Where the facts come from
Every club is checked at a primary source: the club's own website, its price page, or its own listing on the booking platform it uses. Other directories and maps are used only as a list of places to look, never as a source of facts, and we never copy their descriptions. Each club page shows the date it was last checked and where.
We record, for every club:
- address and postcode (mapped with the free postcodes.io service);
- the number of courts, and whether each is indoor, covered by a canopy or open to the sky;
- who can book: pay and play, members first, members only, or not stated;
- the booking platform the club links to;
- every published price, exactly as the club states it.
Where a club does not publish something, we say so rather than guess. "Prices on the booking app" and "Check booking rules" are honest answers; an invented number is not.
How prices are compared
Clubs quote prices per court or per player, for 30, 60, 75, 90 or 120 minutes. We store each price as published and then compute one comparable figure: the cost per player for 90 minutes, assuming four players share the court. A court at £36 for 60 minutes becomes £13.50 each; a court at £40 for 90 minutes becomes £10.
- Off-peak is the club's cheapest non-member rate.
- Peak is its dearest regular non-member rate.
- Member rates are shown on club pages but left out of averages and rankings.
- One-off offers and promotions are left out.
How lists are ordered
On city pages, clubs that anyone can book come first, then clubs with more rain-proof courts and more courts overall, then cheaper ones. Clubs cannot pay to move up. Filters let you reorder the list to suit yourself.
Keeping it current
We re-check clubs on a rolling basis, with priority for busy cities and anything a reader reports. Data pages such as the price index recalculate every time the directory changes, and each one records how many clubs it is based on.