Mark Greenslit, the 2006 Southern California PGA Section Merchandiser of the Year for Resort Facilities, is the PGA director of golf at Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, Calif.
Reinventing Your Resort’s Membership Programs
Mark Greenslit on the importance of reinventing your resort’s membership programs:
Launching and maintaining a membership program at a resort facility is always tricky. You could take an upfront initiation fee, just as you would at a private equity club. But at a resort, that kind of initiation fee can get you in trouble. By taking those upfront fees from members you create a sense of entitlement that you may not always be able to deliver on. At a resort, guests come first. If IBM wants to host an outing at your resort, you have to do whatever it takes to put their guests on the golf course on the day that they want to be there. The green fees that outings represent are a revenue opportunity that you cannot ignore. So while you can never say that members are playing second fiddle, in reality, they are. To find a new solution, Ojai Valley Inn & Spa has created an annual membership program. There is no initiation fee. Instead, members pay their dues in two installments over the course of the year. We tell prospective members that we are not offering the equity club experience. We don’t have the same social events or tournaments. But this is a Five Diamond hotel with all of the amenities that come with it (a spa, dining, retail outlets, etc.), including our excellent service. But unlike at a golf club, you will never be assessed for a new irrigation system, a new clubhouse or a course renovation.
Mark Greenslit on the business impact of reinventing your resort’s membership programs:
Of all the economic downturns that have occurred while I have been in the golf industry, this one has impacted the private club membership system – based on initiation fees and equity – the hardest. Now that some people are in the market for a membership but don’t want to commit to that system, we explain our program. They often like it, and they join up. So far this program is working well for us and we have increased our membership by 33 percent. Prospective members don’t have to tie up a lot of cash, and if their lifestyle or financial situation changes, there is an easy out without losing their initiation fee. At the end of the day, this is about providing excellent service to our golfers, and this is another way that we can do that. Clubs need to start thinking outside of the box about how they can get new members, and that is what we did.
