Unique Selling Points
Revenue Management For Clubs
Revenue Management (Yield Management) has
been used within the hotel industry for decades
as a way to maximise occupancy year round.
So in this ever demanding and competitive
industry of ours, how can we adapt to the
principals of Revenue Management into
our Clubs Business & Marketing plans and
ultimately our Clubs Culture to maximise our
occupancy year round?
Here are three key principals for you to consider
as a way of understanding how your Club can
adapt to this management concept:
1. Know your Members & Customers - an
in depth understanding of their trends
and behaviours is paramount. Clubs must
understand the movements of their members
and customer before marketing.
2. Forecasting - tied closely with point
one, however forecasting starts with the vast
collation of business data and predicting your
Clubs trends for specific periods. For example,
understanding what your function room
occupancy rates are and targeting the quieter
days such as Monday or Sunday evenings. Clubs
must not over sell and under deliver!
3. Price Discriminate - not all customers will
be prepared to pay a premium for your products
and services all year round, so target your
quieter periods to a new market of customers.
When promoting to this new market, promote
value, promote quality and promote yourself,
this is a great way to get people through your
doors and when done correctly, you will convert
the thrifty customers into loyal customers who
are willing to pay full tote for your products and
services.
To put the principals into context for you,
The Eastern Golf Club went from having
65% occupancy on their time sheets, to 80%
occupancy through following these principals,
how?
1. The Club willing to pay full tote for your
there is a large demand for social golf in the
market, especially on private golf courses.
By Peter Vlahandreas
2. Through forecasting, the Club had an
in depth understanding of the days which
could accommodate the extra players on the
course with minimal impact to their members
playing routines. In addition the Club had
also conducted In addition the Club had also
to understand exactly how many extra players
they could fit in without compromising or
adding to adding to their staff resourcing, whilst
still providing the service which the Club was
renowned for.
3. The Club knew that in order to get maximum
exposure and traffic through their doors, that
the price point had to represent value as a way
of getting the new customers to purchase and
allow the Club to have an opportunity to wow
as many new guests as possible at the club.
Another example is the increase in catering
options and days for our members whereby we
followed the same three step process:
1. The Club knows that there is 22% of members
who are of an Asian ethnicity who regularly
visit local restaurants, instead of frequenting the
clubs lounge for lunch.
2. The Club forecasted that if we could attract
just half of these members that the catering
department could justify two things: One, a
change in menu options to cater for our Asian
members and Two, opening the kitchen on
Thursdays (as this is primarily when our Asian
members play socially with their guests)
3. We undertook some market research to
understand Asian restaurant price points and
found that the majority of lunch options in
the local area were under the $10 price point.
From this data, we then priced our new menu
accordingly.
Our final example of using the theory of
Revenue Management into practice is our
Membership Options at the Club, and more
specifically our six month Introductory
Membership:
1. We took the time to understand that the
current golfing market wanted a low entry price
structure in order for them to commit to a
private golf club environment. This structure
must include at least one day on the weekend
(in order to appeal to the young professional/
family market) and it must be obligation free ,
so that if the members circumstances change
(such as work or family commitments) then
they can walk away.
2. Our time sheet had sufficient room for extra
players, especially on Sunday afternoons and
non competition days and increasing our six
day playing membership by even 50% we would
still be able to offer the same level of services
to our members without additional labour
resourcing.
3. Our price point is very competitive, just
over $4 a day ($745 all inclusive of GV fees,
Insurance and $50 House Levy) for six months
with six day playing rights. After this period, if
the new member would like to join as a playing
member then their entrance fee is reduce by
61% ($610) and fees are paid pro-rata.
Since beginning this membership category, we
have had a conversion rate of over 50% Into
a playing category. Which proves the theory
principals and that if you as a Club promote
value, promote quality and promote yourself, in
order to get new people through your doors
then you will convert these customers into
loyal members of your Club.
In summary, The Eastern Golf Club allowed
itself with an opportunity to wow new markets
of golfers its Club whilst significantly increasing
their bottom line, Clubhouse and Golf Shop
traffic and converted numerous new members
into loyal promoters of the Club through these
Revenue Management Principals.
Golf Industry Central Autumn 2012
23