One-stop shopping has become a staple of life these days. As the demands on people’s time increase, the need to take care of as much as possible in a timely, convenient manner is paramount, whether one is shopping for groceries, shoes, cars or even golf vacations.
Let’s concentrate on the latter. As one of the industry’s leading providers of golf vacations since 1975, Golfpac has sent more than 550,000 golfers to destinations, from Arizona’s desert to Spain’s Costa del Sol and dozens of destinations in between, including the Sandhills of North Carolina, the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, and the burgeoning market in the Dominican Republic. All of these destinations and more are previewed in Golfpac Travel’s newly revamped Website, www.golfpactravel.com, which features new tools to help make getting started on a trip easier than ever.
For example, the Golfpac site contains the company’s Vacation Finder, a sign-up box for an online newsletter as well as an offer for its free 2006-2007 Golf Travel Guide brochure.
Want information on Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Orlando or Donald Ross’s masterpiece Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina? Golfpac’s site has the 411. How about the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., or Robert Trent Jones’ legendary Gold Course at Colonial Williamsburg? Golfpac has all one needs to know about those courses and where to stay, as well as a variety of stay-and-play packages that can fit almost any budget and golf handicap.
“We consider ourselves the gold standard of the golf travel industry as far as the service we provide and the technologies we provide our customers,” says Golfpac Travel President, Jeff Hamilton. Hamilton and a group of partners acquired Golfpac Travel, based in Orlando, in 1986 and over the past 20-plus years, have turned the business from $2 million in annual sales to more than $20 million in annual sales.
“We’re always being forced to step up to the plate and have innovative tools on the Website that others don’t have in order to make the job of the Group Leader easier,” says Hamilton. “We try to be as minimally invasive to the customer as we possibly can until he wants to provide us with information or wants us to provide a service. From that point, we build on the relationship and follow up.”
A Group Leader, in Golfpac vernacular, is the main man (or woman) in a group of golfers (say four or eight persons) who’s primarily responsible for coordinating a golf trip with a Golfpac travel professional. Golfpac employs 26 travel professionals, each of whom are experts in helping prepare a one-night golf getaway or a six-night “trip of a lifetime” experience.
“Most of the guys [who work with us] play golf and have been with us for years, so we have a wealth of knowledge,” says Hamilton. “We have people visiting golf courses and hotels a couple times per year. They travel before and after the season, negotiate rates and check out the quality of the product.”
And in case you meet a Golfpac travel professional, check for a Rolex watch. Hamilton gives a Rolex to each employee who has been with the company for at least 10 years. So far, he’s given out 10, with more in the wings.
“It’s a tribute to how we do things here,” Hamilton said.
The Golfpac travel professional is the first link in the chain that binds together the Group Leader and the traveling golf group.
“We have a great responsibility to provide the Group Leader with expectations so that he’s not going to have [group members] beating him up for having a bad time,” Hamilton says.
That’s where the “My Trip” tool on Golfpac Travel’s Website comes into play. My Trip is a password-protected subsite the company has devised in order for each member of a specific travel group to stay in touch with each other. The My Trip site gives the Group Leader and each member of the golf group the opportunity to review information and confirmations for golf, hotels, rental cars; view balances and payments; make payments and enter rooming lists.
Golfpac’s Vacation Finder, meanwhile, is just what the name suggests. A potential traveler can use the Vacation Finder tool on the site to select from one of more than a dozen domestic and international golf destinations, select the date of arrival and the number of nights and golf rounds desired, and_Ê select a price range. For example, target Orlando for five nights and four rounds in May 2007 (for $1,001 to $1,250), and you’ll get a price quote and online booking information at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort and the Reunion Resort and Club.
“We let a customer build his own itinerary,” Hamilton says. “The Internet is there as a tool to use to gather information. A lot of product on the Internet basically isn’t regulated, so it’s nothing but a tool for gathering information and then making some evaluation as to the people behind the pages.
“One of the things we try to convey to people is that you can always find something cheaper out there, but where is it going to be after you buy it? Or when there’s a problem? We’re trying to educate people that it’s important not only to have a good product in front of you, but to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company that stands behind its product and has been in business for some time.
“We have the ability to sort courses by price, so if you go in and do an alphabetical search, you can select a course by the price point,” Hamilton says. “We’re trying to give customers as many ways as possible to look at a product and give them a better understanding of where a course is and what it costs. We also have a hotel locator to let customers know when they’re nearby courses for first-day and last-day type of play. We’ve been pretty innovative in all those approaches in being able to put those programs in place.”
Golfpac also has an impressive record on the international travel scene. After all, not all golf travel companies can guarantee tee times on the Old Course at St. Andrews, but Golfpac, through its relationship with the Links Golf St. Andrews, can do just that.
Unless you’re fortunate enough to live in the Auld Grey Toon or be a member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the most common way to get a tee time on the Old Course is through the daily lottery. But even that’s a crapshoot these days, making Golfpac’s deal with the Links Golf St. Andrews all the more valuable. Through a subsite, www.golfpacinternational.com, Golfpac can provide a list of departure dates where a package of six or more nights guarantees a round on the Old Course.
But whether it’s the Old Course, Carnoustie across the bay or Donald Ross’s home course of Royal Dornoch, there’s no shortage of golf in Scotland. And although the country is small, a first-time visitor can be a bit overwhelmed by it all. In other words, it helps to have some local knowledge, such as: You’re not guaranteed a tee time at the Old Course by staying at the Old Course Hotel; take a USGA handicap card with you, although you probably won’t need it; use balsamic vinegar, not catsup, on your French fries (or “chips”); and it’s usually best to wash down haggis with a good, single-malt scotch.
“We got into the international market 12 to 14 years ago,” Hamilton says. “What we realized early on is that we need to have good ground representatives. With about any [travel company] you can get a tee time, a car and a room, but an awful lot can go wrong.
“It’s important to have somebody there who has been there and done that–especially for people who are making it the trip of a lifetime. They should be putting their trust in a company that can meet their expectations and make the trip as hassle free as possible, from a meet-and-greet at the airport to making sure the car is there to getting a welcome arrival at the hotel. Everything like that our ground handlers are responsible for. They’re experts in golf and on the hospitality side, too.”
When a Golfpac customer returns home from an international or domestic trip, he or she can let the company know about their experience, Hamilton says, so the company can better serve its future customers.
“We provide them with a form to rate hotels and courses, and we’ll post it on the Web,” Hamilton says. “It lets our customers view the ratings and experience Golfpac. It keeps everybody honest.”
And in the end, Hamilton says, honesty is all that counts.
“We’re really getting customers to understand that price alone isn’t going to be the determining factor of what they’re buying,” Hamilton says. “Somebody is always going to do it cheaper, but they usually leave out a few parts. You just don’t know what parts they leave out.
“If I’m a golfer, I don’t want to be in a position to find out if and when it happens. So if there is an emergency, they can pick up the phone, even after hours, and talk to me.”_Ê GT
For more information, visit www.golfpactravel.com
The 18th at Legacy Golf Links challenges golfers with a tough shot over water.
