Golf simulator venue management: what to automate first
Running a sim venue isn't hard. Running it while doing something else is. Here's where the hours actually go, and the order we'd automate them in.
Most indoor golf venues are side businesses or small teams. The owner isn't short of ideas. They're short of evenings. So the question isn't "what can I automate?" but "what gives me the most time back first, with the least risk?"
Where the time goes
Write down a normal week and you'll usually find the same list:
| Job | When it happens | Cost of getting it wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Answering calls, WhatsApps and texts | All day, every day, often evenings | Lost bookings, slow replies |
| Fixing frozen bays | Whenever a customer's mid-round | Refunds and bad reviews |
| Letting people in, changing bookings | Around every session | Customers stuck outside |
| Switching kit and heating on and off | Opening and closing, or never | A big electric bill |
| Chasing reviews and repeat bookings | When you remember | A quiet calendar |
| Working out how the month went | Rarely | Decisions made on gut feel |
The order we'd automate in
1. Customer messages
This is the biggest drain on time and the easiest win. Most messages are the same handful of questions: what's free, how do I get in, can I move my booking, where do I park. Say you get 150 a week and each takes three minutes to read, check and reply to. That's seven and a half hours a week, much of it in the evening. Answer the routine ones automatically, on the phone as well as WhatsApp and text, and pass anything unusual to you with the conversation attached.
2. Bay faults
Ask venue owners what matters most and "if the tech goes down, it's back within the hour" comes ahead of the fit-out. A frozen bay costs more than the time it takes to fix. The customer stops playing, you refund the hour, and you're more likely to get a bad review. Make it possible to restart the sim PC, projector and screen remotely, and log every fault by bay. See our remote fix playbook.
3. Entry and booking changes
Entry should follow the booking: a code that works for that slot and nothing else. Changes and cancellations should happen in the booking system, not in a back-and-forth on WhatsApp.
4. Power and heating
Bays that run all day cost money for every hour nobody's in them. Switching on before a booking and off after it is a straight saving. Here's what an empty bay costs.
5. Reviews and repeat bookings
A review request and a "same time next week?" message after every session. Small on their own, but they add up. More in how to get more Google reviews.
6. The monthly report
Once the rest is automated, you can see what's working. We've listed the numbers worth tracking.
What to keep for yourself
- Group and corporate bookings. They're worth a personal call.
- Complaints and refunds. Decide these yourself, with the full conversation in front of you.
- Maintenance and hardware decisions. Automation tells you which bay keeps failing. You decide what to do about it.
- Your regulars. Automation should make you more available to the people who matter, not less.
Start without new kit
You don't need to rewire the building on day one. Customer messages, reviews and rebook prompts can run on the kit you already have. Remote restarts and power control come next, once you've seen what the first step saves.
See it running at Bunkerbay
BAYi does all six jobs at our own venue. Book a 20-minute video demo and we'll show you what it handled this week.