In November 2023, a McMahon Group Pulse Survey was sent to McMahon’s database of clubs, asking for club leaders’ assessments of 2023 and their outlook for 2024 and beyond.
Here are some highlights of key findings from the survey results; additional results as they relate to specific areas of club management and operations are presented throughout this issue of Club Trends, along with forecasts and “hot takes” from experts at McMahon Group and KOPPLIN, KUEBLER & WALLACE about what might be to come in the year, and years, ahead.
Outlook 2024 Pulse Survey Highlights
An overwhelming majority (89.9%) of respondents rated 2023 as either excellent (51.1%) or good (38.8%) for their club.
As 2023 came to a close, nearly half (46.9%) of respondents said they currently had a waitlist for their main (full/regular) membership category.
A slightly larger percentage (48.5%) said they expected to continue to have a full membership with a waitlist at the end of 2024. Another 12.7% plan to have reached full member- ship and started a waitlist by the end of 2024. One-third (33.3%) of the respondents plan to add members during 2024 but still be short of full capacity, while 5.4% expect to have attrition and end 2024 with fewer members.
While 43.6% of respondents expected to raise dues in pace with inflation in 2024, another 42.3% said they plan to institute dues increases that will exceed inflation; only 6.5% said they plan to curtail any dues increase.
Several respondents offered expanded explanations of their current and upcoming approach to dues; here’s a sampling:
“We had a substantial increase for 2023, and that should cover 2024.”
“We’re trying to not go over 3 to 5%, given that we had an 8% increase last year and are also raising capital dues for upcoming projects.”
“We’ll increase by the maximum allowed by our by-laws.”
“We’re increasing 8.5%, but not fully insuring for wind/ flood coverage.”
“Our members will not accept more increases.”
“We will increase based on inflationary pressures, but also security needs.”
“We’re adjusting 2024 for residents vs. non-residents because our 2023 dues increase was too large for non-residents, and they need the perception of being given a financial ‘break.’”
“We’re maintaining current dues, due to limited operations while we rebuild our clubhouse.”