Room Owners...

[Poolschool]

How important is it to keep your tables in "professional" playing condition. I have seen a significant amount of rooms go belly up lately. It really is begining to concern me. The pool room is where it all begins... I have asked several people what they thought was happening and the common answer is "they let the place rot". Now that I think about it all of the places that couldnt survive were notorious for having tables that werent kept up. If you look at the rooms that are maintained by high caliber mechanics their business seems unharmed. I know it goes way beyond your tables and the condition but it seems to be a common trend. I want to see pool rooms be successful just like all of you. Who does your tables?


I have been looking for a pool room account for maintaining tables. If anyone has questions about pricing or in general please give me a call (513)237-7384 I need a vacation!

Jason

 

[froznShooter]

How about a Canadian Vacation.

Every think about coming to warm and sunny Winnipeg, Canada for a vacation, I am sure my tables to use a little work and I also have that 6X12 that could be setup.

 

[Poolschool]

Nice sunny??? LOL... I'll go just about anywhere if the price is right. Do you have a pool room? That's funny because I was going to ask you about sending me the rails. Let me know what you have...

Jason

 

[froznShooter]

It really is sunny

Yeah, I own a room with 17 tables, I have a brunswick gold crown 6X12 that I want to get cleaned up and set up soon. What would the price of this vacation (LoL) be.

 

[cueandcushion]

How important is it to keep your tables in "professional" playing condition. I have seen a significant amount of rooms go belly up lately. I have asked several people what they thought was happening and the common answer is "they let the place rot". Now that I think about it all of the places that couldnt survive were notorious for having table that werent kept up. If you look the rooms that are maintained by high caliber mechanics their business seems unharmed. I know it goes way betonf your tables and the condition but it seems to be a common trend.
Jason

I think that is of course a factor but by no means the number one factor. Pool in general is in decline. Too many options for your entertainment dollar these days. Every time we tally our income based on the actual table one thing ALWAYS comes up. The pool table with the cracked slate and the bad cloth in the back of our pool room is our number one income earner every single time. Always. We try our best to keep our one pocket table, our 3-Cushion tables and our center row of tables in the best condition. And our serious players are always on them. But the kids that cannot shoot always outnumber the regulars and always want to play in the back where they get some privacy. I just think the main reasons for failure are oversaturation of the market and high rents. The real estate boom of the past few years have also raised rents. Hard to make a $20,000 a month rent payment on $5.00/hour pool. Just not enough players. My family has been in this business for 40 years now. It is not the first "adjustment" to the market. It wont be the last. Unfortunately a lot of rooms may go under. So support your local hall guys. The room you save may be your own.

 

[cuetime]

Right on Cueandcushion

Cueandcushion hit the nail on the head. When I bought my first room 7 years ago, it was in tough shape. Half the room was used by the recreational players (the ones that don't know how to hold a cue), the other half was for the "Players". I recovered all of the tables. I Put Simonis on the Player's side and Championship Titan on the Rec. side. The "Players" were in Heaven. The Rec players didn't notice. My most active table is in the roughest shape and I have never heard a complaint.
The real players will appreciate good equipment the most. The problem is that these people aren't the ones that pay the rent.
All of us would like to have "top notch" equipment throughout. The key is in finding a way to bring in new customers. Overall appearance of the room, as well as customer service, is as important as the condition of the tables.

 

[AZE]

It's deffinetly a bad look, and detracts people. I've had many a friend (non pool players) who said they wouldn't go to certain pool halls around here because they were dirty.

 

[Jack Madden]

Just a comment or fyi-
I was talking to a room/bar owner with about 25 bar boxes a couple months ago. He told me that he has a guy on the payroll who cleans the tables and balls every day, and if needed replaces rails, levels tables and recovers with simonis every 3-4 months. Reason he gave me was "if tables are in good shape, cloth is clean, balls are clean then cloth is fast, balls are pocketed fast, games go fast, quarters drop even faster, I make more money on the tables even after the cost of equipment upkeep and that isn't counting the happy customers". That was what I was told for what it is worth.

 

[manwon]

How important is it to keep your tables in "professional" playing condition. I have seen a significant amount of rooms go belly up lately. It really is begining to concern me. The pool room is where it all begins... I have asked several people what they thought was happening and the common answer is "they let the place rot". Now that I think about it all of the places that couldnt survive were notorious for having tables that werent kept up. If you look at the rooms that are maintained by high caliber mechanics their business seems unharmed. I know it goes way beyond your tables and the condition but it seems to be a common trend. I want to see pool rooms be successful just like all of you. Who does your tables?


I have been looking for a pool room account for maintaining tables. If anyone has questions about pricing or in general please give me a call (513)237-7384 I need a vacation!

Jason

Hey Jason, while I agree with you that keeping a room clean and well maintained is very important, most Pool Rooms do not make more than 15% - 25% of their monthly net from table rentals. If a room owner today expects that their Pool tables alone will bring people in they will go broke, and I think that this more than anything else is what closes so many rooms when times are bad.

I keep my room Clean, the tables well maintained, I sell beer, my room is all ages, I have a decent sized retail shop where I sell cues, cases, almost all accessories, I also have a pro-shop / repair shop where I replace tips to complete refinishes and I also build custom cue conversions.

Now, in my location Jason, being diversified is what makes money, and what brings people back. I also agree with what Craig from Cue & Cushion said, that most of the revenue / the dependable revenue will not come from the money players, but that it will come from the recreational / League players, and by the way, these are also the easiest players to please!!!

Good Luck with your trip / repair vacation and have a great day!!!!!!

 

[Cuemaster98]

Hi Guys,

We are openning our pro-shop soon in Sunnyside, NY at Paradise Billiards and have heard a lot of great ideas here on this forum on how to generate more business for the room.

We are thinking of starting a tournament that will be strictly for new players or beginners to teach them the finer points of the game and have schedule time for pool clinic. I'm sure these ideas have been tried but just wondering how successful you guys think these ideas will be...any feedbacks or results would be appreciated.

We also have monthly membership plan for local players for the whole month for only $60.00. The have been working great for the room and we have a pretty good list of members to date. Our other ideas was to offer free pool if the individual have say spend $100 with us in the month. So basically if the individual play pool or order food and they rake in about $100 in their first week, we would offer them free pool membership for the rest of that month. (We would ask that they keep their receipt for tally) Don't know if this idea will work for you guys but fix and guarantee revenue is always good.

Regards,
Duc.