We should own the customer experience and loyalty — not every route customers take to reach us
By Daniel Johansson, Owner and investor in Greenfee365, Coral Plaza Hotel, Los Naranjos Golf Club and Los Naranjos Padel Club
For many years, I have worked with and invested in golf, hospitality and digital distribution businesses. More recently, I have also had the opportunity to develop a padel business through Los Naranjos Padel Club, Andalusia’s largest padel facility.
This has given me an unusual perspective on a question that is becoming increasingly important for the golf industry: who should really be responsible for helping customers find and book their tee times?
I see the issue from four different perspectives: as an owner of a golf facility, a padel facility, a hotel and an international digital distribution platform.
My conclusion is clear:
We should not try to own every step of the customer’s journey to us. We should own the product, the customer experience and the loyalty.
In my view, too many golf clubs spend too much energy trying to control how golfers find their courses, and too little on what happens when those golfers actually arrive.
A golf club CEO already has 30 areas of expertise to manage
Running a modern golf facility is a complex business.
The CEO of a large golf club must deal with around 30 distinct areas of expertise. These range from agronomy, irrigation, machinery and course architecture to finance, funding, human resources, property, restaurants, member relations, pricing and customer service.
For a facility such as Los Naranjos, the business is even broader, encompassing golf, restaurants, padel, fitness, property and substantial investments.
Every business area calls for expertise and management resources. Every decision affects profitability and the customer experience.
Against that background, I believe we need to ask a simple question:
Why should a golf club also try to become an expert in international digital marketing, search engines, booking platforms, customer acquisition and the rapidly changing technology behind digital distribution?
That is an industry in its own right, with its own specialists. It is hardly reasonable to expect every golf club to build all those capabilities in-house simply to reach its customers.
Padel already shows us what the future of distribution can look like
When we entered the padel industry through Los Naranjos Padel Club, we found a market that had, in many respects, already undergone the digital transformation the golf industry is still debating.
Padel players were accustomed to finding facilities, checking available court times, booking and paying through established digital platforms.
A functioning digital ecosystem already existed, and customers knew how to find their next match.
We did not have to start by educating the market or persuading players to visit our own website.
Above all, we needed to ensure our product was available where customers already were.
That changed the conditions under which we operated.
Instead of devoting significant resources to steering players through different marketing channels, we could focus on what we actually needed to excel at: operating and developing an attractive padel facility.
We could concentrate on court quality, maintenance, coaching, the player experience, our restaurant and food-and-beverage offering, the shop’s product range and the ongoing development of the entire facility.
Of course we still need to work on our brand and customer relationships. But we do not need to build or control the entire digital infrastructure ourselves for players to find us.
Customers find their own way to our facility. Our job is to make them want to return.
That is a fundamental difference in how a business is organised. And perhaps the most important lesson I take from padel into golf.
The hotel industry has reached the same conclusion
The same commercial logic has long existed in the hotel industry.
Through my involvement in Coral Plaza Hotel, I have experience of a business in which distribution is an integral part of the business model.
A hotel may have wonderful rooms, excellent service, good restaurants and an attractive location. But that does not mean it can reach every potential guest on its own.
Hotels therefore work with OTAs such as Booking.com and Expedia, tour operators and other sales channels, while continuing to develop their own direct bookings.
There is no contradiction here.
A hotel naturally wants guests to return and book directly. But rejecting external booking platforms for that reason would limit its ability to attract new customers.
A guest who discovers a hotel through an OTA does not necessarily represent a lost direct booking. It may be a customer who would never have found the hotel without that external distribution channel.
Once the guest arrives, the hotel’s real opportunity to build loyalty begins. That is where the decision to return is made. Exactly the same principle applies to golf.
The golf industry confuses distribution with customer loyalty
I believe the golf industry still has a tendency to confuse three different things.
The first is owning the product. The golf club controls its course, tee times, quality, pricing strategy and customer experience.
The second is distributing the product. Customers may find and book a tee time through the club’s website, Greenfee365 or another OTA, a tour operator, a hotel, Google or future AI-powered services.
The third is owning loyalty. That means creating a relationship strong enough for guests to return, recommend the facility and develop a lasting connection with the club.
It is above all this third area that the golf club must own.
A golfer visiting the Costa del Sol for the first time may not know all the courses in the area. The search begins by exploring, comparing and assessing the available options.
A digital distribution platform helps the customer find the right choice. Once the golfer arrives at the course, the platform has done its job. The club’s job is just beginning.
How is the guest welcomed? What condition is the course in? How good is the service? Is the restaurant appealing? Is there something that makes the golfer want to recommend the experience to friends?
These are the questions that determine whether a first-time visitor becomes a loyal, returning guest.
We do not create loyalty by controlling which website customers use. We create loyalty through the quality of what we deliver.
Reserve with Google should be seen as a lead generator
The development of Reserve with Google, and the ability to display available tee times directly in Google search results, is a good example of how distribution is changing.
I sometimes hear the argument that this development could reduce traffic to golf clubs’ own websites.
That may well be true: some customers may choose an easier booking route and never visit the club’s website. But I think that argument misses the most important question.
Why did the customer go to Google in the first place? Presumably to find a golf course or book a tee time.
If Google can help someone discover our facility and show an available tee time, we have gained another opportunity to sell our product.
We do not need to force the customer to navigate through our website first for that opportunity to have value.
To me, Reserve with Google should be regarded as a lead generator and an additional digital distribution channel, not automatically as a threat to direct sales.
Google can make inventory visible at the moment a customer searches. The booking can then be completed through a connected booking provider.
Of course, the golf club must control the commercial terms, understand the costs and measure whether these bookings genuinely bring in new and profitable customers.
But that is very different from opposing the technology simply because the customer does not pass through the club’s own website.
I think we should turn the question around.
Do we want customers to find us as easily as possible, or do we want to dictate precisely how they must find us?
Those are two very different strategies.
34 booking options for Coral Plaza Hotel — and we see them as an asset
When I recently looked at how Coral Plaza Hotel appears in Google’s hotel booking interface, I made an interesting observation: 34 different OTAs and booking options were listed for our hotel.
Thirty-four different routes for a potential guest to find us, compare offers and choose how to book. As a hotel owner, I do not see them as 34 competitors trying to take our customers away. I see opportunities to showcase our product to more potential guests.
We do not try to dictate the route customers take to our hotel. We try to make it as easy as possible for them to choose us. Each distribution partner has its own markets, customer relationships and technology. Together, they deliver reach that would be extremely costly for a single hotel to build on its own.
Of course we want guests to return and preferably book directly. But we achieve that primarily by delivering an experience that makes them want to come back. To me, this contrasts sharply with the debate in golf, where external booking channels are sometimes perceived as a threat to a club’s website traffic.
Imagine if we had taken the same approach in the hotel industry. If I had tried to limit our visibility to our own website, for fear that another provider might secure the booking, would that have made the hotel more attractive? Would more guests have discovered us? Hardly. We would mainly have made it harder for customers to find and book us.
What is an obvious commercial opportunity in the hotel industry should not automatically be seen as a threat in golf.
Google’s hotel display, with booking links and price comparisons, is not technically identical to Reserve with Google for golf. But the commercial principle is the same: meet customers where they search, offer them choice and let them choose how to book.
We should therefore not judge success solely by how many customers pass through our own booking engine. We should measure how many new customers we reach, what it costs to reach them, how profitable the bookings are and how many guests choose to return.
Distribution’s job is to help customers find us. Our job is to make them want to come back.
OTAs and tour operators can generate demand a club cannot reach on its own
Another assumption I believe deserves to be challenged is that every booking through an OTA or tour operator automatically represents a lost direct booking.
That is simply not true. Some bookings would certainly have come directly anyway. Others come from customers the club would never have reached on its own.
An international OTA works with search visibility, traffic, technical integrations, customer acquisition and sales across multiple markets.
A tour operator can package golf with hotels, transfers and other experiences, while bringing an established customer base.
These companies contribute expertise and demand that an individual golf club can rarely replicate cost-effectively.
The important thing, therefore, is not to eliminate commissions but to understand the value each distribution channel creates.
How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? What margin does the booking generate? Would that customer have found us anyway? Will they return? And what is a returning customer worth over several years?
Those questions are far more interesting than simply measuring what percentage of bookings arrive through the club’s own website.
An unsold tee time can never be stored
The golf industry shares a fundamental economic reality with the hotel industry.
A hotel room night that goes unsold today is lost. A tee time that passes without anyone playing is lost too.
Neither can be put into storage and sold next week.
This makes distribution, availability and pricing essential tools for profitability.
Not all tee times are equally attractive. Demand varies by season, day of the week, time of day, weather and market.
A prime tee time in peak season may sell directly with little effort. But what happens to the less attractive times?
This is where digital platforms and tour operators can help find customers the club would otherwise not reach.
A successful distribution strategy must therefore focus on optimising revenue across the whole facility, rather than merely minimising the cost of each individual booking.
That approach is well established in hotels and airlines but, in my experience, still has room to develop in golf.
AI will make the traditional booking debate obsolete
There is another reason why I believe golf clubs should focus on their core operations instead of trying to own the entire distribution chain.
We are seeing extremely rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
Already, the way consumers search for information, compare options and make purchasing decisions is changing.
In the future, golfers will probably increasingly ask a digital assistant to plan a golf trip, recommend suitable courses, compare prices and find available tee times.
The customer may never need to visit a golf club’s website before completing a booking.
That will make it important for golf clubs’ inventory to be accessible through reliable digital integrations and relevant distribution platforms.
At the same time, the technology behind customer acquisition will continue to evolve.
Search engine optimisation, digital advertising, social media and AI-powered search are developing at a pace that makes it difficult even for specialist businesses to maintain expertise without continuous investment.
Is this really an area in which every individual golf club should try to build its own expert organisation?
I do not think so.
Our experience in padel points, in my view, to a far more attractive alternative.
Let specialist digital businesses develop the technology and distribution channels. Let golf clubs focus on improving their product.
Owning loyalty takes more than owning a customer’s booking history
This does not mean golf clubs should surrender their customer relationships. On the contrary, those relationships must remain central.
But we need to distinguish between access to customer data and genuine customer loyalty.
A golf club can have thousands of names in its CRM system without having particularly loyal customers.
Owning an email address is not the same as owning a relationship.
Loyalty is about how guests feel about the facility and whether they want to return.
That is why golf clubs should invest in thoughtful customer service, consistently high quality, relevant return-visit offers and an experience that meets or exceeds guests’ expectations.
Digital systems can help us manage relationships. But the relationships themselves are built through the experience we deliver.
That is another lesson from padel.
When external platforms already provide an effective booking process, time and resources are freed up to improve what makes the facility itself attractive.
We can invest in better courts and courses, better service, better restaurant experiences and a stronger retail offering.
These investments improve the product and strengthen the conditions for repeat business.
The golf club of the future needs to be better at golf — not at Google
Let me be clear: golf clubs should still have a professional website and an efficient direct-booking option in the future.
They should remain in control of pricing, capacity, booking rules and customer relationships.
They must also understand distribution costs and be able to choose the partners they work with.
But they should not confuse being in control of their business with needing to own every step of the customer’s digital journey.
Those are two very different things.
As an owner of businesses in golf, padel, hospitality and digital distribution, I see the same fundamental connection again and again.
Specialisation creates efficiency.
A good golf club should be an expert in the golf experience. A good hotel should be an expert in the guest experience. A good digital distributor should be an expert in reaching customers and making products easy to book.
When these capabilities work together, the conditions for a successful business improve.
I therefore believe the golf industry needs to shift its focus from who owns the booking to who creates value for the customer.
For me, the experience at Los Naranjos Padel Club has been especially instructive.
We entered an industry where the customer was already digital, booking platforms were established and we, as facility owners, could concentrate on delivering a first-class product.
It is a business model from which the golf industry has much to learn.
We do not need to own every channel that brings customers to us. We need to be so good that they choose us, whatever channel they use.
And above all:
Those who succeed in creating loyalty need not fear how the customer found them in the first place.
Daniel Johansson
Owner and investor in Greenfee365, Coral Plaza Hotel, Los Naranjos Golf Club and Los Naranjos Padel Club.
With many years of experience in golf facilities, hotels, padel and international digital distribution, Daniel Johansson understands the commercial realities of both facility owners and distribution platforms.
