Selling golf transfers to golf tour operators

What do golf tour operators buy?

Golf tour operators sell trips built around courses: flights, hotels, tee times and the transport that links them. They need a chauffeur company that moves a group and its golf bags between the airport, the hotel and the courses, day after day, on time, and that confirms every change in writing while the operator is on the phone to the next client. For the operator the transport is one line in a programme sold months ahead; for you it is several days of work from one booking.

What do they need from you?

• Vehicles with room for every player's golf bag as well as the luggage, which usually means a people carrier or minibus for a four-ball and a coach for a society.
• Group rates for the whole stay, not a price per transfer.
• Drivers who know the courses, the club entrances and the times groups need to be there, and who can wait between rounds without complaint.
• Rates for next season sent early, while the operator is still building its programmes.
• One contact who confirms the plan and any changes in writing, including at weekends.
• Insurance and licence documents on request, because the operator's own clients ask.

When should you write to them?

Operators plan their next season months ahead, so write in the autumn with next season's rates. Irish Transfer wrote to 15 golf operators in September 2026 with rates for the 2027 season, and 6 of them, 40 percent, asked for rates. A reply rate like that from a first email is unusual in any other channel, because the operator is already looking for exactly what you sell at exactly that time of year. The emails we write go out from the company's own mailbox and stay with it, so we do not publish them.

How do you find the operators?

Start with the operators whose brochures already feature the courses in your area, then the national golf tourism bodies and their member lists, and the destination management companies that package golf for overseas agents; the DMC guide covers that chain. Golf travel trade shows and the operator directories of the main golf tourism associations list most of the volume buyers. Ask the clubs you already drive to which operators bring them groups.

How do you price a golf stay?

Price the stay, not the trip. A golf stay works as a package with a clear daily rate, waiting time between rounds included or priced, and the airport transfers at each end, so the operator can sell it as one line in its programme. A golf group may need several days of transfers between courses, and the day rate is the right basis; the pricing guide covers how to set one and the net rates guide how to give the operator its margin.

Write the rate for the season, state what happens when a round is rained off, and set a deposit and cancellation rule that the operator can pass to its own clients.

Why is golf worth the work?

A golf trip can run over several days in a larger vehicle, so one booking can be worth several airport runs. At Irish Transfer, an average touring day in 2026 earned 840 euros against 417 euros for an airport transfer, and tours and golf grew from about one in four euros of booking revenue to about one in two in a year. The booking value calculator shows what that mix is worth on your own numbers, and the Earn more per booking page how we built it for a client.