A mini golf course takes party bookings and season passes with a booking system that blocks party slots against walk-up capacity, collects deposits, scans a pass at the gate and lets staff move bookings after rain. AI does not run the system; it drafts the package copy, rain messages and renewal emails, and summarises your booking exports.
Software pages for this business list features. They rarely show what a busy Saturday asks of them: two parties, a rain shower and a family waving a pass at the gate. Work backwards from that Saturday and the choice gets easier, because most of the features that sound impressive turn out not to matter, and a few dull ones decide whether the day runs smoothly.
The Saturday your software has to survive
Picture a Saturday in July. The first walk-ups arrive at 10:00. Two parties are booked, at 11:00 and 14:00, each with ten children and a deposit already paid. One family waves a season pass on a phone at the gate; another has forgotten theirs. At 12:40 the sky darkens, and by 13:10 you have closed the course for half an hour while the parents of the 14:00 party text to ask whether it is still on. Read that day as a list of jobs and the software's brief is eight lines long:
- Hold party slots against walk-up capacity, so a party can never be booked into a slot that is already taken.
- Take a deposit at booking and the balance on the day, with the final headcount confirmed in between.
- Send confirmations and reminders without anyone having to remember.
- Check a pass at the gate in seconds, and refuse an expired one politely.
- Show which passes have been used, and when.
- Let staff move a booking to a new date in a click, and message everyone booked in a given window.
- Sell tickets and passes online and at the till into one set of numbers.
- Export bookings and visits to a spreadsheet, both for your own analysis and so you are never locked in.
Everything else is a bonus. Keep this list beside you in every demo and mark each line yes, no or not shown.
Three routes, compared on what their own pages say
There are three realistic ways to cover those eight jobs. The vendor details below come from the companies' own pages as of October 2026; prices for attractions platforms are generally quoted on request, so treat the questions further down as more important than any figure.
| Route | What the vendor's page states | Ask or watch |
|---|---|---|
| Attractions platform: Roller | Its homepage says the point of sale covers tickets, food and drink, merchandise, parties and memberships, and lists waivers and access control as features; family entertainment venues are among the industries named. The pricing page names Lite, Pro, Premium and Enterprise plans, with point-of-sale device limits running from 2 on Lite to unlimited on Enterprise, but shows no subscription prices, and it says hardware is not included. | Its memberships page describes recurring billing and redemption in the venue but does not use the words season pass. Ask for a single-site course reference and a written price including any transaction fees, set-up and hardware. |
| Attractions platform: Gatemaster | Its homepage talks about bringing admissions, revenue centres, passes, groups, payments, guest activity and reporting into one operational picture, and lists memberships among the parts of an attraction's operation. No prices are published; it offers a working strategy session instead. | Ask whether a one-course operation is a good fit and how pass scanning works at the gate. |
| Activity booking tool: Bookeo | Its Tours and Activities pricing page lists Solo $14.95, Small $29.95, Standard $39.95, Large $79.95 and X-large $119.95 a month, says Bookeo does not charge commission on payments (the payment gateway still charges its fees), and sells digital waivers and SMS credits as add-ons. | Deposits and passes are not listed among the features on its pricing pages, so ask for both. It suits party bookings better than walk-up admissions. |
| Build from parts | Your till for walk-ups, a booking form for parties and a spreadsheet for passes. | Cheapest, but you do the joining: double bookings and manual rain moves are the risks. |
Two other names turn up when you search this phrase. TallyHo Golf bills itself as a free mini golf scorecard app, and its site lists courses and sponsors; it describes no booking, party or pass features, so it sits beside your system, not in place of it. Another result is golf simulator software for playing real courses on a home or bay simulator, which has nothing to do with running a course. Skip it.
Ten questions to put to any vendor, in the order a Saturday would raise them:
- Can party slots be blocked against walk-up capacity, and can two parties share a slot if I allow it?
- How are deposits taken, and can the balance be collected on the day or online before arrival?
- Can a customer move their own booking, or only staff?
- Can I message everyone booked in a time window, by email and text, in one step?
- What pass types exist: unlimited, capped visits, family, named? Can a pass expire on a set date?
- What scans the pass at the gate, and does it work if the Wi-Fi drops?
- Does a family pass count one visit per scan or per person?
- What are the fees: per ticket, per booking, on payments, set-up, hardware, contract length?
- Can I export every booking and every pass scan as a spreadsheet, on any plan?
- What happens to my data if I leave?
After each demo, paste your notes into an assistant and ask it to fill the eight-job list as yes, no, not shown or to confirm. The "not shown" lines become the follow-up email, and nothing is lost between a Tuesday demo and a Friday decision.
Party packages: build the price from the host's hours
Price a party from what it costs you to run, then check it against what ten children would pay as walk-ups. An illustrative package for a course with a covered party area: up to 10 players, one 18-hole round each, 60 minutes in the party area, a host for two hours, and a drink and an ice lolly each. The price is $149, extra players are $13 each (up to four more), and a $40 deposit holds the slot.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Package price | Up to 10 players | $149 |
| Refreshments | 10 × $2.50 | -$25 |
| Host | 2 hours × $18 | -$36 |
| Party area reset and decorations | Per party | -$8 |
| Margin per party | $149 minus $69 | $80 |
| Extra player | $13 minus $2.50 refreshments | $10.50 |
An $80 margin is about 54% of the package price, and the deposit is roughly a quarter of it, which is enough to discourage casual bookings without scaring off families. Two parties each Saturday for a month of Saturdays is eight parties and $640 before extras. Ten children walking up at a $9 child price would pay $90 for the same round, with no host or refreshments to fund, which is more than the party's $80 margin. So the party only earns its place when the slot would otherwise be quiet. That is why the illustrative slots sit at 11:00 and 14:00, either side of the midday rush, and why the software must be able to block a slot against walk-up demand. The soft play party booking tutorial looks at party-booking automation for an indoor venue.
Give the assistant the package sheet and ask for the party page. In an illustrative first draft it promised "free party food" (the package includes a drink and an ice lolly), stretched the group to "10 to 15 guests" (the cap is 10 players plus up to four extras, so 14), and added "a private course for your party", which nobody offers. Each one becomes a dispute at the till. The prompt that prevents most of it:
Write the party page from the package sheet below. Use only what is on the sheet. State the maximum group size exactly as written. Do not mention food beyond what is listed. Put the deposit, the balance, the rain rule and the cancellation rule in their own short section. Plain, friendly, no exclamation marks.
[paste package sheet]Then set the party email sequence in the booking system, writing each message once and merging the details:
| Send | Content |
|---|---|
| At booking | Date, time, what is included, deposit paid, balance due, rain and cancellation rule |
| 10 days before | Ask for the final number of players and any allergies; give the deadline for changes |
| 2 days before | Arrival time (10 minutes early), where to park, who to ask for, and when you will text if the weather changes plans |
| The day after | Thanks, an invitation to come again, and the season pass on offer |
The two-days-before message is the one parents act on, so it is worth drafting carefully. A filled-in illustrative version: "Hi [first name], [child's first name]'s party is on Saturday at 11:00. Please arrive by 10:50 and ask for the party host at the main desk. Parking is at the end of the car park by the picnic benches. If the weather looks doubtful we will text you by 9:00 on Saturday morning with an update and your options. Reply to this email or call [number] with any questions. See you Saturday, [your name]." Check that every time and detail matches the sheet, and consult the trampoline park follow-up tutorial for the messages that come after the party.
Weather rebooking: the rule, the message and the move
Rain is a decision with a deadline. Write the rule before the first booking, so no one is inventing it at 12:40 with parents waiting. An illustrative ladder:
| When | Check | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 3 hours before a party | Hourly forecast from the source you trust | If heavy rain or storms are likely, flag the booking |
| 2 hours before | Same source, plus the sky | Decide: open, delay 30 minutes, or close for the slot |
| Within 10 minutes of deciding | The booking list for the window | Send the delay, closure or rebooking message to everyone affected |
| During play | Your lightning rule | Stop play and move everyone under cover; agree the rule with your insurer and put it in the staff handbook |
The customer-facing rule should be one short paragraph. For example: "If we close for weather before or during your party, we will move it to any free slot in the next 90 days at no cost, or refund your deposit in full. If you cancel while we are open, your deposit moves to a new date once." Whatever you choose, the software has to carry it out: a one-click reschedule, deposits that travel with the booking, and a way to message everyone in a window. If a vendor cannot show you that in the demo, the weather rule becomes a spreadsheet and a phone, and you will find that out on a wet Saturday.
AI earns its keep in the wording, not the forecast. It cannot tell you whether a storm will arrive at 14:00, so the decision stays with a person, using a forecast source and your rule. What it can do is draft the three messages once, in your voice, so staff paste and send. Illustrative texts under 160 characters:
- Delay: "[Course name]: rain is passing. Your 11:00 party starts at 11:30. Same host, same package. Call [number] if that is a problem."
- Closure: "[Course name]: we have closed for weather. Move your party free within 90 days or take a full deposit refund: [link]."
- Still open: "[Course name]: light showers, but we are open and the party area is covered. See you at 14:00."
The kayak rental tutorial on weather calls and the golf course weather and staffing tutorial look at the same decision from other sites. Do not let an assistant draft a version that promises more than your rule gives; in one illustrative case it wrote "rebook any time, no limits", which a family quoted back eight months later.
Season passes: pricing sums and the renewal emails
Start with what the customer sees. Say a single round is $12 for an adult and $9 for a child. An individual pass costs $59, so it pays the holder back after five rounds (59 divided by 12 is 4.9). A family pass for two adults and up to three children costs $169. A typical visit by two adults and two children is $42 at the gate, so the family pass pays back at the fifth visit (four visits are $168, one dollar short). Those thresholds are what you promote: "five visits and it has paid for itself".
Your side is trickier, because a pass sells rounds at a discount. Suppose 100 individual passes and 50 family passes sell, and the average individual visits six times and the average family seven. Cash up front is $5,900 plus $8,450, which is $14,350. The visits those passes cover would have cost $7,200 plus $14,700, or $21,900, at gate prices, so the discount is about 34%. The pass only pays if it brings visits and spending that would not have happened anyway: snacks, extra paying guests, party bookings, and cash that arrives before the season has earned any. If passes mostly go to families who visit weekly regardless, they cost you money. Two settings protect you: limit validity to avoid your busiest hours if capacity is tight, and list event days that passes exclude.
| Pass | Price | Customer breaks even | Illustrative visits | Gate value of those visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual (100 sold) | $59 | 5 rounds | 6 each, 600 in all | $7,200 |
| Family (50 sold) | $169 | 5 visits | 7 each, 350 in all | $14,700 |
| Total | $14,350 collected | $21,900, so a 34% discount |
Use your own prices and visit counts. Ask an assistant to produce the table from them, then check two cells in a spreadsheet, as models sometimes divide by the wrong price. The arcade pricing tutorial covers game cards and off-peak rates, which is the same question in another form.
The emails follow the pass's life. Write each once, and let the booking system send it:
| When | Message |
|---|---|
| On purchase | Confirmation, the pass or its QR code, how to use it at the gate, and the dates and days it excludes |
| 14 days later, if unused | A friendly nudge with opening hours and what is new this month |
| Mid-season | "Your visits so far", only if the software holds real counts |
| 30 days before the end of the season | Next season's pass at this season's price until a set date |
| 7 days before | Last reminder, with the renewal link |
| The day after expiry | A short note offering to reopen the pass at the early price for seven days |
The analysis side is where an assistant saves hours. Export the pass scans as a spreadsheet, delete the names and email addresses (the assistant does not need them), and ask for a summary:
For each pass type, give: passes sold, passes with zero visits, median visits, and passes with no visit in the last 35 days. Then list the three weekdays with the most pass visits. Show how you counted a visit.An illustrative result: individual passes, 100 sold, 17 with no visits, median four visits, 22 inactive for 35 days; family passes, 50 sold, 6 with no visits, median five, 11 inactive. Those inactive lists are your day-14 and mid-season email audiences. Before relying on it, check how visits were counted. In one illustrative export every family pass was scanned once per person, so a visit by four people counted as four and the family medians looked three to four times too high; the sample also included complimentary staff passes. Ask the assistant to "show how you counted a visit" every time, and fix the rule in your software if it counts people. The ChatGPT and Excel guide covers working with exports like this.
What AI drafts at the course, and what staff decide
| Job | AI can | A person decides |
|---|---|---|
| Party page and emails | Draft from your package sheet, keep tone consistent | What is included, the price, the group cap |
| Rain messages | Write delay, closure and rebooking texts once | Whether to open, delay or close, and the lightning rule |
| Pass renewals | Draft the sequence and segment an export | The renewal price and the end date |
| Booking data | Summarise fill rates by slot and weekday | Which slots to open or close |
| Enquiries | Answer routine questions from the sheet | Anything outside the sheet, and every payment |
If you choose an attractions platform, ask what AI it already includes before buying a separate tool. Roller's pages describe an assistant, iQ, that answers questions about how the venue is performing and can change bookings on request (offered through an early-access request), and a Guest Experience Agent that answers phone and chat enquiries, including party bookings, and can create and update bookings (its page invites venues to join a waitlist). Neither page gives a price or says which plan includes it, so those are demo questions.
Keep customer details inside the booking system. Pass holders include children and their parents; when you ask an assistant to draft or summarise, use placeholders and export only the columns it needs. If you later add an AI assistant to the booking page itself, test it on your own policy questions first, such as "what if it rains and we cancel on the day", because that is where such tools go wrong.
A mock Saturday before you sign
Ask each vendor for a trial or a demonstration account, and use it for one rehearsal, with the whole team in the room if you can:
- Book a party from your phone, pay the deposit and read the confirmation email. Does it say what you wrote on the sheet?
- From the staff screen, move that party to another date. Time it. If it takes more than two minutes, it will take longer on a wet day.
- Sell a pass, then scan it at the gate on the device you would really use. Scan an expired test pass, too.
- Message everyone booked in a two-hour window with the closure text. Check what arrives and how fast.
- Export all bookings and pass scans as a spreadsheet and open it.
- Cancel the party and see how the refund and the processor fee behave.
A vendor that passes all six has earned your time. One that cannot do the third or the fourth should be put to the question before you sign anything long. Then paste your notes into an assistant, fill in the eight-job list, and let the numbers on the pass and party sheets decide how much you can afford to spend each month.
Questions mini golf owners ask when choosing software
Do I need separate software for parties and season passes?
Not necessarily, but one system that does both saves double entry and keeps one customer list. If you end up with two tools, make sure each can export a CSV and that a pass holder who books a party appears once in your records. Ask every vendor to show a party booking and a pass scan in the same demo, not on separate calls.
Can AI answer party enquiries by phone or chat?
It can answer routine questions from your package sheet, such as what is included, how many players and the rain policy. Keep the booking and payment inside the booking system, and test the assistant on your own awkward questions before it goes live. Anything it cannot answer from the sheet should go to a person, with the caller's details passed on.
How do I stop season passes being shared?
Put the holder's name on the pass, define a family pass as one household in the terms, and let gate staff check on busy days. Ask each vendor whether passes can be named, whether a second scan on the same day is flagged, and whether scans count per person or per group, because that changes your visit figures.
What should a rain check cost the customer?
If you close for weather, nothing: move the booking or refund the deposit. The harder case is a family cancelling while you are open. Decide it once, in writing, such as moving the deposit to a new date a single time, and put the rule in the confirmation email so staff are not negotiating at the till.
Further reads
- Ice Rink Software: Session Booking, Lessons and Party Enquiries — Session booking and party enquiries for another timed-entry venue.
- Bowling Alley Marketing: Eight League and Party Offers Written With AI — League and party offers for a similar family venue.
- Party Rental Contract: Damage, Weather and Deposit Terms With AI — Weather and deposit terms drafted for party hire contracts.
- Walking Tour Software: Ticketing, Guide Rotas and AI Enquiries — Ticketing and rotas for another weather-dependent activity.
- AI Golf Booking Software: Tee Times, Members and Visitor Rules — How a full-size course handles tee times and visitors.
- Driving Range Software: Bay Bookings, Memberships and AI Replies — A practical spec for driving range software: bay slots, ball credits, memberships and junior clinics, and the replies AI can draft for you.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: vendor pages for Roller, Gatemaster, Bookeo (Tours & Activities and Classes & Courses pricing) and TallyHo Golf, checked October 2026. Party prices, pass prices and costs are illustrative.