Getting in on golfing getaways

Clubs and resorts are expanding their reach by tapping into vacation packages, travel clubs, and golf groups and cooperatives.

by Charlene Arsenault (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
November 2007
 

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Perhaps like no other sport, golf has earned “preferred vacation” status. And despite the always-high number of golfers who may chuck their clubs in frustration after a bad slice, the game can be very relaxing, and a great getaway activity.

As more resorts and clubs catch on to this appeal, they’re devoting more time and resources to fuse relationships with local hotels, consumer travel circles, Chambers of Commerce and, in particular, the booming number of search engines and online vacation networks—all in an effort to lure more players and travelers who would otherwise never know about, let alone find, their properties. Resorts, daily fee and semi-private courses are in the best positions to tap into this segment—but even private clubs that have some leeway with their tee sheets are showing measurable levels of success with the vacation market.

Golf On the Go
A high-end daily-fee club with the stateliness of a traditional private club, Eagle Creek Golf Club is just eleven minutes from the Orlando (Fla.) International Airport. Thousands fly in each day to go to Disney World and other Orlando-area attractions—and more and more have their golf clubs in tow.

“We do use several different venues to attract vacation packagers and travel clubs,” says Tony Crawford, Eagle Creek’s General Manager. “These companies can provide the total package—golf, room, transportation, accommodations and meals—to our customers.”

Across the country in Albuquerque, N.M., the Sandia Resort & Casino (owned and operated by the Pueblo of Sandia) is open to the public and resort guests. It boasts 228 hotel rooms, 40 suites, cabanas, a business center, slot machines, table games, poker, restaurants and live entertainment. And through the use of vacation clubs and sites, the property’s Scott Miller-designed, 18-hole championship golf course, award-winning clubhouse and practice facility have also proved to be powerful attractions.

“We market our facilities to attract new clients,” says Mike Jerlecki, Director of Marketing and Sales. “We generally provide a variety of packages to our destination travelers that can include any combination of hotel, golf and spa treatments.”
Sandia attracts vacationers by featuring special packages during peak seasons in various golf publications, as well as regional newspaper travel sections. The packages generally provide a discount on all included services, “to make them more attractive than when they’re sold on a case-by-case basis­­,” Jerlecki notes.

One-Stop Shopping
Just as resorts and clubs are seeking new ways to market their venues, networks and services have concurrently erupted to give vacation seekers a one-stop portal for booking a getaway.

Google “golf vacations,” and pages of offers will fill the screen. Resorts and clubs generally pay these types of search engines standard travel agent commissions on sales.

Govacationsgolf.com, for instance, provides full-service golf vacations nationwide, promoting packages for full-service resorts, semi-private golf clubs and stand-alone villas and hotels. “We help the client decide which destination, hotel or villa and course best match their playing ability and budgets,” says Erik Holt, the site’s VP of Sales and Concierge Services.
The site arranges all accommodations for the customer, as well as tee times at major golf destination stops throughout the U.S. Standard packages include the hotel and golf reservations, but specialized bundlings can also cover everything from restaurant reservations to entertainment to local transportation. Airfare is not currently part of the service because, Holt explains, the airline industry is so competitive that it benefits the traveler to go directly for the best deal.

For club and resort properties, the advantages of vacation-coordinating services can be plentiful, vs. trying to go it alone. For example, clients of services like Go Vacations Golf may be planning a trip where they want to hit many properties along the way. In these cases, “We help them consolidate their vacation in one phone call,” says Holt. “We can offer numerous properties per destination, which gives the client maximum choices when planning a trip. They also don’t have to worry about financial obligations to each locale. With our ‘one-stop shop,’ they pay for the enti­­­­re trip at once and arrive at every property as ‘pre-paid.’ ”

Similarly, http://www.golfexclusives.com/ books custom golf packages to destinations all over the United States and Ireland, concentrating on resorts. “These resorts now have another distribution channel,” says the site’s Mike Fitzgerald. “I report to them yearly with the number of requests and the number of bookings.”

Golf vacation services differ from travel sites such as Travelocity because they focus on catering to the golfer, rather than offering vacations that literally and figuratively head all over the map. “I have personally played at each of the resorts we offer to our clients,” says Golf Exclusives’ Fitzgerald.

Sandia Resort and Casino markets Stay and Play golf packages that provide discounts on various combinations of its hotel, golf and spa offers.

Go Vacations Golf, says Holt, contacts resorts and clubs that it feels will benefit its clients’ needs. Increasingly, he adds, properties are getting proactive about forging a relationship. 

“They see us on the Web, radio and TV,” Holt says. “Often, if we get requests from clients for properties that we do not currently represent, we will contact the property and begin a relationship. It’s a win-win for all involved.”

It’s the same at Golf Exclusives. “I find [properties] and they find me,” Fitzgerald reports. “I’m well-versed in new resorts all over the U.S., and visit them so I can make a recommendation for my customers. Some [properties] come to me directly, via the Internet or e-mail. My best resort is one with accommodations, and several courses, that’s near a big-city airport.”

Clubs for Clubs
Another option for expanding a property’s marketing reach, particularly for private clubs, is to become part of a network offering reciprocal privileges. An example is The International Club Network, a service that facilitates access primarily to other private clubs for members when they’re on the road or looking for vacation venues.

Affiliations with networks of this type can enhance the value of the home-club’s membership. ICN presently has approximately 250 affiliates, and puts together travel packages among them that include golf and/or tennis and accommodations (but not airfare).

When a group like ICN is used to introduce an opportunity to travel to an affiliated club, “an instant awareness is developed,” says ICN President Kim Robinson. “When we have done [travel packages], we have seen success, based on the click-through rate to the offer and ultimately the bookings that occur for the club.”

Navigating the Web
As the Internet becomes an ever-widening sea of promotional possibilities—with vacations at the top of the list—it is incumbent on club and resort properties that wade into its waters to be savvy about how to best spend their time and dollars on technology, and where to watch for traps.

Eagle Creek, Crawford reports, continually looks for potential partners among vacation organizations, and then makes it a point to sit down with the ones that look most promising and reputable, to negotiate rates and availability. While Eagle Creek is not yet a big enough player in the tourism market to devote a full-time employee to monitoring and growing this area, Crawford says his director of sales and marketing now helps with this side of the business.

“The wholesalers have their staff members coordinate tee times and accommodations for their customers,” Crawford notes. “We, in turn, try to market to the wholesale groups for ancillary sales. The hotel groups are a little different. They are not as volume-based as wholesalers. But they seem to bring a more service-oriented customer to us, rather than [one who’s] price-oriented.”

The most fruitful expenditure, Crawford adds, is taking the time to make sure Eagle Creek’s Web site technology will be properly tapped into search engines, so its high search rankings can be sustained.

“This is a constant monitoring job,” he says. “We make changes to key words and phrases all the time. We also use database marketing to try to fill ‘gaps’ in our business. This is usually a discounted rate, with bundling involved.”

Eagle Creek also connects with wholesalers who get better exposure on the Web, since they often have elaborate sites with many offers. “The wholesalers can afford to do it bigger and better than we can,” Crawford says, “so why not use their muscle to piggyback on their message?”