---
title: "Golf Simulator Business for Sale: What to Check First"
description: "Buying a golf simulator business? What to ask the seller for, how to read utilization and seasonality against real benchmarks, and what you inherit with it."
url: https://golfoclock.com/blog/buying-a-golf-simulator-business
---

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# Buying a golf simulator business: what to check before you sign

Oct 14, 20269 min read

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.

**Before you make an offer, ask the seller for:** 12 to 24 months of booked bay hours by month, posted opening hours, the price list and membership rates, completed bookings by day of the week, cancellations, the payment processor's payout statements, active memberships with renewal dates, unused prepaid balances, the lease and its renewal terms, equipment ages, warranties and software licence terms, and a customer export with marketing consent.

## 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. Check the opening hours before you compare: a venue open around the clock shows a lower percentage than one open 14 hours a day, even if it sells the same bay time, so compare hours sold per bay as well as the percentage. 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 winter better than about four in five venues manage, and you should ask to see the months that aren't winter.

Then work out the realised rate: the seller's session revenue divided by the bay hours sold. Hold it against the platform's median of $40 a bay hour in Canada and $55 in the US, or the top quarter's $49 and $65. Those benchmarks use listed booking prices, so discounts and membership credits aren't netted out; compare the seller's listed-price revenue first, then check how much was actually collected. A typical bay sells about 1,900 hours a year. If the seller's numbers are far above that, find out where they come from. The full breakdown is in our [golf simulator profitability data](/blog/golf-simulator-profitability).

## Check the money, not just the bookings

Booking data tells you what was sold. Bank deposits tell you what was collected. Ask for the payment processor's payout statements for the same 12 months and reconcile them against booking revenue. A gap means refunds, discounts, comps or bookings that were never paid.

Ask how cancellations are counted, too. Across Golf O'Clock venues, about 18% of bookings are cancelled, while true no-shows at venues that tag them consistently run closer to 1%. A booking count that includes cancelled bookings makes the bays look busier than they were, so ask for completed bookings only.

## Look at the summer, not the listing photo

A listing written in January shows a simulator venue at its best. 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 ask 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](/blog/off-season-management).

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 on weekdays. Make sure the price reflects what it does today, not what it could do.

## 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](/blog/unmanned-indoor-golf-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](/blog/golf-simulator-room-dimensions) has the width, depth and ceiling height manufacturers recommend.

**The accounts.** Payments usually run through the seller's own Stripe or Square account, so plan to connect yours. List every login you need handed over: the Google Business profile and its reviews, the domain and website, social accounts, the phone number, the door-access system and the simulator software. A venue whose reviews you can take over is worth more than one whose reviews you can't.

**Licences and people.** If the venue serves alcohol, find out whether the licence transfers or has to be applied for again. If there are staff, get their terms in writing before you agree a price.

**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. Saved cards can't move between systems, so customers add a card on their next booking. Export the booking history and the list of unused prepaid balances before the old account closes, because you'll need both afterwards. Switch outside March, January and April, the three busiest months across the platform. More in [switching booking systems](/help/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](/blog/indoor-golf-business-cost) and [how to start a golf simulator business](/blog/how-to-start-golf-simulator-business).

Written by [Mathieu Morin](/about), 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 winter better than about four in five venues manage, 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.

## Ready to see Golf O'Clock in action?

Book a demo and we'll walk you through the platform with your venue setup in mind.

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