Golfscape Sheds Beta Tag On Its Luxury Golf Travel Concierge Service

Golfscape CEO Raghad Mukhaimer recognizes that the United States domestic golf industry is going through a challenging time. However, he notes that international demand for golf has never been stronger. As Mukhaimer and his team shed the Beta tag off of theGolfscape.comwebsite this morning, Mukhaimer maintains that his company is ready to meet the needs of the modern digital golfer by making it easier to book tee times at the best and most beautiful golf courses around the world.

Mukhaimer refers to Golfscape as the Expedia Expedia of the golf world. He says that it may sound trivial, but a service that accepts real-time credit card payments to book tee times does not yet exist in golf . . . or at least those few companies in the space do not operate effectively.

The stated plan is for San Francisco-based Golfscape to take on legacy tour golf operators that have monopolized 85% of the golf travel market, but have not successfully adapted to modern digital trends. It is not a service for everybody;Golfscape is particularly being pitched as a luxurygolf travel concierge with top-end golf courses made available for what its founders call insta-booking, and will provide social recommendations along with virtual tours of the courses offered on the platform. Importantly, Golfspace is not for the golfer looking to find the cheapest tee time. Instead, Golfscape is positioning itself as providing a luxury experience for travelers who want to control their itinerary instead of handing over the keys to a travel agent.

An example of booking a tee time at Palmetto Dunes through GolfScape.com.

Golfscape is launching to the general public with a handful of destinations that were handpicked by founders Mukhaimer and Michael Galasso. Along with U.S.-based courses, Golfscape will offer courses found withinThailand, Bali, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia.

Directors of golf courses are saying, if you can give me a new distribution strategy, then Im all for participating and working with you guys, said Mukhaimer and Galasso. Golf courses are looking for new customers. Golfscape has come up with a new sales channel targeting highly desirable golf travelers. Courses havent had the resources or tools to focus on that through the recession.

Golf course operators can register their courses for consideration to be included within Golfscapes framework. The rate displayed on the Golfscape website is the same rate a golfer will find behind the desk at the requested golf course. Golfscape receives revenue by invoicing its fee to the golf course (there is no fee paid by the consumer to Golfscape) and earns a percentage commission based on the booking amount.

While Golfscapes founders compare their platform to Expedia, they understand that the golf industry is very different than the hotel, airline and car rental industries. In the latter industries, there are limited offerings. Someone booking airfare has few seating class options. With golf, there may be 100 different tee time booking options throughout a single day. Those tee time resources are not easily swapped out for each other.

There is no open API, no integrated method, no standard based system for this, explained Golfscapes founders. Weve taken a different approach. Were saying we dont want the 100-200 different options. Our customer isnt really concerned whether the tee time is 6:08 a.m. or 6:16 a.m. They care if its morning, afternoon or evening. We feel thats enough variety for a user to say Im on a holiday. A 9:00 a.m. tee time or something around it is good enough for me.

For Golfscape to work, it needs to limit the number of tee times available for users so that the platform more closely resembles an Expedia type of offering where only a few booking options exist.

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Golfscape Sheds Beta Tag On Its Luxury Golf Travel Concierge Service