In June, Lisa called me. She is an agent at a French tour operator and she had a golf society of 28 people asking for Madrid.<\/p>\n
She did not ask me for rates. She did not send me a list of courses. She asked me where to put the group.<\/p>\n
I remember thinking this was not her first group.<\/p>\n
Because the usual order is the other one. You pick the courses, you lock the dates, and the hotel goes in at the end, normally in the centre, because that is what the client asked for.<\/p>\n
And that is where the cost of the week is quietly decided.<\/p>\n
The hotel looks like the easy part. It is the piece the client knows how to ask for and the piece an agent can solve in ten minutes. The courses are the work: availability, handicaps, tee times, access conditions.<\/p>\n
Leaving the hotel until the end makes sense. It is also the opposite of how Madrid works.<\/p>\n
A transfer costs more than the line on the coach invoice.<\/p>\n
It costs the hour out and the hour back. It costs leaving at seven to make a nine thirty tee time. It costs playing the first round with a tired group, and cutting lunch short because the coach is waiting.<\/p>\n
With three or four courses in different parts of the city, that repeats every single day of the trip.<\/p>\n
Players do not count transfers. They count hours.<\/p>\n
A group that spends two hours a day on the road goes home feeling they travelled a lot and played little. They will not tell you that. They will tell you next year, when they pick a different destination.<\/p>\n
Here is what she knew.<\/p>\n
Madrid keeps much of its golf in the northern and western arc of the city, linked by the M-40 and M-50 ring roads. Courses like Centro Nacional de Golf and Golf Santander sit on that arc, within sensible distance of each other.<\/p>\n
And right beside that arc there are neighbourhoods that are still Madrid.<\/p>\n
Mirasierra is the clearest example. You are inside the city, ten minutes by taxi from the centre, so the group has dinner where they want to and never feels sent off to an isolated resort.<\/p>\n
The golf is minutes away instead of an hour out.<\/p>\n
The shape of the day changes. No seven o’clock coach. Time before and after the round, which is the only thing they came for.<\/p>\n
Some Madrid courses are members’ clubs that do not take visiting players at all, even when they publish a non-member rate. Others open to visitors Monday to Thursday only.<\/p>\n
This is the most expensive mistake in the destination, because it surfaces late: after the client has chosen the weekend and the proposal has already gone out.<\/p>\n
Confirming access before you name a course in a proposal is not an operational detail. It is the difference between a proposal you can deliver and one you have to walk back by email.<\/p>\n
This part is the agent’s decision, not the destination’s.<\/p>\n
Once transfers stop eating a whole line of the budget, that room goes to one of three places:<\/p>\n
Lisa kept hers. I would have done the same.<\/p>\n
Because in Madrid the hotel is not where the group sleeps. It is what the week costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a second ordering mistake, and it is even more common: buying the flights before anyone has quoted the package.<\/p>\n In Madrid the departure day moves the budget more than any course on the list. Friday to Friday is the most expensive week you can buy. A midweek start opens up calendar, availability and hotel options.<\/p>\n Once the tickets are issued, that lever is gone. And it is one of the few that costs nothing to use.<\/p>\n In an area inside the city that connects well with the northern and western arc of courses. Mirasierra is the clearest example: the group keeps the city at night and avoids long morning transfers.<\/p>\n It depends on where the group sleeps. From a well placed base, three courses in four days is comfortable. From a badly placed one, the same programme becomes four early starts.<\/p>\n Yes, and it is Madrid’s main advantage over a resort destination. The golf sits outside the city, but the hotel does not have to.<\/p>\n It depends on the departure day, the season and the size of the group. The same programme changes price from week to week, so the number is fixed when we quote specific dates with confirmed tee times.<\/p>\n Global Hemisphere represents Madrid for travel agencies and tour operators. We have been moving golf groups into the capital for years, and the order described here is the one we use: the zone first, the courses second, and the dates set to whatever opens up the calendar.<\/p>\n The Madrid packages are already built, as a golf pass or with accommodation, ready to show a client today: golf holidays to Madrid<\/a><\/strong>. They are starting points. Every trip is quoted live and every booking is commissionable for your agency.<\/p>\n And once you have dates and player numbers, send me the request here<\/a><\/strong>. It comes back the same day, with the zone already decided.<\/p>\nThe other thing that moves the price: the day the group flies<\/h2>\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
Where should you base a golf group in Madrid?<\/h3>\n
How many different courses are worth playing in one week?<\/h3>\n
Can you combine golf and the city in Madrid without losing playing days?<\/h3>\n
What does a golf trip to Madrid cost for a group?<\/h3>\n
How we build it<\/h2>\n