How to price court hire: peak, off-peak and member rates

Set two or three price bands instead of one flat rate. Charge full price when courts are in demand, usually weekday evenings and weekend mornings, and drop the price in quiet times to fill them. Give members a lower rate as a reason to join, and treat holidays and events as their own dates. Review the bands every term against how full each slot actually was.

It’s 6pm on a Tuesday and all four courts are booked, with two people on the phone asking if anything opens up. At 2pm the same day, three courts sat empty. Both hours cost you about the same to run. The rent, insurance and staff don’t change. But you charged the same $30 for both, so you turned money away at 6pm and earned almost nothing at 2pm.

Key takeaways

• A flat court rate undercharges at busy times and does nothing to fill quiet ones.
• Most venues need two or three price bands, not a different price for every hour.
• Off-peak prices work best when they’re aimed at people who can actually come then.
• Member rates should be a clear reason to join, not a small discount nobody notices.
• Set holiday and event prices ahead of time so you’re not changing them by hand.

Why charge different prices at different times?

Court time doesn’t keep. An hour that goes unbooked is gone for good, and you can’t sell it again next week. Demand isn’t spread evenly either. Most venues fill up before and after work and on weekend mornings, and sit quiet during school hours.

One flat price has to land somewhere in the middle. It’s too cheap for the hours people fight over and too expensive to tempt anyone into the hours nobody wants. Different prices for different times let you earn more from busy courts and get something from quiet ones, without adding a single court.

How do you work out your peak hours?

Start with your booking history, not a guess. Take the last full term and, for each day of the week, work out how full the courts were in each hour. Anything above about 80% full is a candidate for peak. Anything below 30 to 40% is a candidate for off-peak.

Then check it against what you hear. If people keep asking for times you can’t give them, that’s peak, even if the numbers look patchy because those people gave up and went elsewhere. Look at:

• Weekday evenings, usually from around 4pm or 5pm until close
• Weekend mornings, especially for social players and juniors
• School holidays, when daytime demand often jumps
• Seasonal changes, like shorter days and weather in winter for outdoor courts

Keep the bands simple. If a customer can’t remember when peak starts, they’ll feel tricked when they’re charged it.

How much more should peak cost?

There’s no single right number, but most venues land somewhere between 20% and 50% above their off-peak rate. A smaller gap rarely changes when people book. A much bigger one starts to feel like price gouging, and regulars notice.

A simple way to set it:

1. Treat your current flat rate as your new standard price.
2. Set peak 15 to 25% above that for the hours that are reliably full.
3. Set off-peak 20 to 30% below it for the hours that sit mostly empty.
4. Leave everything else at standard.

Here’s what that looks like for a venue that charged a flat $30 an hour:

If peak hours stay full after the change, the gap probably isn’t too big. If they start to empty, you’ve gone too far, or your off-peak times don’t suit the people you’ve priced out.

How do you fill off-peak hours?

A lower price alone won’t fill a court at 11am on a Wednesday. The price has to reach people who are free then. Think about who that is near your venue:

• Retirees and older social groups, who often prefer daytime play
• Shift workers and people who work from home
• Parents during school hours
• Your own coaches, who can run private lessons in quiet times instead of fighting for evening courts
• Schools and community groups looking for daytime sport

Then tell them directly. A regular weekday social session, a morning group for over-55s or a school holiday program can turn a dead slot into a steady earner. For more ideas, see how to fill empty spots in your classes and how to run a school holiday camp that sells out.

Should members pay less?

Usually, yes. A member rate gives people a reason to sign up and keep paying, and membership fees bring in money whether or not courts get booked that week.

The discount has to be big enough to matter. If members save $2 an hour, few people will do the maths and join. A common approach is to set member rates at or near the off-peak public price, all day. Some venues also give members first access to peak bookings, which costs you nothing and is often worth more to players than the discount.

Things to weigh up:

• How often members play. If a member plays twice a week, work out what they save in a year and check the membership fee still makes sense for both of you.
• Peak access. If members fill every peak hour at a low rate, casual players get squeezed out and you lose your best-paying bookings. Some venues give members a smaller discount at peak.
• Different member types. Juniors, seniors and families may each need their own rate.

Read more about memberships and subscriptions.

How should you price holidays and special dates?

Public holidays, school holidays and local events change demand, sometimes up and sometimes down. Christmas week might be dead. A long weekend with good weather might be your busiest three days of the year. Treat these as their own dates with their own hours and prices, and set them before bookings open. Changing prices after people have booked leads to awkward conversations about who paid what.

Think about staffing too. If you open on a public holiday and pay penalty rates, your court price for that day should cover it.

How do you tell customers about the change?

People accept different prices when the rules are clear. They push back when it feels like a surprise.

• Give regulars a few weeks’ notice before new prices start.
• Lead with the cheaper option. “Courts from $22 on weekdays” lands better than “peak now costs $36”.
• Show the price for each slot when people book, so nobody finds out at checkout.
• Keep the bands the same for at least a term so people can plan around them.

If you run classes as well as court hire, see how to price coaching classes in Australia.

Common mistakes with court pricing

• Too many bands. A different price every hour is confusing and hard to explain at the front desk.
• Guessing peak times. Use your booking data. Gut feel is often a term or two out of date.
• Cheap off-peak with no plan to fill it. A discount nobody hears about doesn’t fill courts.
• Changing prices by hand. It leads to mistakes and different people paying different amounts for the same slot.
• Never reviewing. Demand moves. Check your bands at least once a term.

How does Outcoach help with court pricing?

Outcoach lets you set your price bands once and applies them every time someone books.

• Opening hours, peak hours and prices for every court, day and date range
• Member pricing, with a separate price per membership and the public price for everyone else
• Special dates, like holidays and events, with their own hours and prices
• One booking button for court, casual, trial and makeup bookings, with the right price applied

Read more about court and room hire or see the latest updates on our new releases page.

Frequently asked questions