Watch the full interview at the bottom of this article.
How is the indoor golf market changing?
South Korea gives an indication of how far simulator density can develop, and of the headroom that still exists across Europe and North America. At the same time, different venue models are emerging.
There is no single model for an indoor golf venue anymore. Some focus on performance and coaching, others run unmanned around the clock, and some lean into social or family entertainment.
The customer has changed with it.
A venue might see someone practising before work, a first-time golfer, a corporate group or a birthday party. With so many different customers, it helps if the booking or membership process stays straightforward.
For a new customer, the booking platform may be one of their first interactions with the venue.
What should an indoor golf venue management system connect?
For the customer, a booking can look simple. Behind the scenes, several things may need to happen.
The payment needs to go through. The customer might need door access. The simulator should be available for the right period.
Managing each of these through separate systems often adds extra work for the operator.
How do we make it easier to manage indoor golf venues?
“Everything talks with each other. The system is fully integrated, so you can spend your time focusing on what really matters.”
Access control is a good example, especially for unmanned venues. When booking and door systems are connected, a customer with a valid booking can enter at the right time without the operator needing to step in. That can reduce the amount of manual work required from the operator.
The same thinking tends to help with payments, memberships, and simulator availability too.
The goal is not to add more technology. It is to reduce the number of separate processes you need to track.
How can indoor golf venues improve occupancy and utilisation?
A full booking calendar only tells part of the story.
It also helps to look at how much of the venue's available capacity is actually being used, not just how many bookings are on the calendar.
Take an unmanned venue open from 6:00 am until midnight, seven days a week. That gives each simulator 112 available hours every week. How can an indoor golf venue maximize occupancy?
“Being able to look at the numbers in the right way, knowing what the numbers are trying to tell you.”
Occupancy, utilisation, RevPAR, and average lead time to booking can all give useful context.
RevPAR and average lead time are hospitality terms, but the same approach can work for indoor golf. Looking at revenue alongside available simulator hours can give a different view of performance than bookings alone.
That makes occupancy and utilisation particularly useful to keep an eye on:
“Really understanding what your occupancy is and ensuring that you maximise the utilisation of your venue is crucially important for venue owner operators today.”
The useful question is not just whether a venue is busy, it is how can you build demand for your golf venue? How do you maximize available capacity? And what can those patterns tell you about your business?
That might mean looking more closely at quieter hours, how far in advance customers tend to book, or how revenue changes as occupancy increases.
How does venue management software support memberships, coaching and unmanned venues?
As a venue gets busier, smaller operational details often start to matter more.
Memberships are one example. Recurring or one-off memberships can give regular golfers an easier way to keep coming back, and help the venue build longer-term relationships.
It also helps when memberships, leagues, and gift cards are part of the normal booking journey, rather than separate processes.
Coaching brings up a similar point. When a professional's availability and the simulator calendar align, lessons tend to be easier to manage.
For unmanned venues, automation tends to matter even more. Bookings, payments, door access, and simulator usage all need to work without someone on-site for every customer. The fewer manual steps, the easier it is to keep things running smoothly.
One example is SimLock. It connects simulator usage to the period a customer has booked. If the bay is still available and the customer wants to keep playing, they can extend their booking directly through a QR code.
Small automations like these can take another manual task off the operator's plate.
What should operators consider when expanding to multiple indoor golf venues?
Someone opening their first indoor golf venue will have different priorities from an operator opening their third or fourth.
But some of the same questions tend to come up as the business grows.
A manual process that works well enough at one venue can become considerably more work when repeated across several locations. For one operator, the priority might be reducing admin. For another, it could be about improving occupancy or gaining a clearer view of revenue and utilisation across multiple venues.
There is no single setup that suits every indoor golf business.
What is worth considering is whether the systems you put in place today can still support the operation as the venue gets busier or another location is added. The aim is to make growth easier to manage, rather than simply adding more admin with every new venue.
That is where looking beyond the booking itself starts to matter. Occupancy, utilisation, revenue, and the way the different parts of the operation work together can all give a clearer picture of whether the business is ready for what comes next.
