years. We just got rid of it for our own corporate version & it sucks.
With ForeTees, you can sign up for events (MAtch Play, Member/Guest, etc....) you get immediate emails if anyone else signs up in your slot. It allows the club to block off times for outings, frost, etc. It really is great for both the members & the Professional staff. Our Pro hates our new system as well and he loved ForeTees.

[ghalfaire]

I belong to a 425 member club and we just call the pro shop 24 hours in advance to make tee times. It seems to work OK. We don't have many times left open for walk ups. Reserving every third tee time for walk ups would cause a revolution at my club as it stays pretty busy most days and especially on weekends.