This past winter we are VRBO’d a condo in St. Pete’s. Upon returning my inbox served me the typical closure. “Please review your stay, it helps us with future bookings”. No problem…I gave all 5 stars as it truly was a great vacation. A day later, I received another email from VRBO, they told me that I was also reviewed as a renter, and that my profile and “renter reviews” would always be visible to any host homeowner in the future, should I make another reservation. Yikes!
No worries, I was also given 5 stars across all categories, I wore than medal proudly all day. Then I got to thinking…golf is reservation based, and yet me don’t get to review the customer. Imagine if you made a tee time, and the course could look up your profile before you received a confirmation that you could play Saturday morning. So I polled 1000 golf courses, “if you could get the skinny on what a customer is like…” and this is what they told me they would like to see before finishing your booking.
- Likelihood of fixing a ball mark.
- Ability to arrive 10 minutes early
- Time spent looking for lost balls
- How much they bitch about senior rate
- Can they show up with actual number they booked for
- How ornery they are about being paired up
- Level of creepiness to the bev cart girl
- How many sunflower seeds they spit on the green
- Number of curbs they must jump the cart off of
Sadly not making the top 9 were: stealing range balls, taking two parking spots because you think your car is nice, tipping with quarters, getting your soda with no ice, no-showing your golf lesson, and demanding Augusta conditions when you paid $30.
It all seriousness, I really like that VRBO does that. It’s an even exchange of respect and accountability. It doesn’t fix everything, but it’s a good start. As for a golf version of VRBO, golf operators can keep dreaming.
