What do you pay for pool?

Man where are you people living? Pasadena CA, prime time after 4:30 PM is $14 an hour. I get before 4:30 to practice and the rates go down to $5 per hour.

Wish there was cheaper pool..
 
At my regular hall I pay $16 a month and then I can play all day for $8. At the other place I play I pay $4.50 an hour. In general I have paid anywhere from $8 for unlimited to $1 p/hour-$4.50 p/hour.
 
table time

I own a small room in north ga, in small town, charge$5 hr[12] tables, have a good group of players and they seem to be satsified .tourny on wed and sunday--rated wed $10---sunday$15-- had 40 players sunday!!! runs 25-35 on sunday fun by all!!!:grin-square:
 
Man where are you people living? Pasadena CA, prime time after 4:30 PM is $14 an hour. I get before 4:30 to practice and the rates go down to $5 per hour.

Wish there was cheaper pool..

Where are you playing? I pay $9 and $15/hr in LA, Hollywood and Bellflower, CA.
 
start objectively

Google ,"town demographics," and find as many towns that are similar to yours as possible. Look up pool halls in those towns, ask their prices and use that info as a starting point. Then add all the personal advise you have read on this thread and make your decisions. Make sure you listen to these guys.
Good luck. I wish I was doing it.
 
We pay about five bucks an hour here, but I would think the best place to check prices would be the poolroom nearest your location. Market demographics and all that, you know.
 
A local club I belong to. I pay 20 bucks a year and dues and I get to play on 4 gold crowns for FREE! lol You can't beat that...
 
Most places here in Canada charge $8-12 an hour for 1-4 players. Regular pool players free - no charge is a little too expensive with free drinks and food. Make sure the drinks are not to hot, not too cold... and the food just right.

The room I play in have monthly memberships of $35. Can't beat it! All day or night for a month only $35. Other rooms in the area want $10+ hour and they have junk tables (junk: pockets falling out, not level, ripped cloth, loose rails, rails with rubber coming off etc...) All this for a great deal of $10 an hour.

I was watching walk-in customers play there last night and one of them had a ball roll by a diamond, 4 of them playing, they looked at the guy that shot and laughed. They thought it was funny! Below is the room. All of their location look great but suck hard. They will pay for new cloth and not the extra to level or do rails etc. They have pockets falling out and 40W bulbs. It is a shame to have a company with 70 locations that don't give a rats ass about pool... They make money from VLTs and beer. They are not interested in tournament or getting regular shooters


http://www.doolys.ca/prospect/gallery.php?albumid=188
 
I think it is important to keep in mind you will probably make more money on food and drinks, then actual table time. If the table time is too expensive, then the customers will not stay as long and probably not spend as much. I like the idea of a member ship or some kind of loyalty incentive. Corner Billiards in NY (now Amsterdam) had cards that got stamped for every hour you played. After 8 stamps you got a free hour. If you were a regular and the person at the desk liked you, you would often get extra stamps.

As someone mentioned Hardtimes charges a monthly fee, not unlike a health club. I believe Hollywood Billiards does this too. I know at Hollywood you get unlimited play time till 8pm. This way they have a set amount of income and are filling the tables at non peak times.

Down here (Atlanta) I think they hourly rate is about $6 an hour. I think both big rooms here offer free pool with lunch deals and a ladies night. Also lots of weekly tournaments with free practice time. If you can get the bodies in the door, then you most likely will make money from what they buy... this is why leagues are so profitable for room owners.
 
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I believe the going rate in Aspen is $16/hr...but I'll bet our local talent parade that starts every night around 10PM is as good or better than any of y'alls.
 
A local club I belong to. I pay 20 bucks a year and dues and I get to play on 4 gold crowns for FREE! lol You can't beat that...

I can't beat that deal, but mine is pretty good. The club I belong to charges $40 a year, and we play for .25 a game. (Honor system, put the quarter in locked boxes attached to the wall.) The club sponsors three APA teams, not only hosting but paying our league dues, as well. That's $25 per session, so my annual club membership is actually free if I play two sessions. (We pay our own weekly League fees.)

The drinks are cheaper than most places, and we have bands some weekends. Just 5 tables, all 9-footers, but they're kept up very well, far better than everywhere else in town. (One of the club members learned how to re-surface them himself.)

The other two places in town charge between $10-$12 an hour. I don't go there other than League nights very often.
 
I live in Glendale AZ and play mostly in north Phoenix metro area. Around here it ranges from $6/hr to $14/hr. However, the couple places I frequent both have all day specials ($12 or $15) and free GCs until 6 or 7 pm. As I tend to work nights this works out pretty well for me. Actually now that I think about it there's a place that does free bar boxes until 6pm that I used to practice at quite a bit.
 
Billiard Clug in GC Illinois

The pool hall I frequent charges $2.50-$3 per person per hour and $2 per person per hour if you play a ring game if there are at least 3 people playing on the same table. I've been to places that charge $2 per person no matter how many people are playing on the table. The most expensive place I've been was around $10 per hour per person but my friend and I got free pool because I was talking to the girl who worked there. That wasn't exactly the benefits I expecting but that's good enough. :grin-square:

$2.40 per hour per player. 50 cent bar tables if you prefer to pay by the game. Tables are well kept and you can usually find action, or a phone call can be made to get you action. No Smoking, No Alcohol.

Just POOL ............
 
During the day at one of my usuals, it's $1.80/hr/person for any table. After 6pm it's $3.60/hr/person.

My other usual is $4/hr/person period, but they aren't open during the day.

Both have "all day/night" specials. One is $20 for 14 hours (open 11am close 1am), the other is $8 mon-thur 5pm to 1am, or $12 fri-sat 5pm-3am.

Now the cheaper specials place is more of a "teenager" place, lots of other games, ill-maintained equipment and only one "good" table (that is generally reserved for friends of the staff and/or money games). The more expensive hall has all nicer tables, but it still looks like 1968 in there. lol
 
I will be opening a room in the next few weeks. I am interested in getting some numbers of what people are paying per hour. I am in a fairly small town, but I would like to hear many different rates and where you are.

Thanks in advance!

Fairly small town should equal fairly reasonable real estate.

The room I like to play charges $5 for all day play up until 7pm - then it's $5 an hour until close. Sounds like you've been offered a ton of good examples already:

Maybe a "players package" - $50 a month, unlimited play
Offer a daily rate, and then charge more during prime time
You might allow a lower rate for league players
Do whatever necessary to get league play in there - you might get someone to run a tourney once a week on a slow night, maybe Wed or Thurs
SPECIALS - every day, offer a drink and a food special - nothing free or crazy, just a $1 off and mix it up every day, people like to think their money can go a little farther - make sure to advertise and post the specials.

Take care of your regulars - every now and then, throw them a special on their pool rate, or on their food, they will appreciate it and come back....usually, they will tip heavier anyway to show their thanks.
 
...
Maybe a "players package" - $50 a month, unlimited play
...

I've wished for something like this at both of my local places. Get some kind of magnetic membership card system where people can just buy a number of hours on it. Like Dave & Busters play cards or something. They could be gift-cards too!
 
Around where I live (Fort Worth, TX), most places do a daily rate until 6-7pm, which varies from $3-5 per person. After that, it switches to hourly per person or table (depending on where you go) which ranges from $7-$12/hr. Most league members play free at these places Sun-Thu.

Personally, I think $7.50/hr. is about right for the market around here. If I had to do it, I'd do the Diamond Smart tables at $4 every 30 min. if I had enough tables or maybe $5 every 30 min. with limited tables. That way, everything is self-serviced.
 
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