r/golfsimulatorbusiness

I’m in development of my sim business. It’s a premium indoor golf club with a focus on guest experience. Not a scrappy 24/7 self serve facility. We found a small error in our model but after it’s been corrected it looks like we’re needing to hit a target of about 18 hours booked a day across 6 bays; so 3 hours booked per day per bay (this is assuming we hit our membership goals with I think are fairly conservative)

We’re in large metropolitan area with a huge golf population. When looking at this through the a 7 day lens (since Friday-Sunday will always be busier and those additional surplus sales can be spread throughout the slower days of the week) is that a doable target with the right marketing and outreach efforts?

Anyone have success partnering with High School golf teams? have a few personal connections I am utilizing but here is my initial sales process.

any input appreciated

Currently contacting every school in a 25 mile radius.

1. Email athletic director and Principal offering free hour for golf team and trap team (gun simulator we just added)
2. Call them directly (just did today and left messages)
3. Show up in person to see if I can show them a video (making demo video)
4. Follow up until they tell me to kick rocks

edit:

recommendations from comments:

1. go to the local course when they are there

2. print out flyers to hand out to team with discounts

I will update with my Successes an Failures!

I have a 6 bay Golfzon facility which has been amazing. Looking to expand into more services for the summer months to balance out the cash flow bleed and capture the brand loyalty we have built so far.

I am looking to offer portable simulator rentals. My question for those who have done this before. What enclosures did you find the best for the balance between cheap/quick and sturdy/more complicated? I dont want ones that feel like they will just fold over at any time but I know the more sturdy you go the more time it'll take to set up and tear down.

Love that this community exists. Would love insight from people doing this successfully.

-My market - West Coast of Canada small isolated retirement town with 30,000 people and large influx of people in the summer. Lots of golfers.

**-The plan-**build a 2 bay, automated facility in a 1200 square foot mall spot.

-Sell up to 40 memberships for 225/month and charge drop in fees of 70/hr on peak times and 55/hr on non peak times.

-have a vending machine and tap to pay coffee bar maybe a fridge with cold drinks.

-I would also try to do tournaments and possibly a league.

-Partner with local golf coaches and a nearby highschool which has a golf team.

Costs - about 100k to get all set up.

-around 3000 a month rent

-not sure maintenance costs yet

-not sure costs of software - booking, coded locks, cameras etc

-will just be managed by me for now

-Cleaning staff daily

Funding- Presale before building

-would try to get 20-40 people to sign up for a year long membership with a down payment of my 500 bucks. Annual fee due on grand opening of 2100. This would include 2 months of free play to help iron out the system kinks.

Some questions - is 24 hr access worth it? There is a gym opening in the same mall that will have 24 hour access so I think I would be able to have it.

Is this a totally crazy idea? the population is fairly small and we have 3 golf courses but there are no other indoor places.

Has anyone partnered with golf courses? I was thinking I could also build it in the facility of one of our local golf courses that has a very large clubhouse that could probably find the space.

is 1200 square feet big enough to set up to bays? there are limited options for space.

(all prices in Canadian dollars!)

Hey - we’re a mobile golf sim company called Birdie Express ( www.birdieexpressgolf.com ) and we have too many requests to handle them on our own. Especially during the work week. If anyone lives in the Boston, MA area and can help us please comment below. Maybe your high school or college kid would be a good fit too? We mostly need help during the week. We pay $150 minimum for any event and $50 per hour for hours exceeding 3-hours. Hope to hear from you all soon! Thanks!

Having a call this Saturday to discuss scaling and all the options around that. No clue what I’m doing yet but would love to get advice from people who have done it before.

Any of you guys scale up or is it better to stick to one location?

Saturday at 9am ct

Friend and I are looking seriously into opening a golf sim business. 3-4 bays, self serve. Seems like a relatively simple thing to spin up and maintain. Rent in the area I’m looking is around $3k a month, other sims in the area range from $35-$60 an hour. Why shouldn’t I do this?

Has anyone else installed the latest update and had problems with missing swing speed, smash factor and attack angle data?

What ball do you recommend for your commercial setup?

We are trying to keep the main thread free of promotions. If you want to share what you do or who you help, please do it here as a comment, and not in the main thread as a separate post. Thanks for your cooperation!

Still working on getting data from manufacturers, but curious if anyone had insights into HVAC sizing / electrical and thermal loads from simulator bays- specifically i'm looking at Golfzon TwoVision NX, Full Swing Pro Series 2.0, Trackman 4

Looking for a way to make up some diy wall padding. I've seen a few options with 2" foam, marine vinyl and plywood backing.

Im building 2 Sim bays and will need quite a bit of material. When pricing it out, it seems the foam is going to be the most expensive part, almost compared to just buying the wall pads outright which are ridiculously expensive.

Anyone have any insights on where to get foam or pre built pads that are good quality for a decent price. Located in Canada.

Hi Everyone!

My company currently has an abundance of enclosures at our warehouse and we are currently offering 25% off our enclosures right now. Shoot me a message for more info or if you are in need of an enclosure

https://preview.redd.it/03aqi48llyxg1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fd1d40325001529a8a5ab61ecdbafa8fc578b6e

Any thoughts on this layout? Not sure how I could better optimize. I need two bathrooms and all the walkways are confirmed ADA right now.