We Caddy You from the Start to the 19th Hole!
Genesis Golf Trips is a tour operator doing nothing but golf related travel, 365 days out of the year, illustrating our commitment to the industry and our understanding of golf. Our systems and protocols in place are done based upon delivering flawless trips to traveling golfers that seek out the Mid-Atlantic corridor.
Yet, the concept of organizing socially motivated golf travel seems to bewilder some, so we have outlined the following step-by-step outline on how to plan a golf trip in addition to how Genesis works with group leaders and attendees. It also answers many of the FAQ questions that we’ve heard over the years.
- Develop an Invite List. This can be friends from high school, college, sports team, church, neighborhood, private country club or local public golf league, just to name a few.
- Test the Waters. Send out an email testing the waters on interest with your friends and to find out the best season or month to travel.
- Narrow Down Your Dates. Once you get momentum, send out the date particulars, spelling out the holidays that fall within the 3-4 week window that you provide. Make every person get back to you with dates they CANNOT attend, because you may need to consider more than one time period.
- Contact Genesis. While you can contact other options or even try piecing together a trip by yourself, it will take you much more time, you may even pay more, and you won’t have the travel protection and services offered through Genesis. We give peace of mind.
- Evaluate markets and itineraries. Now is when you begin seeing the differences in various markets or itineraries upon evaluating specific dates. Priorities are different for every group, so evaluate upon yours for the options given.
- Pick the winning itinerary. Once you have decided on the itinerary that your group prefers, figure out the top number of attendees and the low number. Determine your desired tee times based upon how it’s quoted, travel times and your all important 19th hole plans.
- The 19th Hole. Larger groups can’t expect to arrive at a restaurant and be seated and served all together on busy weekend night. So, unless the group goes their separate ways, the 19th hole may need to be pre-planned as well. No worries, Genesis will help in this area as well.
- Book it! Go over the itinerary one more time with the details from step #6 and #7 with your Genesis specialist. Then, relax and wait for Genesis to reserve and manage every detail.
- Online Trip Confirmation. The trip is booked and ready to view online – the Genesis My Trip feature. Click on the email link sent to you and make sure all the details look good according to your expectations.
- Variation Determination. It’s time to begin determining the variations and special requests of your group, i.e. single rooms, golf only, non-golfers, early night arrival, 36 holes a day, etc. Genesis can help provide those variations to satisfy your group and then will manage it with you through the final reconciliation and bills of sales with each entity.
- Invite Your Friends. It’s now time to share the Genesis My Trip link with your friends, now that the trip variation options are determined and posted on your Genesis My Trip page. Build momentum by calling and emailing your invitee list often and provide a deadline for a deposit (this is the RSVP). Through the My Trip feature, attendees can make their payments right online or if they are not tech savvy, they can call the Genesis Guest Services department to make their payments.
- Manage Your Group. While Genesis is here to manage all of the details of your trip, our partnership with you requires that you manage the dynamics of your group and each individual personality. Make sure they abide by he agreed upon deposit and final payment deadlines.
- Final Payments & Rooming Lists. This is a integral part of the process to ensure your package is flawless from beginning to end, and that Genesis doesn’t under or over order what you need.
- Reconciliations. Now that everything is in and closed, Genesis can reconcile according the rooming list, the numerous payments, the variations, etc. to make sure that each individual is getting what they expect and has paid or not overpaid accordingly. It’s important that individual payments don’t get misapplied to other attendees.
- Travel Documentation. Everything is set and triple checked. Genesis then prepares the documentation that you need, such as an instruction letter and your group booking code for the hotel, group vouchers for each golf course with driving directions, instructions on how to handle rain issues and our Emergency Manager on Duty phone line for group leader support during the trip.
- Be the King or Queen. That hour has finally arrived and you are on your way. As the group leader, you are the King or Queen. So, sit back and be confident in the details preplanned, knowing you used the best in service packager in the Mid-Atlantic.
- Manager on Duty Trip Support. While Genesis takes pride in getting all the details right, sometimes things can happen. The following are the reasons why Genesis put this service in place, knowing that during the off hours, you may need support. Weather sometimes does not cooperate. You read the documentation on how to handle this and follow it to a tee, but you are not pleased how it’s being handled at the golf course. Or, something happens with the hotel reservation or course tee times. If it has something to do with Genesis as your travel provider, then that is when you should be calling the manager on duty.
- Last Minute Cancellations & Changes. While emergency support is available to our group leaders 24/7 during the trip, that does not translate into an ability to change the final bills of sale, or written policies in place. However, does that mean we won’t try on your behalf? We will try when it’s an act of God circumstance that has happened to someone in your group, but only during normal business hours. Final approved reconciliations can only be changed by management, not whoever answers the phone at night or on weekends for all parties. For that reason and modifying approved reconciliations on record, last minute changes cannot always lead to credits. We request that if we advocate on your behalf outside of our normal policies, that you have patience to allow many channels of communications to occur.
- Trip Follow-up. Included in each travel documentation package is a Genesis survey on your trip destination, the courses, hotel and Genesis services. We value this feedback and use it to benefit other traveling golfers. It is not sent in vain! You will also hear from your Genesis specialist within a few weeks of your trip.
- YOUR Authority in Mid-Atlantic Golf Trips. Our end goal, built upon our values foundation, is to have customers for life. So, when it comes to any golf travel in the Mid-Atlantic corridor, Genesis wants to be YOUR authority resource forever!
