· 3 min read · Jason Youngjin Koh
Filling the courts nobody books
Every tennis venue has the same problem: full at 6pm, empty at 11am. The people who could play at 11am exist. They just have not heard of you.
Off peak courts fill when you advertise them to the people whose days are free at those hours: shift workers, retirees, parents during school time, freelancers and university students. Show them the specific times, give them a reason to try once, and keep reminding the ones who played. TennisSpot, an indoor venue in Sydney, went from 30% to 80% booked with that approach.
30% to 80%
Court occupancy at TennisSpot, from story led creator video and a retargeting loop. 4,020 bookings, $113K revenue
Who plays tennis on a weekday morning?
- Shift workers such as nurses, hospitality staff and emergency services.
- Retirees and people winding down work, often keen on social doubles.
- Parents with children at school between 9am and 3pm.
- Freelancers, remote workers and business owners who set their own hours.
- University students between classes.
None of these groups are looking for off peak tennis. They are looking for something to do with a free morning. The ad has to put the idea in front of them.
What should off peak ads say?
Name the time and the person. An ad that says weekday morning doubles for parents, 9.30am, after school drop off, will outperform a generic book a court ad every time, because the reader recognises their own day in it. Short creator videos of real players at those hours make it believable.
Should you discount off peak courts?
Carefully. A lower off peak rate is reasonable, and many venues already have one. Deep discounts train peak players to shift, which costs you money. A better lever is a format: a social morning, a coached drill session, a ladder. Those give people a reason to come that is not price.
How does the retargeting loop work?
- Reach new local players with short videos of the off peak experience.
- Retarget everyone who watched with the specific times and a booking link.
- After a first booking, follow up with the same time next week.
- Each week, push the remaining empty slots to past bookers who play at those hours.
The loop matters more than any single ad. A player who books three weeks in a row at 10am has become a regular, and regulars fill courts without ads.
The weekly gap filling step is the easiest part of this to automate. AI in a tennis club, job by job