I used to work for a online golf tee time company, and you're absolutely correct in saying that building a better online reservation system wouldn't be that hard (the bar is pretty low). I'm not sure about what smaller providers give the course, or how they charge, but the bigger ones also:
1) Provide a 24-hour call center, so no one at the golf course is answering reservation calls much anyway.
2) Provide POS systems, which means that almost all revenue is reportable through one interface.
3) Have rewards and tournament management built in. And also something to report scores to golf associations.
And instead of being paid in totally in cash, they're also paid in tee times, which the company resells itself.
But those are the big guys. I'm sure there are plenty of courses using simple webapps to manage tee times that are horrible. It'd be a good thing to shake that up.
Don't let the 24/7 call center scare you. There are guys out there who run generic call centers that will set up a low-volume 24/7 service for cheap. real cheap...
In the beginning, I would go after the smaller golf courses as well as large courses that realize that this portion of their suite sucks, and they want to use something else in conjunction with it.
1) Provide a 24-hour call center, so no one at the golf course is answering reservation calls much anyway.
2) Provide POS systems, which means that almost all revenue is reportable through one interface.
3) Have rewards and tournament management built in. And also something to report scores to golf associations.
And instead of being paid in totally in cash, they're also paid in tee times, which the company resells itself.
But those are the big guys. I'm sure there are plenty of courses using simple webapps to manage tee times that are horrible. It'd be a good thing to shake that up.