Vending machines at mini golf courses: the indoor and outdoor numbers

Is a mini golf course a good place for a vending machine?

A mini golf course is a fair vending location on traffic and a good one on fit: groups and families, a round long enough to get thirsty, and one counter where everyone starts and finishes. The Claremont course’s 77,000 visitors beat 45 of the 69 marketplace listings that report a count, nearly two-thirds, while Portland’s 49,000 sits just under the marketplace median of 50,000.

Mini golf also earns its place inside bigger venues. In IAAPA’s benchmark of family entertainment centers, as reported by InterGame, a game of mini golf ($6.63 on average in the 2016 data) and a game of laser tag ($7.36) were the two most common activities. The same report named outdoor mini golf among the most lucrative attractions, alongside arcade games, laser tag and go-karts. Courses inside those centers share their traffic with the attractions covered in our laser tag and go-kart Venue File. Courses at family fun parks can also sit beside cages and ranges, covered in the batting cage and driving range Venue File.

The catch is the calendar, not the count. Our view: at the same annual visitor number, an indoor course is the safer placement, because its traffic and the machine’s monthly fee line up month by month. An outdoor course in a cold-winter state asks the machine to earn a year’s keep in about five months.

How does indoor mini golf traffic compare with an outdoor course?

Indoor mini golf can spread its traffic across the whole year, while an outdoor course in a cold-winter state bunches it into the warm months. Portland, Maine logs about 165 days at 60°F or above in a normal year, 84% of them from May through September, per NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the Portland International Jetport station.

The same station records about 68.7 inches of snow in a normal year and normal highs of 32–42°F from December through March. An outdoor course there is not selling rounds in February, whatever its sign says.

The Portland listing is labeled “Mini golf”, not “Indoor mini golf”, and does not say whether the course plays outdoors. Treat the outdoor rows in this article as the case to ask about, not a description of that course. Per open day, the outdoor version is busier than the indoor course, at 297 visitors against 211; per year, it is smaller.

How long do mini golf players stay, and where do they stand around?

A mini golf round has no published industry benchmark for length, so the estimate here is ours: 18 holes at 2–3 minutes a hole for a group of two to four comes to roughly 35–55 minutes. Players stand still at three points: the counter where they pay and collect putters, the holes where groups back up, and the finish, where scorecards get compared.

Those standing points are where a machine belongs: at the counter, or on the path from the last hole back to the exit, never out on the course where play keeps moving. Our guide to placing a machine inside a venue covers sightlines and the walk to the door.

A round of under an hour is short next to the two-and-a-half-hour visit that family entertainment centers plan around, according to Frank Seninsky’s 2018 column in RePlay. A course on its own therefore behaves closer to a pass-through venue than a dwell venue. With no published round length, mini golf is listed without a rank in our ranking of vending machine locations. A course with a party room, an arcade or a snack counter keeps people longer and is a better host than the same course without them. In the same IAAPA benchmark, birthday parties were the highest-earning events held on site.

Which machine fits a mini golf course?

A cotton candy machine is what both mini golf listings specify, and it suits family groups gathered at a counter; a cold-drink machine fits outdoor play better, since Portland’s normal July high is 79.5°F. Either machine needs a power check first: one cotton candy robot draws 2,200 watts, 20 amps at 110 volts, by its maker’s specifications.

Price is the second check. The same spec page uses $8.00 as its example serving price, which is more than the $6.63 average mini golf game in IAAPA’s 2016 data. A treat that costs more than the round it follows is a harder sell, though course prices have risen since 2016, so compare against what this course charges today.

Speed is the third. The robot takes 90 seconds a serving, so a family of four buying one each spends six minutes at the machine while the next group waits to pay for golf. Put it beside the counter, not in front of it.

Size is the last. The machine measures 52.8 inches wide, 29.5 deep and 95.3 tall and weighs 380 kg, about 838 pounds, so measure the doorway and the floor before agreeing on a spot.

Does a mini golf snack bar compete with a vending machine?

A mini golf course with its own snack bar or snack shack competes with any machine that sells the same drinks or ice cream, so the machine should carry what the counter does not. Some courses are built around the counter: Mr. Pudder’s Mini Golf & Ice Cream in Skaneateles, New York, lists more than a dozen hard ice cream flavors on its ice cream menu and has added snow cones in two sizes.

The counter cuts both ways. It keeps groups on site after the round, which makes the course a better host, but it already sells to the same families at the same moment. Beside a counter like that, a frozen-treat machine duplicates the menu, while cotton candy, or a cold drink the counter does not stock, adds something new.

Ask before you sign: does the counter sell drinks, snacks or ice cream, and which items would the owner want the machine to leave to it? Settle the split before the machine arrives, since an owner has every reason to protect the counter’s sales.

What terms do mini golf hosts set?

The two mini golf hosts in the marketplace each set a 40% share of net sales, meaning sales minus a fixed $1.80 cost of goods per unit. Both are Standard listings: a $1,000 enrollment fee, of which $800 is a refundable deposit, and $100 a month. Every listing carries a 16-month minimum term, so placement fees total at least $1,600 before the deposit comes back.

A 40% share is the marketplace’s most common setting: 55 of the 81 listings that set a share use it. How share varies with traffic across all venue types is in our revenue share data study.

What does the math look like at a course with 49,000 to 77,000 visitors?

At a 2% purchase rate, an assumption rather than a measurement, the indoor Claremont course would clear about $4,529 a year after goods, the 40% share and fees, or $377 a month. The same rate at a 49,000-visitor outdoor course in Portland would clear about $2,446 a year, earned between April and October, with five winter months losing money on the fee.

The monthly model below spreads the outdoor course’s 49,000 visitors in proportion to NOAA’s normal count of warm days, which is our assumption, not the course’s record.

The model assumes 2% of visitors buy one $8.00 serving, with $1.80 of goods and 40% of net going to the course, so each serving leaves $3.72 before the $100 fee. That treats the agreement’s $1.80 as the operator’s whole cost per serving and leaves out card fees. It is an illustration, not a forecast.

Two levers move the result more than the season does; in this model the season changes when the money arrives, not the year’s total. Each extra percentage point of buyers adds about $2,864 a year at Claremont (770 more servings at $3.72), and a 30% share instead of 40% would add 62 cents to every serving.

What should you ask a mini golf owner before you sign?

A mini golf owner should be able to answer six questions before you commit a machine to a 16-month term, on top of the counter question above. They cover how visitors are counted, which months the course is open, where the machine stands in winter, power, service access and what keeps people on site after the round.

1. Do your counts record rounds sold, tickets, or people through the door?
2. Which months are you open, and what were last year’s monthly counts?
3. Where would the machine stand, and is that spot heated and open in the off-season?
4. Is there a 20-amp circuit within reach of the spot?
5. When can the operator restock and service it?
6. Do birthday parties, leagues or an arcade keep people on site after the round?

Check the route as well. The Portland listing sits about 30 miles from a signed family entertainment center in Auburn, Maine, while Claremont’s nearest signed neighbor is a bowling alley about 65 miles away in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. For the general traffic test behind these questions, see how much foot traffic a vending machine needs.