1. Bays, hours and rates
2. Members, food and drink
Member hours are taken out of the booked hours, so members never count as free extra capacity.
3. Monthly costs
4. The build and any loan
Payback is measured on operating profit before the loan, so borrowing does not flatter it. The loan payment still comes out of monthly profit.
Fill in the numbers, then click Check this room.
Result
| Line | Per month |
|---|
If bookings come in under plan
| Bookings | Utilization | Profit a month | Profit a year | Payback (months) |
|---|
5. Compare with a second scenario
Scenario A is everything above. Scenario B keeps your hours, food and drink, staff, rent and per-bay costs, and changes only the bays, rates, utilization and members below.
How it is built
Hours: available bay hours = bays × open hours × days × 52 ÷ 12, split into peak and off-peak, each booked at its own utilization. Revenue: walk-in hours (booked hours minus member hours) at the blended rate, plus membership fees, plus booked hours × players × food and drink spend. League nights add a fixed amount a month. Profit: revenue minus food and drink cost, card fees, the repair reserve, staff (open hours × staff on duty × wage × (1 + burden)), rent, utilities, per-bay software, other fixed costs and the loan payment on the share of the build you finance.
Payback: build cost ÷ monthly profit before the loan payment. Lowest peak rate for your payback target: the peak rate at which payback equals the months you want; typing it back reproduces the target. Sensitivity: the same room with every booked hour cut by 10% and 20%. Break-even utilization: profit is exactly linear in how many hours are booked, so the tool solves for the booking level where it is zero. Lowest rates: both walk-in rates scaled by the same factor until margin equals your target; the test suite checks that charging exactly those rates earns the target margin for hundreds of random rooms.
Common questions
How much does it cost to open an indoor golf simulator lounge?
Plan on roughly $25,000 to $60,000 for each bay (simulator, projector, impact screen, hitting mat and enclosure) plus a shared buildout for flooring, lighting, HVAC, a bar and a front desk. Enter your own quotes for both and the calculator adds them into one build cost and divides it by monthly profit to give a payback.
What utilization does a golf simulator business need to break even?
It depends on rent, staff and rates, so the calculator solves it for you: it scales your booked hours up or down until monthly profit is exactly zero and reports that as a percentage of all available bay hours. Rooms with a peak-hours crowd and a dead weekday morning often need a lower overall figure than they fear, but only if off-peak hours are priced to fill.
Should I sell memberships or hourly bay time?
Members bring steady cash but use bay hours that walk-ins would have paid for. The calculator takes member hours out of the booked pool before pricing walk-in revenue, so a membership that uses more hours than it pays for shows up as lower walk-in income instead of free money.
How much do food and drink add to a simulator lounge?
Often a third or more of revenue. The calculator multiplies booked hours by players per bay and spend per player hour, then subtracts your food and drink cost. If it is more than 40% of revenue the tool flags it, because that spend has to be served by real staff and a real kitchen or bar.
What rates do I need to charge to reach my target margin?
The calculator scales your peak and off-peak walk-in rates by the same factor until margin equals your target and shows both new rates. The test suite checks that charging exactly those rates earns the target margin for hundreds of random rooms.
Should I build three bays or five?
Use the second scenario to change bays, rates, utilization and members. The tool compares monthly profit and payback, because the larger room often earns more but takes longer to return the money, which matters when you are financing the build.
Is my data uploaded, and is this financial advice?
Nothing is uploaded: it runs in your browser with no accounts. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type, not tax, legal, lending or financial advice. Lease terms, licences, insurance and alcohol permits depend on where you operate.