Your sim venue is a winter business. Plan for it.
If you judge an indoor golf venue on one week, you'll get it wrong. We tracked occupancy for 41 weeks across UK venues, including our own, and the season changes everything.
The swing is bigger than you'd think
We tracked publicly visible booking availability across UK golf simulator venues for most of a year. Here's the typical venue, and ours, in three months:
| Month | Typical UK venue | Bunkerbay Poole |
|---|---|---|
| February | 46% | 74% |
| April | 26% | 32% |
| September | 18% | 13% |
Share of available bay hours booked. The typical UK venue is the median across the venues we tracked. Our morning figures include members' included off-peak hours.
The typical venue is about 2.5 times busier in its best month than its worst. Ours swings about 5.6 times. In February we're busier than most venues we track. In September we're below average. Same venue, same bays, same owners.
Why one week misleads
Look at any venue for a week in September and you'd think it was struggling. Look in February and you'd think it was printing money. Neither is true. Comparisons we made using a single week, such as bigger venues against smaller ones or door-code entry against staffed entry, looked very different once we used the whole season. Most of those differences shrank to a point or two.
The lesson: compare a venue against the same month, not against last week, and look at the whole year before deciding anything.
One thing that does help in summer
Memberships. Across the venues we tracked, those with an adult membership averaged 18.4% occupancy from April to September, against 13.6% for those without. In winter there was no difference: demand fills the bays anyway. Memberships earn their keep by keeping people coming in when the weather's good.
Planning for the quiet months
- Budget for the year, not the winter. A great February has to carry a quiet September.
- Don't discount the winter. If demand fills the bays anyway, cutting prices just loses money.
- Give summer customers a reason to come in: memberships, leagues, coaching, and the ideas in filling quiet slots.
- Cut summer costs. Empty bays shouldn't be powered. See switching bays off between bookings.
- Track by month and by hour, using the numbers worth watching.
Run lean in the quiet months
BAYi cuts the time and power a quiet month costs you, and sends rebook prompts to keep people coming back. Book a 20-minute video demo.