If you allocate lanes by phone, paper diary or Excel, you know the consequences: lanes given out twice, missed calls in the evening and no reliable figures on occupancy. These are the seven mistakes we see most often in bowling centres without a booking system, each with what a booking system changes about it.
Mistake 1: Double bookings
Many bowling centres know the awkward situation of a lane being booked twice. It annoys guests and costs revenue. A booking system prevents this, because every booking appears in the same schedule straight away. A lane cannot be given to two groups at the same time.
Mistake 2: No overview of lanes, rooms and staff
When you manage reservations by hand, it is easy to lose track. Then there is no party room free for a birthday group, or too few staff are rostered on Saturday while lanes stay empty during the week. A booking system shows you at a glance what is booked when, so you can plan lanes and staff better.
Mistake 3: Your team spends too much time on the phone
Managing bookings by hand takes time. Your team takes reservations over the phone, enters details and confirms bookings manually. That time is missing for the guests in the centre. A booking system takes over many of these tasks automatically.
Mistake 4: Guests cannot book for themselves
Guests expect to be able to reserve a lane online. Anyone looking for a lane for Saturday at 10 pm will not reach anyone on the phone and will book with the next centre that takes online bookings. With an online booking system, guests check availability themselves, book around the clock and can pay online straight away.
Mistake 5: No reliable figures on occupancy
Without a booking system, it is hard to keep track of when your lanes are full and when they are not. A booking system records this data automatically, and you can see, for example, which weekdays are regularly quiet and where a promotional price could pay off. There is more on this in the article on dynamic and seasonal pricing.
Mistake 6: Reservations without a deposit
Without a booking system, taking payment in advance is hardly practical. If a group does not turn up, the lane stays empty on a Friday evening. A booking system can ask for a deposit when the reservation is made and send an automatic reminder of the booking. There is more on this in the article How to reduce no-shows in your bowling centre.
Mistake 7: Guests cannot find you online
Someone who searches Google for “bowling near me” often books wherever they can see a free slot straight away. A centre without online booking is out of the running at that moment, even if its lanes are free.
What a booking system changes
A booking system solves many of these problems at once: each lane is only given out once, guests book and pay for themselves, confirmations and reminders go out automatically, and you can see at any time how busy your lanes are. You can work out what managing bookings by hand costs you today in the article Booking system vs. Excel.
Where to start
Check which of the seven mistakes costs you the most time or revenue today. It is usually double bookings and missed calls. That is exactly where a booking system makes the quickest difference.
How a booking system prevents these mistakes in practice is explained on the page Booking system for bowling centres. One example of a system built for bowling centres is Flexybox.
