Lacoste Alligator Golf
A Lacoste polo shirt with a nice alligator on the breast costs 65 pounds in London. In Orlando the exact same shirt costs just 55 dollars or about 22 pounds, 50 pence. A meal in England costs almost exactly the same in dollars as it does in pounds and so is 100% more expensive. Hotels too are exactly double and usually include far fewer amenities. In fact as far as I can tell in my last 8-weeks in Europe everything is 100 to 150% more expensive than in the USA. Everything that is, except one thing.
The price of golf memberships!
I find this very interesting.
Well-known and seemingly affluent clubs are forced to drive guest and society play just to pay the bills!!!
Why not just raise the dues???
SHOCK, HORROR!
But, you say, all the members already complain about the prices. There are plenty of other places they can go that are cheaper! Yes, both arguments are no doubt true. People the world over complain about prices, whatever they are, and yes they could go somewhere cheaper BUT, And it’s a BIG BUT, they could also buy cars that are cheaper; meanwhile the parking lot is comprised in a large part BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Jags…!
The situation at UK clubs is not unlike the situation I found in the martial arts business 20 years ago. Clubs starving for members, hoping nothing goes wrong because if it does - a drought, a fire, an infestation of Bo weevil bugs – they simply won’t survive.
On a visit to a club in Manchester charging around 500 pounds a year for membership a committee member told me that there was no way they could put the fees up. I asked whether or not any of the members ever went to a United game, he said yes and admitted that the last time he had taken a couple of clients to a match, the day, (DAY) had cost him 460 pounds or just about what he pays for a year of golf!!!
To Raise Membership Fees You Must:
- Decide what position you want your club to hold in your market place. You must hold a superior position in some way to those around you!
- Next, you must decide what level of condition you want the course to be in.
- Then decide what level of F & B service you wish to offer.
- Decide how much guest play you want. Decide how accessible you want tee times to be for members.
- Finally you must decide what amount of money should be in reserve for emergencies and ongoing capital improvements.
- Now based on the above costs, divided by the number of members you have currently, you have a real figure of what your membership should be! (We can talk about gaining members another time)
Imagine for a moment you doubled dues from say 500 to 1000 pounds. We are still only talking 80 pounds a month, 20 pounds a week or if you were to play twice a month just 5 pounds a week. In London that’s equivalent to a single pint of beer for a week for unlimited golf, social networking and fun!
Now if you did double the dues how many members would quit?
If 20% quit and you have 500 members now you will still increase income by a staggering 150,000 pounds a year!
You will be astonished how few people quit if the increases are done right and of course the increases don’t have to be 100%, perhaps 20% would work for your club. Small changes in billing or the packaging of memberships can often make the difference between success and failure. For example; include the ability to pay monthly via electronic draft instead of a yearly lump sum. Seventy-nine pounds a month come to just under 1,000 pounds a year!!
This is a complex issue that demands careful thought, but the fact is that most clubs cannot survive on what they are charging now and must find ways to provide enough value so that fees can be raised to an appropriate level. This all starts with communication; constant communication via e-mail and the club’s website regarding the club events and the value of membership; communication about the very real costs of running a club about which few members have any clue; a clear understanding among membership of what the clubs position in the market should be–high end, low end, high volume, low volume, etc; the recruitment of the right type of future members, and these are just a few of the issues.
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