The Pellucid Perspective - January 2020 - 6

INTELLIGENT
OPERATOR

by Drs. Cathy Enz and Linda Canina of the School of Hotel
Administration at Cornell University about the Myrtle Beach
golf market (thanks to Tracy Conner Executive Director, Myrtle Beach Golf Course Owners Assoc.). The case study discusses
price elasticity and why discounting rates (the tangential effect
of bartering tee times) doesn't work to drive revenue at golf
courses.
I also researched hospitality, golf 's closest business relative. A
Marriott Hotels, a revenue executive provided insightful background on hospitality's ongoing relationship with Online Travel
Agents (OTAs). What does that have to do with barter? You
can read for yourself in "Beware of Barter" how and why hos-

6 The Pellucid PersPecTive

pitality quickly abandoned bartering hotel rooms during OTAs'
infancy on the World Wide Web. "Reference pricing," brand
identity, customer disintermediation, and technology improvement are all lessons learned by the hospitality industry and need
to be learned by golf course operators.
Oh, and commissions. OTAs remain a valuable channel for
the hospitality business and likely will be in the future. But what
OTAs earn in revenue comes from commissions. Commission
creates accountability - no one gets paid if bookings don't happen. Quite simply, commissions are the solution to the barter
issue.
"Beware of Barter" includes a case study about a course operator (two courses) that seized complete control of its tee sheets and took
back the THREE tee times per day,
per course, it gave GolfNow. I wrote
about "Brevard the Brave" in the August Perspective [hotlink to http://
www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908], and the
case study includes more detail and
an updated year-over-year round and
weather analysis. The results are compelling.
And there is more. You'll have to
read it yourself. If you haven't received a
copy of "Beware of Barter," please contact me at harvey@silverbackgolf.com.
You can also send me your comments.
I'll be leading a panel discussion at the
NGCOA Golf Business Conference
on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 11:00 AM.
Finally, the NGCOA, in previous
iterations, attempted to supply members with suggested best practices for
dealing with OTTAs. At best, those
attempts barely scratched the surface.
"Beware of Barter" is NGCOA's definitive statement that barter is an existential threat to golf course profitability,
brand identity, rate integrity, pricing
power, and customer loyalty. Commission is a far, far better business model
than barter. We'll need bilateral help
from technology providers to implement it. But that's not going to happen
until more course owners and operators
unite with a strong voice in the face
of the OTTAs and demand better, or
take back their tee times and sell them
themselves. A better world awaits.
Editor's note: This article expresses
the views and opinions of the author
and the NGCOA and does not necessarily represent Pellucid's views on this
particular topic.
n
January 2020

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908/index.php#/6 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908/index.php#/6 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201908 http://www.ngcoa.org/BewareOfBarter/ https://www.golfbusinessconference.com/ https://www.golfbusinessconference.com/ https://www.kempersports.com/ https://www.kempersports.com/

The Pellucid Perspective - January 2020

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