GolfSwitch Network

THE GOLFSWITCH NETWORK

What do thousands of travel agents, Internet sites, hotels, tour operators and golf vacation planners have in common?

They’re all GolfSwitch Reseller Partners and they all have access to real-time golf reservations. The GolfSwitch Network is the first and only standardized, global network that is capable of establishing real-time connections between golf courses and those who wish to market and sell tee times and golf vacations.

The GolfSwitch Network operates on a proprietary, tee-sheet-independent platform that is compatible with 95% of all automated golf courses in the United States and Europe. The GolfSwitch Network enables the consolidation and electronic distribution of tee time inventory and golf content from around the world through a single user-friendly interface.

What’s more, GolfSwitch has developed a platform of enabling technologies, services and content to help golf courses and golf resellers leverage the GolfSwitch Network and capture a lion’s share of the more than $20 billion annually spent on golf reservations.

The goal? To create a global golf reservation network that creates efficiencies for golf courses and streamlines the task of finding and securing tee time reservations.

GolfSwitch Network Features

Real-time reservation & communications platform for tee times and vacations
Supports multiple reservation platforms and booking engines
Universal tee sheet compatibility
The largest database of online golf courses and tee time inventory
Multiple distribution channels
Proven technology
Facilitates multiple transaction types: rack rate, wholesale, discount, premium, golf vacation
Can accommodate custom business rules for any golf course or golf reseller
Completely scalable platform for golf content, commerce and communications

What is The GolfSwitch Network?

The GolfSwitch Network is a standardized communications platform that uses patented technology to connect golf courses around the world to a single platform for golf reservations. The major components of the GolfSwitch Network are as follows:

Tee Sheet Software Connectivity

In response to the demand for a more efficient alternative to paper and pencil tee sheets, dozens of tee sheet software providers entered the golf market in order to provide an automated software solution for tee time reservations.

While these solutions created numerous efficiencies for golf course operators everywhere - and for the first time enabled the electronic availability of golf reservations - the prevalence of closed architecture tee sheet software programs prevented easy access to golf courses and their tee time inventory.

GolfSwitch recognized this need in 1998, and set out to build a global, standardized golf network that eliminated software conflicts, increased tee time yields for golf courses and enabled profitable relationships between buyers and sellers of tee times and golf vacations.

Over the last several years, GolfSwitch has developed API's, or Application Programming Interfaces, to over 40 of the industry's leading tee sheet software companies, which service approximately 90% of all automated golf courses. This means GolfSwitch can safely and securely access real-time tee time inventory, aggregate this information on a standard platform, and distribute this inventory over multiple channels on behalf of golf courses around the world.

Multiple Reservation Engines

In response to the variety of ways in which tee times and bought and sold, GolfSwitch has developed a suite of reservation engines to facilitate almost any type of tee time transaction imaginable, regardless of pricing structure, distribution method, or type of inventory.

Type of Inventory: Rack Rate, Discount, Promotional, Premium, Last Minute, Distressed, Blocked, Packaged (golf vacation)

Pricing Structure: Retail, Wholesale, Discount, Barter, Certificate

Method of Distribution: Internet, Phone, Wireless

Distribution Channels: Hotels, Resorts, Travel Agents, CVB's, Tour Operators, GDS's, Internet sites

The suite of engines, combined with the standardization of The GolfSwitch Network, enables golf courses to market and sell tee times in any market, through any partner, at any price, at any time.

Private Label Distribution

As opposed to other tee time resellers, GolfSwitch has always maintained a private label distribution strategy, which means we don't sell tee times directly to consumers. Instead, we provide real-time connectivity between golf courses and golf resellers, enabling them to market and sell tee times to consumers. GolfSwitch provides these services to almost anyone who wishes to market and sell tee times, including hotels, resorts, travel agents, tour operators, local CVB's, GDS's, and of course Internet sites.

The First and Only Standard Network for Golf Reservations

The standardization of a single platform for golf reservations provides both golf courses and resellers with enormous advantages.

For golf courses, the ability to maintain control of pricing is a vital component of more efficiently managing tee time inventory, yields and ultimately, profits. Regaining a control position over inventory eliminates the major concerns in the industry right now regarding the proliferation of discount golf and the resulting damage to pricing structures in several markets across the US.

Consolidation of tee time inventory and control of distribution channels enable the courses to offer every player the best availability within their own pricing parameters, and the player is comfortable booking because he or she knows that they are receiving the best deals for that particular time frame. Golf courses are in a position to emphasize rack rate pricing, and control the availability and pricing of discount rounds at their own discretion.

The consolidation and standardization on a single platform also enables a wider breadth of distribution, i.e. a larger number of resellers contributing volume over time. This in turn will increase the competition for net rates, thereby reducing the price, and reducing the reliance and pricing pressure any one reseller can exert on a course or group of courses. With a wide range of distribution options available on the Network, pricing power is now in the hands of the golf course, and can be dictated by the course based on performance, or some other metric, in any distribution channel (hotels, wholesalers, internet, etc.).

Flexibility of Multiple Marketing and Distribution Options

With a consolidated and standardized platform for engines and pricing in place, golf courses can manipulate a variety of pricing mechanisms to achieve their own specific goals.

Fix prices for particular seasons, months, weeks or days
List special or discount prices for particular days or times
Provide customized pricing to a particular partner or one price across the board
Virtually limitless possibilities for managing inventory, price, and distribution channels.
List specials along with prices for each tee time (discount lesson, range balls, F&B, etc.)

Most importantly, golf courses can modify any of this at any time, on the fly, for immediate distribution to their partners of choice on the Network, whether they be hotels, wholesalers, local, regional or national internet sites or discount resellers.

Standardization reduces the amount of time and energy necessary to manage multiple different resellers or pricing channels. Over time, as distribution patterns continue to change from offline to online, courses must be in a position to exert the same control they had in the offline world. This approach will increase the margins to the courses by consolidating the market for net rates, controlling the pricing structure for inventory, and standardizing on a single platform for engines.


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