How we compare
How does a golf Stay & Play package work?
By Tom Wilson, FounderUpdated August 2, 2026A Curated Stay & Play is built around dates you choose. The price is set per room rather than per golfer, and it carries your nights, your rounds, your dining, and your private transfers in one figure you pay once at booking. Your concierge arranges the details and confirms your courses. It stays fully refundable 31 or more days before you arrive.
What exactly is a Curated Stay & Play?
It is a complete golf trip built around dates you choose, for a couple, a foursome, or a small party. The nights, the rounds, fully inclusive dining, and private transfers arrive as a single package your concierge arranges before you travel, so nothing is left to assemble once you land.
Most golf travel asks you to build it yourself. A room booked in one place, tee times booked in another, a car arranged the week before, and a stack of confirmations you carry through the airport hoping they agree with each other. A Curated Stay & Play inverts that. You bring the dates and the people; everything that has to be reserved is reserved for you in advance, as one package with one confirmation.
Your travel concierge arranges the resort, the golf, the transfers, and the shape of the days, then stays reachable for the whole trip. What they do not do is travel with you. That is the honest difference from a Signature Hosted Experience, where a concierge is on the ground with the group from arrival through departure. A Stay & Play is quieter by design: the work happens before you land, and the week itself belongs to you.
The practical effect shows up at the front desk, where nothing from the package is waiting: no balance, no resort fee, no charge for a round you already paid for. Your nights, your rounds, your dining, and your transfers were settled the day you booked. What stays yours is only what was always personal — anything you charge to the room, and cash for the caddies.
Why is the price set per room instead of per golfer?
Because a resort sells rooms rather than seats, and a couple or a foursome travels as rooms. A Stay & Play quotes one whole-room total covering everyone in that room and the golf they play. What each person effectively pays is then arithmetic: how many of you are in the room, and how many of you are playing.
That single change explains most of what feels unfamiliar if you are used to per golfer trip pricing. There is no headcount fare to multiply. There is a room, a set of nights, and the rounds the people in that room will play. The room is the price, and the people sharing it decide what each golfer pays.
A room to yourself
The highest cost per golfer
- How it works
- One golfer, one room, and the whole-room total resting on a single person.
- Who is in the room
- You, with the second bed and the second breakfast going unused.
Where it breaks: carrying a whole room alone is the most expensive way to travel, even though booking privately feels like the simplest one.
Two golfers sharing
Usually the best valueUsually the lowest cost per golfer
- How it works
- Two golfers split one room, and both play the rounds the package carries.
- Who is in the room
- Two players, using everything the room and the package were built to hold.
Why it works: splitting one room between two players is normally the lowest per golfer path across the same nights and the same courses.
A golfer and a guest
One room, the guest folded in
- How it works
- One player and one non-playing companion share the room on a single package.
- Who is in the room
- A golfer and a guest, with the guest folded into that golfer's price rather than billed apart.
Why it works: the guest travels inside the golfer's price rather than as a second fare, as long as they truly are not playing. If they decide they want a round, say so early and the room is priced as two golfers instead.
Two other things shape the number, and both are published rather than negotiated. Rates are seasonal, and the season that prices your stay is the one your arrival falls in, not the one you happen to book in; the trip page shows which it is instead of quoting it privately. And when a package publishes a book-by date, it is one cutoff for the whole package, a closing door rather than a countdown: it is the last day a booking can be placed, and once it passes, booking for that package has closed.
So weigh rooms as rooms. The instinct to take a room alone because it looks tidier is the one that costs the most, and two golfers in one room is normally the cheaper trip on identical nights. Your concierge will say so before you book rather than after.
How do you book, and when do you choose the courses?
You book the package first and choose the golf with a concierge second. Dates and a room come first, then one payment, and then the course conversation begins. You request the courses you want, we take that to the tee sheets, and we come back with confirmed times rather than a promise nobody has checked.
The order surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly. Booking a Stay & Play does not book a tee time on the spot. It books the package: your nights, your rounds, your dining, and your transfers, at the published rate for the dates you picked.
- 1
Pick your dates
the trip is built around them
- 2
Choose your room
and who is in it
- 3
Book and pay
once, in full
- 4
Request courses
the ones you want to play
- 5
We confirm
real tee times, in writing
- 6
Arrive and play
the package is already paid
Course selection runs as a request and a confirmation, never as an instant booking, because a tee sheet is not ours to promise. You tell your concierge which courses you want and roughly when you want to play them. Your concierge takes that to the courses, holds what is available, and comes back with confirmed times. If a course is full on the morning you had in mind, you hear it from a person, along with the closest alternative, weeks before it could become a problem on the ground.
The loop is deliberate. An instant confirmation you cannot rely on is worth less than a short wait for one you can, and the golf is the part of the week nobody wants improvised.
What do you pay, and what happens if plans change?
One payment, in full, at the time you book, and nothing after it. There is no deposit, no balance due later, and no package balance waiting at the resort. It stays fully refundable 31 or more days before you arrive; at 30 days or fewer it is non-refundable, because the rooms and the tee times are already committed.
- Paid once
- The whole package, paid in full at booking
- 31+
- days before you arrive: fully refundable
- 30 or fewer
- days before you arrive: non-refundable
no deposit, no balance schedule, no package balance at the desk
cancel for any reason and the payment comes back
your rooms and tee times are committed by then
There is no deposit to place and no balance to remember, which also means no reminder schedule, no second card charge, and nothing to reconcile in the weeks before you travel. You pay once, and the package is yours from that moment.
The cancellation line is one date rather than a ladder. Cancel 31 or more days before you arrive and the package is fully refundable, for any reason at all. At 30 days or fewer it is non-refundable, because by then your rooms are held and your tee times are booked in your name at courses that will not release them.
There is no name substitution on a package booking. Handing a spot to a friend is a Signature Hosted Experience feature, where a golfer can transfer their place at no cost up to thirty days before departure. A package is a room reserved for named guests on set dates, so there is no seat to pass along. The full-refund window is the protection instead: change your mind before the line and you are made whole, then book again when the timing suits you.
How is this different from a Signature Hosted Experience?
The two collections solve different trips. A Signature Hosted Experience is a fixed departure for a private group of sixteen to twenty, priced per golfer on double occupancy, paid as a deposit and a balance, with a concierge traveling alongside. A Stay & Play is your own dates for a small party, priced per room, paid once, and arranged in advance rather than escorted.
Neither one is the better product; they are different shapes, and most people know within a row or two which is theirs. Read the table as a way to find yours rather than as a ranking.
How a Curated Stay & Play differs from a Signature Hosted Experience across the decisions that actually change the trip: who travels, whose dates, how the price is built, how you pay, what happens if you cancel, whether a spot can change hands, and who is with you on the ground.
The decision: Who travels
- Curated Stay & Play
- A couple, a foursome, or a small party traveling together.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- A private group of sixteen to twenty golfers.
The decision: Whose dates
- Curated Stay & Play
- Yours. The trip is built around the dates you choose.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- A fixed departure, published in advance with the week already set.
The decision: How the price is built
- Curated Stay & Play
- One whole-room total, covering the room and the golf the people in it play.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- One price per golfer, quoted on double occupancy.
The decision: How you pay
- Curated Stay & Play
- Once, in full, at booking. No deposit and no balance schedule.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- A deposit that holds the spot, then a balance before departure.
The decision: If you cancel
- Curated Stay & Play
- Fully refundable 31 or more days before arrival, and non-refundable at 30 days or fewer.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- A nonrefundable deposit, with a single 120-day line deciding everything above it.
The decision: Handing your spot over
- Curated Stay & Play
- Not available. The full-refund window before the cancellation line is the protection instead.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- Free name substitution up to 30 days before departure.
The decision: The concierge
- Curated Stay & Play
- Arranges everything in advance and stays reachable, but does not travel with you.
- Signature Hosted Experience
- On the ground with the group from arrival through departure.
| The decision | Curated Stay & Play | Signature Hosted Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Who travels | A couple, a foursome, or a small party traveling together. | A private group of sixteen to twenty golfers. |
| Whose dates | Yours. The trip is built around the dates you choose. | A fixed departure, published in advance with the week already set. |
| How the price is built | One whole-room total, covering the room and the golf the people in it play. | One price per golfer, quoted on double occupancy. |
| How you pay | Once, in full, at booking. No deposit and no balance schedule. | A deposit that holds the spot, then a balance before departure. |
| If you cancel | Fully refundable 31 or more days before arrival, and non-refundable at 30 days or fewer. | A nonrefundable deposit, with a single 120-day line deciding everything above it. |
| Handing your spot over | Not available. The full-refund window before the cancellation line is the protection instead. | Free name substitution up to 30 days before departure. |
| The concierge | Arranges everything in advance and stays reachable, but does not travel with you. | On the ground with the group from arrival through departure. |
If you are moving sixteen to twenty golfers on a set week, you want the hosted collection and the person who travels with it. If you are two people, or four friends, with a window of your own and a short list of courses you have been meaning to play, this is the one built for you.
Good questions
Common questions
- How many people can travel on a Curated Stay & Play?
- It is built for small parties: two people, a foursome, or a few rooms traveling together. Because the package is quoted per room, the size of the trip is really a question of how many rooms you need. A group of sixteen to twenty is a different product and belongs on a Signature Hosted Experience.
- When is a Stay & Play package still refundable?
- At 31 or more days before you arrive it is fully refundable, for any reason, and what comes back is the whole amount you paid. At 30 days or fewer it is non-refundable, because your rooms are held and your tee times are booked in your name by then.
- Do I choose my courses and tee times when I book?
- You request them, and your concierge confirms them. Booking secures the package and your dates; the course conversation starts right after, and what comes back to you is real, confirmed tee times rather than a booking screen guessing at a tee sheet we do not control.
- Can I hand my package to a friend if I cannot travel?
- No. Name substitution is a Signature Hosted Experience feature, where a golfer can transfer their spot at no cost up to thirty days before departure. A package is reserved for named guests on set dates, so the full-refund window before the cancellation line is your protection instead.
- What is included in the package price?
- Your nights at the resort, the rounds in your package, fully inclusive dining, and private transfers, all arranged in advance and paid for before you travel. Airfare, travel insurance, cash caddie fees, and anything you charge to the room stay outside it, so what waits at the desk is only ever your own incidentals.
Written by
Tom Wilson, Founder
Tom Wilson founded Arrive Golf and runs its trips himself, from the first tee time to the last airport transfer. He spent years organizing golf getaways for groups of sixteen to twenty before building the company to take that work off the organizer's plate.