I’ve been in the golf business for years, and every year I see the same thing: directors boasting in meetings about having March, April, October, and November fully booked. Applause. Pats on the back. Congratulations from the owner.

And I ask myself: Are we really celebrating selling what sells itself?

The mirage of the high season

All the tour operators, all the agencies, all the salespeople are obsessed with the same thing: filling up during peak season. As if that were a merit. As if selling when everyone wants to buy required special talent.

The reality is that peak season has become a dangerous comfort zone. It’s easy to set a price, watch the bookings come in, and think you’re doing a great job. But let me tell you something that statistics prove time and time again: filling the peak season at any price is a massive loss of profitability.

Think about it: you have guaranteed occupancy, demand exceeding supply, and what do we do? We sell at a set price, often the same one we’ve been using for years, adjusted for inflation if necessary. Meanwhile, we leave money on the table. A lot of money.

True business acumen lies in the valleys

I’ve seen golf courses with 85% occupancy in March that barely reach 35% in August. And therein lies the problem, or rather, therein lies the opportunity that no one is taking advantage of.

Whoever is smart enough to fill those gaps holds the key to success. I’m not talking about slashing prices. I’m talking about real strategy, revenue management applied with solid data, understanding that every month, every week, every day has a different value.

Some facts that should make you think:

The peak season is becoming increasingly linear and timeless. The traditional “high season” model is changing. British, German, and Scandinavian golfers no longer travel only in spring and autumn. The domestic market has become more sophisticated. New generations book differently.

And yet, we continue to sell with a 1990s mindset.

The Revenue Management Nobody Uses

Let’s be clear: most golf courses in Spain don’t truly implement revenue management. They have high season and low season rates, period. That’s not revenue management. That’s having two prices.

Real revenue management involves:

Granular historical occupancy analysis: It’s not enough to know that August is slow. You need to know which weeks in August, which days of the week, and which time slots. The data exists in your booking system, but nobody is looking at it.

Intelligent Customer Segmentation: The last-minute individual player is not the same as the tour operator group that books six months in advance. They cannot pay the same. They shouldn’t be playing at the same time. The player who books early deserves an incentive. The one who books two days before should pay the premium price.
Real Dynamic Pricing: Your direct competitors are selling today for X euros. Your statistics tell you that tomorrow you typically have 60% occupancy at this time of year. The weather is going to be excellent. Is your price still the same as you set in January when you designed the annual rate? Wrong.

Active Channel Management: Not all channels have the same cost. Direct bookings should be your priority. But I see fields that offer the exact same direct price as through intermediaries who take a 20% commission. Where’s the incentive for the customer to book with you?

The Trap of Impressing Superiors

I suspect that much of this obsession with filling up during peak season has to do with showing pretty numbers in presentations. It’s easier to say “we have 95% occupancy in April” than to explain a complex strategy for optimizing total revenue.

But let’s be clear: selling is one thing, and simply fulfilling a booking is quite another. Answering the phone when it rings in March and confirming a reservation isn’t selling. It’s fulfilling a booking. It’s the difference between being proactive and reactive, between building a business and merely processing demand.

Smart owners and investors don’t just look at occupancy. They look at RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Round). They look at margins. They look at real profitability.

And that’s where you see the difference between a sales manager who sells and one who generates profitability.

Where the real opportunity lies

The local market in the off-season. That neighbor who plays year-round and whom you never consider because you’re obsessed with the British tourist in March. There’s volume, recurring business, and profit margin there if you know how to build the right proposition.

Well-thought-out strategic alliances. Hotels often seek out golf to fill rooms during their off-season, which, ironically, coincides with our peak season. But that’s not where the value lies. The real opportunity is in identifying niches that need occupancy precisely when you need it: beach hotels in the summer, inland destinations in the winter, MICE segments looking for spaces when no one else wants them. That’s where real synergies are found, not the typical PowerPoint “collaborations” that never get implemented.

Aggressive advance sales. October is the time to sell July of the following year. With real discounts that motivate the client to commit. Advance cash flow, guaranteed occupancy, and planning capabilities.

The off-season corporate segment. Companies have budgets and are looking for value. A corporate event on a Tuesday in August can generate more profit than three tour operator groups on a Saturday in April.

Real Pricing Flexibility: If you have zero bookings on a Tuesday in August at 2:00 PM and you’re 48 hours away, why does that tee time cost the same as a Saturday in April at 10:00 AM? The tools are there. What’s lacking is the will.

The Uncomfortable Question

If you had to choose between these two options, which would you choose?

Option A: Course with 75% annual occupancy, average price of €45, RevPAR of €33.75

Option B: Course with 68% annual occupancy, average price of €52, RevPAR of €35.36

The second option generates more revenue with less wear and tear on the course, less operational stress, a better customer experience (less overcrowding), and a higher profit margin.

But most would choose the first option because “occupancy is higher.” And that’s why we’re still where we are.

It’s time to change the conversation

This sector needs professionals who understand that selling isn’t the same as optimizing. That filling a space isn’t the same as making a profit. That peak season is the icing on the cake, but a sustainable business is built by managing the other nine months of the year well.

The data is there. The tools exist. The knowledge is available. The only thing missing is to stop celebrating easy successes and start working on the real challenges.

Because in the end, whoever controls the lows, controls the business.