The luxury of no crowds or distractions. Homeowner courts.
Made available to you.
You want to rent your home tennis court (or racquet, pickleball or other racket court) to paying players in your community. In this post we’ll see how to publish a compelling online court listing where paying players will see it, how to price your court, see an example court listing, discover a tool to help you consider how much your court may earn and more.
But first, who is this post for?
You are a homeowner that owns a home tennis court, pickleball court, racquetball court, paddle tennis court or other racket court. And perhaps you want your home court to help pay for itself. These courts aren’t cheap. Let your court cover its own maintenance costs all while allowing you to use it when you want.
Or maybe you no longer use the court as much as you used to and want to share the unique experience of a private court with others? Perhaps you bought a house with a court and you don’t even play. It happens.
Or maybe you want to offer your community more outdoor, healthy sports options, making tennis more accessible along the way.
These are all good reasons to rent out your court and start earning some income on a great asset.
Now let’s see how to do it.
RentMyCourt was created by two tennis-loving sisters with a family court who were unhappy with the court options out there. Unhappy with the often overbooked, often expensive options for finding court time. And unhappy with the non-existent options for sharing home courts with others. They knew it could be better.
So they created RentMyCourt to make it easier to rent your home tennis (and other racket) courts to players in your community. Best of all, court owners get to choose how much, or how little they want to rent and at what price. They can also get $1 Million in general liability protection.
And with RentMyCourt now open to court owners, it’s pretty easy to start. You can sign up and add your court here instantly. Or if you want help setting it up, you can sign up for the White Glove court listing service where a live human (not software!, and most likely one of the sisters) will guide you step by step, answering any questions you have.
Getting started is easy if you’re listing your court on RentMyCourt. After creating an account, the RentMyCourt application will walk you through setting up basic info about your home court, including:
That’s all straight forward enough. But you’re reading this post because you want to know how to really let players see what a great experience they’ll have on your court.
You want a compelling court listing. Read on…
Players are considering home tennis courts like yours because they want something beyond the crowded public courts and tennis clubs. Highlight what makes your home court such a great court.
Let’s look at some examples:
Where to show this highlight info? Use it in your description, your title and photos — all of which we’ll dive into more details below. Let’s start with how you name your court listing.
With the above highlight chosen and the basic info in mind, sum up your great court within your title. A compelling title with substance will help people find your listings and give them a good first impression of your property before they book it.
Get creative! A good title is one that offers compelling info with just a few words.
Consider variations of this formula:
[Type of court] with/on/in [highlighted feature] in [town/city/neighborhood]
Examples:
Now, since I live in the city of Boston that last one would definitely catch my attention. New surface: Check. 15 minute drive away: Check. Private and away from noisy traffic: Check. Let me take a closer look!
Now you’ve got the player interested with your title. Next, let’s show off your beautiful court…
When selecting photos for your court listing, remember the goal: help players who have never visited your court see what a great experience they’re in for when they book with you. Help paint a compelling picture of your court and its surroundings to the player.
When it comes to photos, more is usually better, but please also make sure they are clear, of a good quality resolution (any modern mobile phone camera should be more than enough) and recent.
Consider these tips for effective photos:
Photos are an essential part of the listing, so try and spend a little time capturing some great ones that will highlight what is so great about your court.
How much should you charge? How much can your home tennis (or other racket) court earn?
The choice is yours, of course, but we see hourly rates ranging from $30/hr to $100/hr or so, with a common sweet spot around $50/hr.
Want to play around with different rates to see how it may effect how much your court earns? Note that this is no guarantee of earnings, but you can check out our Court Earnings Calculator.
Keep in mind that your hourly rate could be spread across 2 to 4 players. $50/hr would be $25/hr for each player if playing singles and $12.50/hr each if playing doubles.
You don’t need to worry about setting different prices. RentMyCourt limits each renter to a max of 4 players.
How often you make your court available to renters is also, of course, up to you. We’d also suggest checking out that same Court Earning Calculator to also see how changing your court availability may change how much reserved time you and your family have with your court and how much that may affect what your court may potentially earn.
Within the RentMyCourt application, you can set the days of the week and hours within the day you want to make available to renters vs what dayas and hours you want to keep for yourself and your family.
You can also block out months, seasons or other any other times if you like. Just add your black out info to the “Blackout Dates” section.
So the player will see a summary via your title, they will then see the general location, the court type, the photos, the price and a list of your court’s features.
And if those things don’t tell the full story, they’ll go to your description for more details
What should your description include? Consider giving more details about the things you wanted to highlight above. Add any info not covered in the title and the features list. You don’t need a book-length description here. Just help the player better understand your court and what they should expect when they come to play.
Imagine yourself as the player and what you would want to know before paying and committing. Help paint the picture of what playing on your court will be like. You know your own court well, but think about the questions a new player or coach may ask, and then answer those questions here in the description.
You are helping potential renters make an informed decision with accurate information. Give players the confidence to book your court.
RentMyCourt uses the popular payment processor Stripe to charge renters of your court and to process payments to you. Stripe handles the transfer of payments to your bank account once the player has played on your court.
Connecting your court to Stripe happens behind the scenes. Just add some info about your account in your RentMyCourt settings. Yeah, we get it. Connecting your RentMyCourt court account to your bank may seem odd. But it’s the most secure way to get paid. Here’s why we chose Stripe:
OK, so let’s see an example home tennis court listing that brings all of this together. See the image below. Zoom in via your phone or browser to areas where you’d like to see details.
Newly resurfaced full size Hard Tennis Court by Har-Tru in a beautiful peaceful setting on 5 acres, set back from the main street. Take a rest on court side benches and chairs. Parking for up to 4 cars. 2 hr minimum booking and 4 players max. Tennis pros welcomed. Sorry no bathroom, but a Starbucks is 2 miles away.
Did you notice some of the things we talked about above?
Maximize your court’s value and earning potential by following some of these helpful tips. It’s a great way to earn extra income or help cover the cost of owning a court! It’s also a great way to offer your community more healthy outdoor racket sports options.
Add your court here instantly or sign up for the White Glove court listing service where we help you step by step.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing your court on RentMyCourt!
– Justine
Co-founder of RentMyCourt
How much can my home tennis court earn? Court owners can rent their home courts to players and earn, while also helping make tennis, pickleball, basketball and other fun sports
Want help listing your court on RentMyCourt? Sign up for our free white glove service and we’ll help you get your court listed quickly.
Court Owner Guide How To Create a Home Court Rental Listing That Players Will Want to Rent The luxury of no crowds or distractions. Homeowner courts.Made available to you. You
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