2/8/2012 1:02 PM
Im a fairly new GM in the Pacific Northwest, but I have seen some great success, especially increasing winter play, by running deals with Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites. Although each site takes 50% of the revenue generated from sales on the back end, there are no up front costs (and thats a big deal when I have a miniscule budget from our corporate office). I have been running a 2 some special for 2 green fees, 2 buckets of range balls, and 2 lunches in the restaurant. Thats a $78 value and we sold it for $39. I have a great deal with the restaurant manager to pay $2.50 per $10 lunch, and I do not include the cart rental in the deal. I have also been able to expire the promotion come April 1. So when all is said and done, I bring in about $19 per player if they rent a cart, and thats comparable to our twilight rates. My first deal I ran with Groupon I sold over 400 vouchers! That was $7800 in a month were Im only projected to bring in just over 10K. Not to mention another $4,800 in potential cart rental revenue. That doesn't include the increases that come along with increased traffic in F&B and merchandise sales.
Now this may not be an ideal situation for a course that sees 40-50 thousand rounds a year, but this operation has been struggling for the last 5 years, not able to break the 15,000 mark. These types of deals have helped me to show an 80% increase in revenue over last year.