Pricing Your Simulator Club: What You Might Miss
Someone asked why our price was so low—turns out it’s more than math.
We didn’t land on our pricing overnight. It came from testing, learning, and living with the trade-offs.
How You Price, Who You Get
There are all kinds of ways to price a golf simulator membership: $50/hr is a pretty standard commercial rate, but will vary between $30–$75. Memberships are now more common—they’re often tiered and $200–$300 per month is what you often find. Prime hours or not. Guests or no guests as well. Most all options come with restrictions.
We’ve studied them all—and tried a few ourselves.
We realized pricing isn’t just a number. It sets the tone for everything else.
It defines your relationship with your members—
Not just who they are, but how they treat the space.
How they treat each other.
And how they treat you.
Pricing is Set, Value’s a Bet
In that relationship, price is constant.
Value… is not.
That’s what always makes pricing the key—the biggest lever you have to pull.
When someone joins a club—any club—they’re placing a bet on what they’ll get.
A $300/month membership comes with higher expectations than one at $70.
Right or wrong, that’s how people work.
The higher the price, the higher your execution has to be.
The more “premium” the vibe, the less margin for error.
And when execution slips (because it will)... your ability to manage will come down to the relationships you have.
If they’re transactional, you’re in a tight spot.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Plenty of businesses are built to deliver high-end experiences with hands-on oversight.
But if you’re betting on a high-price membership to be low-end maintenance—
as many of the new 24/7 self-serve sim franchises are promising to be—
I’m betting you’ll end up learning otherwise.
Listen to Customers, Not Just Costs
We’ve chosen a different path.
Our pricing didn’t come from a cost-driven spreadsheet.
It came from listening—to our members, to the market, and to what actually makes our clubs work.
When I launched Club No. 1, I assumed golfers would gladly pay $75–$100/month for high-end sim access a few minutes from home.
I was wrong.
We started with tiered memberships too—a standard individual plan, and a more expensive one that allowed guests. Pretty typical for the industry.
But it didn’t last.
The pricing was too high for the kind of golfer we were attracting.
And the tiers didn’t make sense once we saw who was signing up.
We thought we were building for the serious golfer—the one who wanted sim access four days a week.
The reality? We appealed to all golfers, especially the more casual crowd.
So we made changes.
First, we lowered the price.
One early member, Ian, said something that stuck:
“Make it so I’m not going to worry if I don’t use it for a month.”
Then we dropped the tiers, landing at 1 rate in the middle.
Most people were joining by themself anyway and tracking guests wasn’t practical.
Instead of charging extra for guests, we made it a perk.
And even if most members didn’t use it, they like knowing that they could.
Affordability and simplicity, to go with our convenience.
The trust we build creates the relationships that we have.
It’s what we’ve learned works for us, based on what we’ve learned directly from our members.
Price for Trust, Watch Community Grow
Neighborhood National clubs are built in garages, sheds, spare rooms, and warehouses—
By real people, for real golfers, with real lives.
Our tech is great—always. That’s one of the few hard lines we’ve drawn.
Our spaces? More flexible. Some are nicer than others.
We don’t promise to be perfect.
What we do promise is to deliver value over price. Always.
We price low—on average, around $70/month—because we know what this kind of access means.
Real swings, on your schedule, in real spaces.
Often just down the street.
The A/C might struggle on a hot day.
The Wi-Fi might hiccup once in a while.
It’s a tradeoff. Definitely won’t be for everyone.
Certainly works for a lot.
We’ve got 180 members and counting and after our latest member survey, 97% said they’d recommend us to others.
When price and value are aligned, trust follows.
And when value materially, consistently, overdelivers on price, community follows too.
We’ve learned that if you lead with generosity and consistency, people stick around.
They respect the space.
They invite their friends.
They don’t stress the rough edges—because they know what they’re getting.
And they’re happy to be part of it.
Actually, they’re proud to be part of it.
They’re part of the club.
And this club averages 92% monthly retention, year-round.
Pro Tip
When pricing your club, your service, your product—
You’ve got options. Lots of them.
What’s worked for us is starting with the relationship we want to build.
Then pricing it in a way that keeps things simple, generous, and good for both sides.
Whether a fit for you or not, I’m always happy to talk—hit me up with questions anytime.
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