A Tuesday at 2 p.m. and a Friday at 7 p.m. are different products. Golf simulator booking software should price them that way: by the hour, the person, the time of day and the membership.
Golf simulator booking software that understands peak hours
The bay is empty at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday and full on Friday night. A flat hourly rate is wrong for both. A common fix is a spreadsheet, a sticky note and a staff member who remembers what member rate applies on weekends.
Golf simulator booking software should know the rate card. VenueChief now prices bays, cages, lanes and rooms with rules, and shows guests the right price before they pay. The same engine works for indoor golf, batting cages, pitching tunnels, lanes and rooms.
What is new: a rate card the system understands
Each type of bay or cage can use one of six pricing models: per hour, per session, per person, per person per hour, a base price with extra-person charges, or tiered by duration. On top of that sit special rates for members, peak times, days of the week, time of day and seasons, each with a priority. A What will this cost? preview lets you test any combination before a guest sees it, and a resource with no price cannot be booked online by accident.
That is the foundation of indoor golf booking software that works on a real schedule:
- Peak and off-peak pricing with no manual changes.
- Member rates that show on the basket without a staff discount.
- Packages with included guests and a per-extra-guest price for a group in one bay.
- A bay marked temporarily unavailable, with a reason and a date, vanishes from online booking until it is back.
Book a demo and we will set it up live.
Hour packs and memberships
Guests who come often want a better deal, and you want them to commit. Sell hour packs as prepaid passes that hold resource minutes, with an optional expiry, a member price and a limit per customer. Sell a membership plan that includes credits and member pricing. At checkout the pass is pre-selected, with a card always offered as the alternative. The gift cards and memberships article has the full detail.
Booking, holds and baskets
The online flow is the same for every bay, cage and room. The guest chooses the type, party size, bay, length, date and time. The slot is held while they pay, you can block dates and weekdays, and lengths run from one to four hours. A guest can add a gift card to the same basket, and with Retail Storefront (Platform plan) a pro-shop item. See resource booking for the whole flow.
After hours, and on screens
Early access features extend the same booking. Door codes tied to bookings let a paid guest into an unmanned bay, and the Golf bays automation pack can show a countdown on the bay screen five minutes before a booking ends. Both are early access.
A rate card in practice
Picture a rate card with four lines: weekday daytime, weekday evening, weekends and member. In VenueChief the base rate is per hour, and special rates apply by day, time of day and membership, each with a priority. The preview answers “What will this cost?” for a Saturday at 7 p.m. as a member, and the guest sees the same price at checkout, before tax and any discounts. A group of six in one bay can add a per-extra-guest rate through a package. Golf simulator booking software should make the rate card a setting, not a memory.
Who it suits
As bay booking software, it suits indoor golf lounges and simulator bars, driving range bays with simulators, baseball and softball facilities with cages and tunnels, and any venue with rooms that sell by the hour. It is also batting cage scheduling software for venues that want pricing, packages and memberships in the same place.
What it changes on a busy day
- The Friday rate is applied by the system, not remembered.
- A member’s price appears without anyone keying a discount.
- A bay under repair does not take bookings.
Availability and fine print
Resource booking is included from the Booking plan upward. See pricing.
Online lengths are 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 hours today. VenueChief has no built-in connection to launch monitors or golf simulator software, so a guest’s session on the simulator is separate from the booking and no shots or scores come back into VenueChief. If your simulator software or bay controller accepts web or network commands, an early access automation can send one at check-in, about five minutes before a booking ends or when staff complete it, through VenueChief Edge on your venue’s network (Platform plan). We test that with you on your equipment first. Cages that share a net, or a space that can be split, are booked as separate resources and are not linked. Lessons, clinics and leagues for golf are not part of VenueChief today.