Success With Online Reservations: Doubling Online Business at 48 Bowl Inc.
Featured in IBI (International Bowling Industry) magazine (November 2023) in a Success With story by Corrie Pelc.
48 Bowl Inc. already used an online reservation system for its two centers—Hollywood Bowl and Parkway Lanes in Lincoln, Nebraska—but staff found it didn't meet their needs.
"Our older online reservation system wasn't 'live,' meaning the reservations that customers made were not connected to our online live availability," explains Jennifer Davis-Korn, marketing director for 48 Bowl Inc. "People would have to make reservations at least 24 hours in advance, and then we would manually have to go block out those lanes and names in our paper calendar."
After installing Brunswick's Sync scoring and management system in both centers in late 2021, they switched to Sync's online reservations capability with live booking.
Key takeaways from the article:
- Online business at least doubled. Guests can reserve lanes by phone, on a tablet at home, through 48Bowl.com, or via a kiosk in the center. "It's easy for people to see when they can do it immediately—it's an easy yes for them," Davis-Korn says.
- Not just open play. Many reservations are three- and four-lane birthday parties or teen celebrations. The centers also opened booking to daycares, camps, and schools for field trips, taking workload off their booking coordinator. Bonus: when a camp's park trip gets rained out, organizers can simply book the bowling center instead.
- League make-up sessions, automated. "During the league season, we have so many make-up sessions, and they became a burden for our staff," Davis-Korn says. "Now it's automated for our league bowlers. They go online, pick their league make-up time, and boom! It's right in the computer like any other reservation."
- Start small. Each 24-lane center began by offering just six lanes for reservations for several months, making sure the system was manageable before opening up more. Demand was high enough that they were selling out consistently.
- Set reservation times like movie showtimes. Guests choose from set blocks, which makes staffing predictable. "The staff knows this block of lanes is going to have reservations come on at this time, and they're going to have a little grace period to clean up before the next group of reservations comes in."
For context on scale: in 2022, Brunswick's online reservation system handled 1.4 million online reservations across all customer sites.
Read the full story from IBI magazine here.
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Their previous system wasn't "live"—reservations weren't connected to actual availability, so they needed 24-hour advance booking and manual blocking in a paper calendar. Sync's live booking eliminated that manual step and made availability visible in real time.
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Davis-Korn says online business has at least doubled. She credits the immediacy: guests can see availability and book right away, which makes it an easy yes.
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Yes. Birthday parties and teen celebrations make up a large share of reservations, and the centers opened bookings to daycares, camps, and schools for field trips. They also customized the portal so leagues can schedule their own make-up sessions without staff involvement.
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Start small—they opened just six of 24 lanes for reservations for several months before expanding. And plan what you want to offer: setting specific reservation time blocks, like movie showtimes, makes the schedule predictable and gives staff a grace period to clean up between groups.