A Less Pricey Rock
By Robert Thompson
The last time we checked in with the newly relaunched The Rock in Muskoka, the ambitious types who were rebranding and remarketing the challenged track thought they could charge a peak rate of $185.
Or at least they thought they could.
They now apparently think differently. After a reevaluation (and the failure to respond to my query about the pricing, I might add), The Rock is back with a peak season rate of $145, a weekday rate of $135 and a twilight of $95 (thanks to reader Ottawa for pointing this out — he apparently spends an inordinate amount of time on The Rock website.)
Smart — or at least smarter than trying to go toe-to-toe with the Muskoka Bays of the world.
Why don’t more courses consider the model that was utilized so successfully by Angus Glen? Start at a reasonable rate, drive your business, deliver the goods and then ramp up the fees. Take, for instance, the way Copetown Woods runs their fees. One year it is taxes in, the next the taxes are additional. Hardly anyone notices.
Instead The Rock was going to try to reenter at the top of the market with a product that couldn’t compete with its rivals. If the newly renovated course is that much better, than the new fees should fill up the fairways and they can slowly increase them over time as demand dictates.
Of course if the renovations, which I haven’t yet seen, weren’t well done, well…. maybe $145 will be asking a lot.
The summer will tell this story.
April 16th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hmmm, same twilight rate as Deerhurst but $20.00 less than the regular rate at Deerhurst- could be appropriate pricing for the Muskoka crowd but if the course hasnt changed much thise looking to save a few bucks up North will be much better off @r North Granite Ridge
April 16th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Glad you picked up my thread re: Rock new pricing.
As we are waiting for our near record snow to melt in Ottawa too many of us are spending an inordinate amount of time on Golf websites……….Golf Forums………and BLOGS……
At least the ranges have started to open…………..16 C to 21 C the next few days………………
April 17th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I think you may have been one of the few that noticed our price change Robert … and good memory, that was a couple years ago!
April 17th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Exactly Barry, which is the genius of your pricing. If you’d suddenly gone to $100, people would scream, but $4 a year isn’t enough for people to notice. Times that by 30,000 rounds, however, and it is a big difference to the bottom line.