Dynamic Pricing

General Discussion
#1

Dynamic Pricing for public daily fee trending.

For all of you public daily fee golfers, have you seen this Dynamic Pricing at your local golf courses.

It started about 6-7 years ago in our neck of the woods. One group started this D.P. and soon everyone started to copy it.
I’m pretty certain this trending was drifted here from other places.
ESSENTAILLY, WHAT THIS SAYS IS, THEY WILL INCREASE THE GREEN FEES WHEN THERE IS HIGH DEMAND AND DECREASE THE GREEN FEES WHEN THERE IS LESS DEMAND.

Basically, I had never seen any desirable tee times being discounted but plenty of those up and take more from your pocket if you want to golf.

I mean, is this ethical? I don’t mind if some golf courses charge more for the prime time golf, in our area it is between 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. But this Dynamic Pricing basically says, they could increase from the posted green fee to whatever they like when you check in if there is more demand. I guess the only time there is less demand would be weather related issues. Which I had never experience being offered a less green fee than the posted rate.

I consider golf is an essential part of life for the golfers; this stockpile like highway robbery is probably dreamed up by some geek who never golf.

What have you seen and how do you feel about this D.P. trending?

1 Like
#2

I haven’t seen this in my area, but I mainly play my club. Around here you generally pay more on weekends and maybe pay less for a twilight rate which I think has been the norm most places.

Our course always had weekday deals through GolfNow, but once the pandemic started and golf exploded those deals went away. Our membership deals went away as well.

I suppose this Dynamic Pricing makes sense in some respect as far as Supply & Demand goes. I can see charging a higher price for the times everyone wants to play at. Generally people book those popular times ahead of time (usually Sat or Sun morning) and there is a limited # of times so the price is higher. I could only see charging more if you showed up that day as a single and there happened to be a slot available and now you’re going to pay even a bit more than the already higher prime time rate.

#3

Yes, I know the prime time golf costs more.
It used to be the case, prime time tee cost a bit more, weekend rate are higher.
It has evolved into this Dynamic Pricing which out the green fee schedule as an unknown! If one booked a tee time, it may become much higher without notice when the golf course deemed they could get more out of your pocket.
It is kind of the hidden fee charged by the airline and the concert ticket master.
Especially this practice is used by the municipals golf course where it is supposed to serve instead of maximizing profit. How would we feel when the green fees has 3-5 level of pricing all within the day? On top of this complication, there is no guarantee the posted pricing is what you’ll be paying.
The B.S. of price adjustment of either up or down, which I had never seen an adjusted down case, unless it was pouring down rain outside with standing water in the fairway and on the greens.
I don’t mind if they adjust the green fee to suit the demand.
I just really dislike this practice of adjusting the price whenever they feel like it without notice.
Whoever dreamed up this, was not a golfer, and probably does not understand this practice could bring legal action against them.
I would say this practice is parallel to the hidden fee which is in litigation now.
If consumers and golfer don’t bring the practice to light, these geeks who run their life and our life by the software will continue to do so.

#4

I wouldn’t care for it and hopefully golfers can vote with their wallet not to play there. We have a course about 40 minutes from me that I really love and used to play regularly, but avoided for a # of years. Even before the pandemic they jacked their prices up to high end levels. Golfers stopped going and even the pandemic didn’t help them enough so now they are dropping prices.

Another high end well loved place in our neighboring state had to do the same. Their prices just got too high and they are reducing prices when everyone else is increasing. I was actually a bit surprised at this because I’ve read that our area has a LOT of golfers and not as many courses as other areas of the US. With that reality I would expect our prices to just keep going up no matter what. I think when there is actual free market competition, prices will find their correct level though.

#5

To vote with your wallet and a free market adjustment is supposed to work.
But in my area, there seemed to have more of these young golfers who makes lots of income and do not care if they drop some money at a municipal golf course. Many of them “work from home” and we could hear the obvious factitious names being called to the first tee.
Don’t believe Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus visited out little muni course.
So the free market idea won’t work until this group found other escapes .
In the meantime, all these retired senior who visit the golf course several times a week had been hit with the hiked green fees.

I’m the one who will vote with my wallet, and I have not been back to this muni for many years, just the driving range to watch a few golfers when I was asked.
In fact most of the golf course in the Puget Sound have picked up this practice of Dynamic Pricing. It is like a virus spreading faster than the COVID-19.
Another beloved golf course went from $40 to $100 for the weekday rate. I have not been back for 5-6 years now. Used to visit it every month even it is 47 miles away. It has just priced out of my range for the distance and the time spend on the roadway.
Another trend is all of a sudden, Friday has become a weekend day. So weekend rate applies to Fridays now.
I wonder how many other tricks these managing team could pull out of their hats to get additional profit margin.
If I were the owner of the golf courses ( are you listening City Council members? ), I’d get rid of these managing team, and save some money right there.
The golf course management is not supposed to mimic a bunch of Amazon staff brain storming how to raid the next victim for profits.
Private golf course, they could do whatever they want and let the chips fall where they were tossed.
A municipal golf facility belongs to the Park and Recreation of the system, and it is not supposed to rip the citizens of their last dime.