It’s hardly any great insight to suggest that the duration of a trip impacts the cost. We’re quite sure you know that!

The average price per day however tends to fall the longer that you’re here. That is perhaps more to do with value rather than cost however and possibly the result of one off standing fees being diluted over longer time frames. We perhaps see it most clearly in self-drive transport fees where tapered pricing applies

There is also a likelihood that golfers who travel on longer durations are now staying in destinations less expensive than St Andrews too as they seek out new places once they’ve exhausted the ‘auld grey toon’

This is hardly an earth shattering disclosure. The concept of seasonal pricing applies to accommodation, transport and green fees

As a general rule, we encounter shoulder season green fees in April (first two weeks for St Andrews) rest of month for Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, and a second shoulder season from mid October

The super peak season is from mid July until the end of August, but most golf clubs just apply a flat rate summer fee from May to October

Hotels will observe the super peak, but some who are in urban areas might follow what they call the ‘corporate calendar’. We’ve seen this in Dublin before, where May and June, can be a little bit more expensive than July and August.

The Edinburgh festival takes place in August and this causes a price spike in the Scottish capital

Hired drivers tend to charge the same price the whole year round, whereas self drive vehicle hires tend to operate three bands with June to August being the most expensive

We have static prices such as green fees, and dynamic prices such as transport or accommodation. The per person price adjusts based around the number of people who burden share the dynamic costs. This is most apparent in transport.

Odd numbered parties naturally cause a blip with regards to accommodation. The per person price tends to rise slightly as we end up having to share the cost of an extra room across the party. Obviously the more people in a party to absorb this, the less noticeable it is

We don’t usually get the discounts to scale that a large group perhaps think they’re entitled to. Golf clubs rarely discount because of group size. Indeed, a large group is actually a bit of risk to them. They’d rather have ten separate fourball bookings, than one booking for 40 golfers

Hotels will usually give us better ‘group’ terms, but we have to trade these discounted rates against a contract booking (similar risk of a bulk cancellation to that described above). They’ll usually allow us a 10% attrition rate, so a party of 40 would be 4 people cancelling before penalties kick in

Prior to covid, green fees and accommodation tended to serve the same contribution to the assembly cost each (about 40%). Since the post covid golf travel boom however, a lot of golf clubs have regrettably been taking the opportunity to filter demand through the price mechanism and introducing annual visitor green fee increases of between 10-15%. Slightly weirdly, they often blame each other. It’s as if they’re saying every club other than themselves should manage their green fees responsibly, but its actually more nuanced than that.

There are traditional regional and national hierarchies where by X is expected to be Y more expensive than Z. So when Z leads, X eventually repositions themselves. Some of the worst increases we’ve seen have come in Northern Ireland, Dublin and North West England, and one particular one on the Ayrshire Coast, although that owes something to media misreporting as well, since the much maligned £1,000 for a round is actually for non-hotel residents, seeking to play morning tee-times, in the super peak season (it seems very unlikely that anyone is ever going to pay this)

Green fees are typically accounting for about 50% of the assembly costs now

The biggest driver of accommodation costs tends to be location rather than travel class. This is particularly so in St Andrews, where the price of 3-star hotels or B&B’s is often more expensive than 4-star, or even some 5-star hotels in other parts of the country.

In broad terms Faraway Fairways tends to operate to three different travel class categories, ‘luxury’, ‘premier’ and ‘affordable’. These are fairly self-explicit descriptions

It’s worth noting however, that suites and higher-spec rooms in 3-star or 4-star accommodations can out-perform standard rooms (usually referred to as ‘classic’) in some 5-stars

Accommodation tends to contribute about 35% to the assembly costs post-covid as it hasn’t been the subject to the same level of inflation that green fees have been. It can be a quite violent variable though, as it has the biggest spread of possibilities within its very wide spectrum, and the degree to which we’re using St Andrews will also impact it

Transport used to contribute about 10% to the assembly cost, but in the immediate reopening after covid this increased to 15%, and 20% in Ireland. Since then the global chip shortage which was hammering the price of new vehicles has stabilised, and transport has tended to rebound to 10% again (assisted by the contribution being made by green fees too admittedly)

Transport decisions usually come down to an appraisal of self-drive, versus, hired driver

As a general rule, self-drive is less expensive and more flexible, which should be a consideration if we’re contesting St Andrews Old Course ballots, as we get the result 48 hrs before play. It’s basically a lot easier to adjust ourselves, than it is a booked third party who might not be able to support us at short notice if they have conflicting requests

The only place where hired drivers can work out less expensive (ironically given its cost otherwise) is St Andrews. With three possible courses on our doorstep (walk out to play), plus another two ‘up the road’, the mileage is really loaded to the airport transfers

This is the smallest contributing factor. It used to be about 10% but has probably fallen to about 5% of assembly costs now. Plenty of golf itineraries proceed without even looking to include any entry fees

The only sizeable non-golf budget heads we see now and then would be guided salmon fishing and some of the longer and in-depth distillery tours can also generate a three figure price if tasting rare malts.

The accommodation market in St Andrews is out of control!

As a general rule, the fewer nights we spend there, the less expensive a vacation becomes, but equally we potentially reduce our chances of ballot success by not staying there, and not doing so will also detract from the experience too. There can be little doubt that St Andrews has an overwhelming sense of ‘place’ about it, and we ought to aspire to at least 3 or 4 nights in the town

In recent years, St Andrews has overtaken Edinburgh as the most expensive destination in Scotland, and it shows little sign of slowing down. Indeed, it’s only getting worse.

The traditional B&B sector is in retreat. Proprietors are either selling up to property developers for luxury apartment conversions, or taking the opportunity to charge prices similar to those we’d associate with 4 star hotels. Indeed, a St Andrews B&B will typically cost more than the 4-star Carnoustie course hotel, to give you just one example.

The 3-star hotel sector is also in retreat. They’re being converted into boutique 5-star accommodations, or higher end 4-stars

It seems entirely plausible that St Andrews will become something of an exclusive 5-star resort within a decade

Urm ….. this is never an easy question to answer, for whereas there might be some ‘tricks’ we can invoke now and then, we will eventually reach a threshold, beyond which we begin to damage the product

We possibly need to examine this in a bit more detail therefore. To learn more, CLICK, the button below