What is a good commercial golf simulator utilization rate? Comparing June and July

If you’re planning to open a commercial golf simulator business, one of the first questions you’ll likely ask is:

“What utilization rate should I realistically expect from an indoor golf facility?”

Unfortunately, real-world data on golf simulator utilization rates, booked bay-hours, peak-hour demand, and membership usage is difficult to find. Most indoor golf operators do not publish their booking statistics, which makes it challenging to create accurate revenue projections or benchmark a new golf simulator facility.

To provide a practical reference point, we analyzed two consecutive months of booking data from a five-bay commercial indoor golf business operating primarily through unlimited memberships and hourly bay reservations.

For context:

• The facility is open daily from 5:00 a.m. to midnight.
• The business opened on February 1, 2026, making June and July its fifth and sixth full months of operation.
• The facility grew unlimited members 13% from the end of June to the end of July.
• The location operates five commercial golf simulator bays.
• We only measured the first 30 days in July to have an even 30 days month over month to compare.

Between June 1 and July 30, 2026, the indoor golf facility operated 19 hours per day, with 5 bays, creating 95 available bay-hours each day.

Commercial Golf Simulator Utilization Statistics

In one month, total booked simulator time increased by 47.5 hours, representing a 6.2% increase in golf simulator bookings.

Overall facility utilization improved from 26.7% in June to 28.4% in July.

However, unlimited membership increased by approximately 13% during the same general period. Based on that growth, we expected a larger increase in total golf simulator usage.

This highlights an important consideration for indoor golf business owners: membership growth does not always translate directly into proportional growth in booked bay-hours. Some new members may use the facility infrequently, while highly active members can create significantly more demand than the average golfer.

Days Above 40% Golf Simulator Utilization

Tracking the number of days above 40% utilization is especially important for this facility because 40% overall utilization is the long-term internal target.

Peak booking hours make up roughly 40% of the facility’s total available schedule. That means if demand were limited almost entirely to peak times, the business could effectively be at peak-hour capacity while still showing only around 40% total daily utilization.

Several July dates produced the highest commercial golf simulator utilization rates during the study period.

For comparison, June exceeded 40% utilization only once, on June 19, when utilization reached 41.1%.

This suggests demand was not increasing evenly across every available operating hour. Instead, golf simulator bookings became increasingly concentrated during evenings, weekends, and other desirable reservation periods.

For commercial indoor golf operators, this distinction matters. A facility can have substantial unused capacity during weekday mornings while simultaneously struggling to offer enough availability during peak golf simulator booking hours.

Weekend Golf Simulator Demand Drove Most of the Growth

Saturday and Sunday golf simulator usage increased substantially from June to July.

Across the four Saturdays and four Sundays included in each month, the facility recorded:

Combined weekend usage increased by 35.5 booked bay-hours, or 17.2%, from June to July.

That weekend increase accounted for 74.7% of the facility’s total monthly growth.

Overall booked hours rose by 47.5 hours, from 760.5 in June to 808 in July. Nearly three-quarters of that improvement came from Saturdays and Sundays alone.

The remaining 12 booked hours of growth came from Monday through Friday combined.

Because both months included four Saturdays and four Sundays, the comparison was not affected by one month having more weekend dates. The increase represents a meaningful change in weekend golf simulator demand.

The other consideration is that July 3rd through 5th were all weekdays during the holiday and all notably slow. This impacts the 74.7% and makes the drastic percent of total increased hours month over month concerning, but nothing to act on yet.

This is an important result for anyone evaluating an indoor golf business model. Membership and customer growth may appear healthy at the facility level, but the majority of that demand can become concentrated into a relatively small number of premium booking periods.

Golf Simulator Utilization Is Not Directly Comparable Between Facilities

One of the biggest mistakes indoor golf operators make is comparing utilization percentages between different commercial golf simulator businesses without considering operating hours.

A facility that is open 12 hours per day has far fewer available bay-hours than one that is open 19 hours, 20 hours, or 24 hours per day.

As operating hours increase, the total number of available golf simulator hours also increases. This expands the denominator used to calculate utilization, even if customer demand during peak periods remains nearly identical.

Our facility is open from 5:00 a.m. to midnight every day, which creates 19 operating hours per bay.

For example, consider two commercial golf simulator locations that are both fully booked from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. each evening.

The facility that is only open 12 hours per day will report a higher overall utilization percentage than a 24/7 golf simulator facility, even though both locations sold the same number of peak evening hours.

The 24-hour location naturally appears less utilized because it offers substantially more early-morning and overnight inventory.

For that reason, indoor golf utilization should be evaluated alongside:

• Total operating hours
• Number of golf simulator bays
• Peak and off-peak booking windows
• Membership structure
• Lessons and league usage
• Corporate events
• Revenue per booked bay-hour
• Availability during the most desirable times

There is no single golf simulator utilization percentage that should be considered ideal for every facility.

A staffed entertainment venue, a members-only golf club, an hourly rental business, and an unstaffed 24/7 indoor golf facility may all have very different operating models and capacity expectations.

The Biggest Commercial Indoor Golf Opportunity Remains Off-Peak Hours

The most valuable takeaway from comparing June and July is that most of the additional growth came from weekends.

While this improved total commercial golf simulator utilization, it also increased pressure on the periods that were already most desirable.

For many indoor golf facilities, the largest opportunity is not creating more Saturday demand. It is increasing bookings during weekday mornings and afternoons, when unused capacity is highest.

Potential off-peak golf simulator strategies include:

• Off-peak indoor golf memberships
• Corporate golf packages
• Senior golf memberships
• Junior golf programs
• Golf instruction and lesson packages
• Daytime leagues
• Club fitting appointments
• Flexible hourly golf simulator pricing
• Practice memberships
• Remote-work and golf packages

These programs can generate incremental revenue without placing more pressure on already busy evening and weekend inventory.

Because every unused simulator bay-hour disappears once that hour passes, even modest increases in weekday golf simulator bookings can have a meaningful effect on annual revenue.

Membership Growth Does Not Guarantee Equal Utilization Growth

Membership increased from 93 to 105 (13%) between the beginning of June and the end of July, while booked bay-hours increased by only 6.2% from June to July.

This does not necessarily mean the memberships were unsuccessful.

Different members use commercial golf simulators at very different rates. Some may visit several times per week, while others may book only once or twice per month.

For operators, this makes it important to analyze:

• Booked hours per member
• Revenue per member
• Revenue per booked hour
• Percentage of inactive members
• Peak-hour usage per member
• Off-peak usage per member
• Booking frequency by membership tier
• Member retention

A profitable golf simulator membership model depends not only on the number of members sold, but also on when those members play and how much limited peak inventory they consume.

Final Thoughts on Commercial Golf Simulator Utilization

Commercial golf simulators are fixed-capacity businesses. Every available bay-hour represents inventory that either generates revenue or goes unused.

This comparison of June and July 2026 showed total booked simulator hours increasing by more than 6%, with facility utilization rising from 26.7% to 28.4%.

However, 74.7% of the total increase came from Saturday and Sunday bookings, indicating that customer demand became more concentrated during weekends rather than spreading evenly throughout the weekly schedule.

The results also show why golf simulator utilization should never be judged by a single percentage without additional context.

A facility’s operating hours, membership model, pricing strategy, peak schedule, bay count, and customer mix all affect how its utilization rate should be interpreted.

For commercial indoor golf operators, the most useful approach is to track total utilization, peak-hour utilization, revenue per bay-hour, and member booking behavior together.

Those metrics provide a much clearer picture of a golf simulator business’s performance than any single benchmark percentage.