Babysitting - Increase Play on Weekend/Revenue for Courses?

As I am sitting here with 60 degree weather today in St. Louis wanting to play golf, I cannot because the wife has an appointment, which is fine. This is at least the tenth time I have thought "I wish there was a golf course with a daycare." Gyms have them, why not golf courses. Charge $10 a kid. Even if you break even on the daycare, you are getting more golfers in the door who couldn't play if the wife was busy. Just thought I would throw it out there and see anyone's thoughts on it. Maybe their are courses that do this already. This would also be great if they used it as a short "junior camp" for 4-5 hours where kids can putt or hit balls or whatever.

Yeah but they do it at the gyms around here for free and membership is only $10 per month. They pay these 18 year olds who are in school 8/hr to watch the kids for a weekend job. Usually those who want to be teachers(my cousin owns a day care and that is the going rate, or she is cheap). If you have a controlled environment where kids can play I think 1 person can handle 15 people. I don't think you would get more than 15 a day but I just wish I could play golf today.. I will try and finish reading my book today instead. $150 and have it in a set window of 8 hours ($64 of labor) and maybe the kids want a drink and a hotdog too? I know the local YMCA gives free daycare too.

They do it at gym's because there's guaranteed recurring revenue every month that they can budget for those types of services.  I also know that some private clubs offer day care services, but again there's guaranteed revenue coming in.

Public / muni courses would have a tough time because they wouldn't be able to offer full-time employment to anyone that is qualified to do it and if it's not in a warm climate it's not a year long job.

I think that you would have to require pre-booking a couple of days in advance then to make it work, and then if there is room the day of you could call and ask. Think about a day where there is a scramble. That would be pre-booked and you could anticipate.

What if the course isn't a super busy course.. or maybe it is.. either way you are gaining a greens fee and business over other courses. Greens fees that you wouldn't have gained if the service wasn't available.

And lastly, you could always raise the price if you really wanted to make it work. But pre-booking so the course could anticipate the volume would be key.

In the end wouldn't it be easier for you to find a babysitter that you trusted and allowed your child to play in the comforts of your own home?

Ski resorts do have a model for somethng like this.  The one I'm familar has a 'Kiddy' center that seems as much like childcare as it does lessons (but for 4 years old and up only).  There is a dedicated fenced off area for the kids to ski/play under the direction of junior instructors.  It's a good 'sticky' for the ski resort to keep parents coming back (at the request of their kids).

I agree with Erik in that I don't see why a golf course would do this if the course was already full.  I could see it as a feature of a country club to possible help drive membership demand.

From the Snow Summit website:

Yep, that's a much more workable solution under most circumstances.

Plus, 5 hours is way too long to ask some high school kids to keep very young children entertained. It's not like they'd be running an actual program like a certified preschool.

My gym has excellent daycare, but they put a 2-hour limit on you, no matter the age of the child. It's completely understandable why that was put in place.

beat me to it, St Louis might have a several courses close together that could use the service. Cut down on costs.

It's been my experience that weekends, on some courses are already crowded enough, which of course can have a negative effect on pace of play for those who fret over such things. Golf courses will suffer from lower revenue during the week days. I always golf on Tuesdays-through Thursdays when the crowds are much lower.

As for day care at the course, there are few courses in Vegas that have separate day care centers near their courses. The are not part of the golf course, but handy enough. One course I know of would even give a golfer a price break if they showed a receipt from the day care center. Unfortunately that particular course has closed down, and is now an apartment complex.  I think a golf course utilizing a nearby day care center. if advertised correctly, could bring a few more golfers in. The golf course would have no liability in the care of the child, while the child would be in the hands of professionals. A winning combination for all involved. These days there are day care centers just about every where, and finding one near a golf course should not be much of a problem.

Another perspective:

If I've got a 5-hour block of time to spend with my kid (a 5-year-old girl), I'm not going to go in for entertainment options that separate me from her. What she wants to do will be the priority and if that consists of something other than going to the golf course, then golf be damned for that day.

Not trying to sound holier than thou here, but at my age (50), I may have a different take on this sort of thing than most parents of kindergarteners. I was also the child of a workaholic father (restaurateur) who made it clear before he passed that he regretted not devoting more time to my brother and I when we were kids.

Time is the one thing you can't get back.

Moderation is key when you have kids.  Working men and women have to find time for everyone outside of work, including themselves.  If you get out early you can be home in time to spend the entire day with the family.

Yeah, great concept there, except that it doesn't pertain at all to what I was referring to. I'm talking about limited time windows of just a few hours, not having 17 hours or so (the time from pillow to pillow) to divvy up as you see fit. That's a whole other discussion.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the topic of the post (daycare at courses), so I'll drop it right now.

I do not think your analogy works.

First of all very few people spend 5 hours at the gym.  It is a much different deal to take care of a kid for an hour or so and taking care of them for 5 hours.  You will need snacks, some kids will nap.  What age range are you going to allow?  Infants?  Potty trained?

Second, in my experience the vast majority of people bringing their kids to the gym are women.  I'm sure there are some men who do it as well - I just never saw any of them.  You also are talking about something that happens every day at a gym compared to a golf course - whose customer base is predominantly men.  How often do you think anyone would take advantage of a service like this at a golf course?  Personally I doubt they get one per day.

And finally the real killer - Liability.  With such limited use of such a service at a gf course they would have trouble being able to afford someone who has appropriate training and background.  When you offer a service like this as an adjunct to a commercial operation you have a far higher threshhold for taking care thn in a private baby-sitting situation.

Not every thing that makes sense to the customer makes sense to the business.

Liability issues can be a real swamp when it comes to facilities providing child care.

At the University where I work, the provost sent out a policy dictate saying that (adult) students cannot bring their children to class with them. Parents think they can just leave the kids out in the lobby during class, but..

• semi-supervised kids can create disturbances;
• the open lobby sets up a bad safety situation for minors.

I imagine golfdom would encounter similar problems. Country clubs, however, might be more likely to consider the baby-sitting than would public courses. CCs have a larger, better-trained staff, and a more interlocked relationship with their golfers than do public courses.

For either CCs or public courses, I suspect company lawyers would have a big say-so in this.

This thread highlights one of the aggravating factors leading to the decrease in the number of golfers: the evaporation of adult personal time. Many parents of Millenials want to supervise the kids from cradle to nuptual so that the kids turn out "perfect." Throw in the traveling tournament soccer teams for 12-year-olds, and time for adults to do something for themselves - or interact as adults with their spouses - has become scarce. Golf is one activity getting squeezed out.

Don't worry, GHIN. In a couple of years, you can take the kids out to play with you!

Maybe a good idea for one golf course in the area, but I could totally see it not working if it was offered by every golf course.

Alright, Alright it was a bad idea. But it sounded really good yesterday. And I look forward to bringing them with me more often. I started bringing my 3 year old this summer:

Still working on the 5 keys.