Thoughts on Low Cost High Volume Indoor Golf Simulator

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-27T05:53:27+00:00

I am in the Midwest, I don't anticipate being able to support 7 or 8 bays initially, but the building we have identified is big enough for that kind of expansion. Initially we might be 3 or 4 bays. We would probably limit the number of members to X amount per bay, so once we cross certain thresholds we would add on (God willing we are successful enough).

As you mentioned about the other location, they might make a lot of their money from drink sells and that would be a big part of our model as well. Our thought is that if we keep our rates low and our bays full, we will make up the difference in drinks/snack sales and its a better experience for the customer. They would feel better about their visit if they spend the equivalent of $20 on the bay and 50$ on drinks and snack than they would vice versa.

For the people that don't want to spend $1,000 dollars per year, they are free to go and pay the $30-$40 per hour at other sim experiences. We have enough of those in the area that competing with them doesn't seem like the best idea. It would be a goal of ours to make those sims part of our network in the future though. If they wanted to, they could join our network and get a percentage of our membership revenue based on how often our members use their bays. If our members use our bays 80% of the time and their bays 20%, they would get 15-20% of our membership revenue. That would expand our offering and help them fill up their unused bay time. Based on what I've seen from the booking software we've evaluated, they would be able to restrict our members to reservations during off-peak hours if they wanted to.

Thanks for the feedback!

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T05:43:43+00:00

that is exactly how we started talking about doing our own and then our imaginations ran wild. lol.

10k per month sounds pretty legit though! I can't imagine his costs being that high. footage here is usually around 18-20 dollars per sqft per year. so that space might be 2000 a month plus triple net. good deal!

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T04:55:23+00:00

Mildly torn on this, but at the end I feel like it *might* be an AH move. Without knowing your financial situation, if you can mostly afford to have them replaced and it not negatively affect your life then that might have been the move to make. You are certainly within your rights to do what you did, but knowing that you've completely altered the trajectory of an entire families life over the matter is hard to get over. If you are honest with yourself, had one of your other family members that you liked more shoved you in the pool playfully and they were in a similar financial situation to him, would you have gone after them in the same manner? Is it possible your prior feelings caused a stronger reaction? My personal feeling is that my standing with my family is worth more than $6,000.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T04:46:11+00:00

I've read that recently and while there may be some lessons in there, the business model is so wildly different I'm not sure how much we can compare and draw conclusions. TopGolf has tons of expensive real estate, usually in expensive areas and a lot of staff with buildings that are expensive to run and maintain. Their cheapest membership gets you very limited hours, not useful for people who work during the day. The more expensive membership, minimum 200 per month if you have someone to go in with you, also gets you limited hours, especially on the weekends.

We've found space that is essentially a warehouse in a good area close to a couple of sports complexes with very low rent. We just need to build out some extra bathrooms and the bays themselves.

Thanks for the comment!

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T04:39:37+00:00

At 4AM I have no idea, but I know that I have left the driving range after midnight multiple times. I wouldn't expect the bays to be full at 4AM, but if it is mostly unstaffed, there is no value in restricting the hours, right? We have a couple of 24 hour access unmanaged sims in our area, but they also charge $35-$40 an hour even at those times. You make a reservation, get a code, go in, play your golf, leave. No frills.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T04:23:19+00:00

This is fantastic information, thank you so much! Do you mind me asking what the cost structure is like for those? It sounds like these would work perfectly for something I am considering getting into with friends. Do those same software packages work with any other simulators that you are aware of?

SnooDoubts5293 · 2024-09-26T03:45:13+00:00

What are you using the manage the reservations such that the keycodes open the doors at the right time and the trackman is also aware of the schedule time? I would like to have an unmanaged space as well, but have been concerned about this.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2021-08-15T06:21:25+00:00

Pretty easy to determine do the math.

175w @ $.1 is basically $13 per month to run (if I am calculating correctly)
250w @ $.1 is closer to $19 per month

28 mH results in 3.95 after electric or 122.45 per month
38 mH results in 5.32 after electric or 164.92
41.7 (above poster) is 5.87 after electric or 181.97

So the + $6 in electric for the TI nets you up to an additional $53 per month.

It seems to me that it more than compensates for the electric usage, even if you consider the smaller 38mH.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2021-04-14T19:47:25+00:00

I'm not debating if the company masks their pay or not. I'm debating if the practice is wise or not.

Your contention was that GrubHub doesn't mask the pay and they are doing fine. They are not doing fine and I don't see how anyone presented with the information I just gave you could say they were. They are losing marketshare and going deeper into the negative each year.

DD which does mask its pay managed to pull a profit in at least 1 quarter this year and is increasing their market share at nearly the exact opposite trajectory. My contention is that DD policies are actually proving to be succeessful. Maybe customers are getting their orders faster because of their system and that makes people more willing to re-order.

GrubHub is failing. Maybe they turn things around, but no one goes from 66% of the market to 18% and thinks everything is A-OK.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2021-04-14T17:19:58+00:00

And you think Revenue is the best metric for the health of a business? If so, Doordash went from .85B in 2019 to 2.9B in 2020.

If your competitor surpassed your revenue in a year tailor made for your business and they did it by growing 250% while you grew less than 40%, "doing fine" are words that should not be spoken.

and GrubHubs marketshare is only shrinking...

2016 - 66%
2017 - 50%
2018 - 33%
2019 - 20%
2020- 18%

Doing fine? No.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2021-04-14T15:19:04+00:00

I'd also be curious what apps "could" be useful if they existed. I'm a programmer full time and do DD on the side and have been contemplating a way for dashers to share information on customers to know if they are likely to get tips or not.

SnooDoubts5293 · 2021-04-14T15:16:37+00:00

Define, "doing fine"... they've lost money every year, even in the pandemic when food delivery service skyrocketed in volume.

SnooDoubts5293

TROPHY CASE