In the Studio with Charlie Rymer: Package Planning 101 with MyrtleBeachGolf.com’s Jaime Thrailkill

Charlie Rymer:

Joined now by Jaime Thrailkill. And Jaime’s the pride of Florence, South Carolina. That’s where she grew up. That’s just maybe an hour, hour and a half from here. Great part of the world. I spent a lot of time in Florence. And Jaime’s now with MyrtleBeachGolf.com. And Jaime, you’re on the front lines for folks that have heard about Myrtle Beach, they want to come to Myrtle Beach, maybe the first time or maybe they’re veterans, MyrtleBeachGolf.com is where they need to go first to get hooked up on a trip. Talk to me a little bit about what you do for those golfers out here, traveling to Myrtle Beach.

Jaime Thrailkill:

So, we actually are fortunate because we have availability from 19 properties that spread across the Grand Strand. Whether a golf group wants an oceanfront property or a golf villa, we have it right at their hands. We also are very fortunate that we have local golf directors that are on hand that have expert knowledge, and they can provide any information to the golf groups whether it’s what kind of course conditions, price points. I like to say that we kind of have black magic and we can rework rates and get them the best product, get them the best value, for what they’re looking for.

Charlie Rymer:

Your service, I think, is really important. When I travel, folks ask me about coming to Myrtle Beach. And when folks come here, I want them to have the best trip possible. And if they’ve never been here, they don’t realize that we’ve got 70 miles of golf and places to stay, and if you try to do it on your own you could mess it up. Because if you’re staying up on the North Carolina line and you’ve booked play at Pawley’s Island, you’re going to have a really long commute. And your folks know when you book to put folks staying where they’re playing, and that makes the trip a lot easier.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Yes. And that’s one thing with our team, we ask those questions and engage the group leader. Okay. What’s your travel itinerary? Do you want to be central Myrtle Beach? Do you want to be the south end or do you want to be the north end? So we give them the information that they need so they can piece those courses together. And then if they give us a budget, we work within that budget so it can be accommodating for all the group members on the price point they want to pay.

Charlie Rymer:

Do you find that when groups book, whether it’s smaller groups or bigger groups, they want to go to the same place year after year or they want to try something different every year? Because you can come here for 15 or 20 years and not play the same golf course and have a great trip.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Right. Actually, yes. We do have a few groups that are loyal to a specific resort. I personally work with one, I’ve worked with him since 2012. He has a group from anywhere from 80 to 112 golfers. He has stayed at The Caribbean for that many years and that’s what he trusts. He’s mixed his courses up a little bit, but they’re comfortable in the lodging accommodations. They’ll switch the courses up, but they may have that one course that they want to start out the first day. They’ve been out in the wintertime, got to swing the club for the first time. They want an easy course. So that’s what we try to instill with the group leaders and help them out with that.

Charlie Rymer:

I’m glad you brought that up because we have a great variety of golf courses. For architecture buffs, we’ve got some really cool stuff. We’ve got some great golf courses for people that maybe haven’t played very much, they’re looking to start. Or to start a trip, to ease into it. And it’s really important to match the golfers up with the kind of golf courses that they need to play.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Correct. Yeah. I mean, one of the starter courses I will say usually is Myrtle Beach National West. It’s not a whole lot going on, if you spray one, you’re okay.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah. That’s my kind of course.

Jaime Thrailkill:

And we try to build the package up for them. So maybe on the final day, play something that’s difficult. You’ve warmed up, you’re ready to go. Maybe you want to tackle something like Prestwick. I mean, that’s upside down greens, it’s a challenge.

Charlie Rymer:

You better not stay out late the night before you play Prestwick.

Jaime Thrailkill:

But we try to cater to what they want but we want to instill value in the product that we’re selling. And we want to make sure that what we’re telling them, they’re not going to get to the course and say, “Uh oh. They just top dressed. They just overseeded. They just punched.” We’re going to be prepared before that. And hey, look. If a course makes a change to their maintenance schedule we know that, so we’re going to pick that phone up and we’re going to call them back and we’re going to get them accommodated and moved.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah. One of the things when people travel on these buddies’ trips, especially when they get a little bit larger, 16, 20, 24, is how do we pay for it? Does it go on one guy’s credit card and they pay him back? How, does that process work with you?

Jaime Thrailkill:

So we actually have something that we actually put together back in 2017, and it’s an online payment portal. The greatest thing. They get a group folio number, they log in, and then they just go in and they know their amount they’re supposed to pay. They put their deposit down. It only takes a $100 deposit to book a package and then the payment’s due 14 days prior to arrival. So let’s say if you put your card down and you forgot to pay, we have staff members on our end, they’re going to charge the card for you. So they don’t even need to worry about it.

Charlie Rymer:

And if I’m a part of a group of 16, I’m just paying for me.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Right. We want to make it as easy as possible because there’s times where group leaders, they… Sometimes, hey, look, you may not know the group members. The group leader puts the package together and me and you may not know each other, but we’re going to know each other after that trip. So that’s how it keeps it in line. The group leader can go on the payment portal and they can actually see who’s paid, and they can maintain it from that standpoint.

Charlie Rymer:

Another thing about booking is in this world, so many people are comfortable not dealing with a person, or they’re uncomfortable dealing with a person. In golf, and getting the package right, you really need to talk to somebody. I’m sure there’s ways to do it online where you don’t have to talk to somebody but I think if you’re talking to an expert that can ask you questions and identify your needs, that makes the process a little easier.

Jaime Thrailkill:

It does. And we have quick quote submissions that come through various ways through our websites, whether it’s our property websites for the oceanfront properties, the golf villas, but we have a lot that come through the MyrtleBeachGolf.com website. Some people tell you what they want. Some are very vague. But, in turn, they’re eventually going to be a phone call. We send that quote out and then two days later, the golf director that received that quote’s going to pick the phone up and follow up and say, “Hey, Mr. Smith, did you receive this quote? Do you have any questions?” So we’re constantly reaching out to them so we’re still engaged and we’re not losing that consumer. Because some people, they’re rate shopping. We get that. But the majority of the time they’re just sending something in so they can digest that information and it’s not so overwhelming on the phone.

Charlie Rymer:

When golfers are planning a trip to Myrtle Beach, what are some of the things that they need to think about?

Jaime Thrailkill:

I think it’s price point. I think they need to think about what are they looking for in their room accommodations? Do they want oceanfront? Do they care about that? Do they want to put four people in a four bedroom, four people in a three bedroom? You know, we’ll get people that say no, you know Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith have to be separated because they snore. They’ll tell us kind of the stipulations, but they also want to know what is the best bang for their buck. And that’s where we are here to try to create the overall perfect atmosphere for them, for their trip.

Charlie Rymer:

One of the big misconceptions about Myrtle Beach is that it’s all about value. And I’m very proud of the value product that we have here, and we have a lot of it and you get a lot of value when you come on a trip to Myrtle Beach. But for the folks out there that are wanting to scale up, we can scale up and go toe-to-toe with any place in the world. And I think people forget about that.

Jaime Thrailkill:

They do. You have what I call the bucket list. There’s those folks that they’ll come down and they want the bucket list courses. They want to play True Blue, Caledonia, Dunes. And we can do that for them. I mean, we are one of the largest package providers in Myrtle Beach that has the access to book the Dunes. So, that’s a great thing that we have in our back pocket to utilize.

Charlie Rymer:

And they can stay in an extravagant beach-front home with 10 bedrooms if they want, that’s stocked when they roll into town. We can take care of all of that.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Correct.

Charlie Rymer:

Those are kind of people I want to roll with, as long as they’re paying the bill.

Jaime Thrailkill:

That’s right. I’m there with you.

Charlie Rymer:

Well, Jaime Thrailkill with MyrtleBeachGolf.com. As always, great spending some time with you.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Charlie Rymer:

My pleasure.

Jaime Thrailkill:

Much appreciated.