Before you buy a golf simulator business, get at least 12 months of booking data straight from its booking system and judge the venue on its whole year, not the winter in the listing. Compare its utilization with real benchmarks, check what you inherit (the lease, the equipment, any prepaid hours already sold) and find out who owns the customer list. The rest of the price conversation follows from those numbers.
Listings for simulator venues tend to share a few lines: strong winter, loyal members, "fully automated, runs itself". Some of that will be true. This guide is about checking it. The benchmarks below come from the 200+ venues on Golf O'Clock, over the fiscal year July 2025 to June 2026, measured as booked bay hours divided by each venue's own posted opening hours.
Ask for booking data, not a revenue summary
A profit and loss statement tells you what the business earned. It doesn't tell you why, or whether it will again. Booking data does. Ask the seller to export, from the booking system itself:
- Booked bay hours by month, for at least 12 months and ideally 24
- The venue's posted opening hours over the same period
- Prices by time of day and any membership or package rates
- Bookings by day of the week
With hours booked and hours open you can work out utilization yourself: booked bay hours divided by open bay hours. That one number explains most of what a simulator venue earns, because almost every cost is fixed. Rent doesn't care how many people booked.
Hold the numbers against real benchmarks
Here's how venues on Golf O'Clock spread out in peak season, November to April:
| Percentile | Peak-season utilization |
|---|---|
| 10th | 8% |
| 25th | 20% |
| Median | 41% |
| 75th | 57% |
| 90th | 72% |
A venue at 41% in winter is a normal venue. One at 57% is in the top quarter. If a listing implies 60% or more as a matter of course, it's describing a top-decile winter, and you should ask to see the months that aren't winter.
For revenue, a typical bay sells about 1,900 hours a year. At median rates of $40 CAD or $55 USD per bay hour, that's about $75,000 CAD or $105,000 USD in session revenue per bay, before food, memberships, lessons and events. If the seller's revenue per bay is far above that, find out where it comes from. If it's far below, find out whether it's price, hours or demand. The full breakdown is in our golf simulator profitability data.
Look at the summer, not the listing photo
Most venues go to market looking their best, and for a simulator venue that's January. Across the platform, venues averaged just under 50% utilization from November to April and about 23% from May to October. At $40 an hour, a bay that earns $9,600 in January earns $3,600 in September.
So the question isn't whether the winter is busy. It's whether the venue covers its fixed costs in July, and what the seller does about the summer. Leagues, lessons, practice memberships and corporate bookings are what carry good venues through it. If the answer is "it's slow, then it picks up again", price that in. More on running the off-season.
Check the week as well. In peak season, Friday and Saturday ran 44% utilization and Monday 32%. A venue that only fills on weekends has room to grow, and you should know whether you're paying for that room or buying it cheaply.
Separate the venue from the owner
Some venues run on one person's network: the owner's golf league, the owner's corporate contacts, the owner's lessons. When that person leaves, part of the revenue walks out with them. Ask which bookings come from leagues, lessons and events, who runs each of them, and whether they're staying.
We have seen a 3-bay venue in a small town outperform a 10-bay venue in a major city. The difference wasn't the location. It was how the place was run. That cuts both ways when you buy: a well-run small venue can be worth more than its size suggests, and a big one can be worth less.
"Fully automated" doesn't mean it runs itself
Plenty of listings sell an unstaffed venue as passive income. It isn't. Unmanned means nobody is on site, not that nobody works. Someone answers messages, handles lockouts when a phone dies at the door, cleans the bays, fixes a projector, deals with chargebacks and keeps the marketing going. The revenue can be partly passive. The work never is.
Ask the seller who does each of those jobs today and how many hours a week they take. Then decide whether that person is you. Our guide to running an unmanned venue covers what the setup involves.
What you inherit with the keys
Prepaid hours and memberships. Members have paid for time they haven't used yet: punch passes, hour packages, house-account balances. When you buy the business, those are hours you owe. Ask for a report of unused prepaid balances and active memberships with their renewal dates, and agree in the purchase how they're treated.
The lease. How many years are left, what the renewal terms are, and whether the landlord has to approve the sale. A strong venue on a lease that ends in 18 months is a different purchase from the same venue with ten years ahead of it.
The equipment and its licences. How old the simulators and projectors are, what's under warranty, and whether the simulator software licences and any subscriptions transfer to a new owner. Check the space too: our room dimensions guide has the width, depth and ceiling height manufacturers recommend.
The customer list. Who owns it, whether marketing consent comes with it, and whether the current booking system can export it. A list of regulars with consent to email them is one of the most valuable things in the sale.
Plan the switch before you close
If you'll change booking systems, plan it around the purchase rather than after it. Customers, tags, marketing consent and active memberships can be imported into Golf O'Clock from a spreadsheet, so members keep their plans and nobody signs up twice. Past bookings usually stay in the old system, so take your export of the booking history before the old account closes. Switch outside March, January and April, the three busiest months across the platform. More in switching booking systems.
Once it's yours, the same numbers become your dashboard: utilization by bay and hour, revenue by month and unused prepaid balances, checked every Monday. If you're comparing what it would cost to build instead, see what it costs to start an indoor golf business and how to start a golf simulator business.
Written by Mathieu Morin, CRO at Golf O'Clock. Based on operating data from 200+ indoor golf venues.
Frequently asked questions
Is buying an existing golf simulator business a good idea?
It can be, if the booking data holds up. You skip the build-out and inherit customers, but you also inherit the lease, the equipment's age and any prepaid hours already sold. Ask for at least 12 months of booking data and judge the venue on its summer as well as its winter.
What utilization should a golf simulator business have?
Across the 200+ venues on Golf O'Clock (fiscal year July 2025 to June 2026), the median venue ran 41% utilization in peak season, November to April. The top quarter ran 57% and the top tenth 72%. From May to October venues averaged about 23%. A seller quoting 60% or more is describing a top-decile winter, so ask for the summer months too.
What should I ask the seller of a golf simulator business for?
Twelve months or more of booking data exported from the booking system (booked bay hours by month), posted opening hours, current prices, the list of active memberships and prepaid balances, the lease with its remaining term and renewal terms, equipment ages and software licences, and who owns the customer list.
Are unmanned golf simulator businesses passive income?
No. Unmanned means nobody is on site, not that nobody works. Someone still handles customer messages, lockouts, cleaning, maintenance, chargebacks and marketing. Ask the seller who does each of those today and how many hours it takes.
Can I keep the customer list and memberships when I buy a golf simulator business?
Usually, if the purchase agreement includes them and the seller's booking system can export them. Customers, tags, marketing consent and active memberships can be imported into Golf O'Clock from a spreadsheet, so members keep their plans. Past bookings generally stay in the old system.