Why should online booking be important to golf clubs?


By: November 11, 2016


The Troon-managed Indian Wells Golf Resort (Indian Wells, California) has just announced that they will offer guest from now on complete online booking capabilities for stay and play packages. Indian Wells Golf Resort has utilized Inntopia, the leading e-commerce and central reservation platform for destination travel in North America.

Why should it be important for golf clubs to provide online booking service?

Some people talk about their mobile as a “butler,” or a “lifeline”. But I would rather listen to Ericsson a communications technology provider who says that in North America by 2020 there will be 120 million smartphone subscriptions.

If we multiply the number of smartphone users by the benefits of the smartphones (e.g. personal, taken everywhere, frictionless access, sensors, cameras, location, payment, social platform, much easier to use) then we get vast bigger opportunities than with PCs.

Do you start to realize why I am highlighting this smart investment of the Indian Wells Golf Resort?

In the meantime, as people got used to getting almost everything by a single click their expectations for online customer service also grew. I dare to go even further. They do not want to get mass-offers, neither filling out tee-time requests forms online. Unfortunately, I still find many-many golf clubs and resorts who think it is the online way to provide tee-time booking service.

However, they are wrong. They do not have the time and patience to fill out online forms in the hope to get a good tee-time in their golf club. Would you like to lose them just because you don’t have a modern online tee-time booking service?

What I can see is that consumer demand for personalized service experience is only going to increase. However, if golf clubs and resorts are ready to apply modern online tee time booking system (e.g. Jonas Software, Chronogolf, Teesnap, EZLinks.com, intelligentgolf (UK), etc.) then they will be able to provide a very favorable customer experience, increase sales and also save on head counts.

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