PlayByPoint Alternative: What Badminton and Multi-Sport Clubs Should Check Before Switching

A pickleball and tennis club wants to add badminton nights to fill slow midweek court time. The front desk already runs every booking through PlayByPoint, so the natural move is to add the third sport to the same system. The answer from support is that PlayByPoint covers tennis, padel, pickleball, and squash. Badminton isn't on the list. The club ends up running badminton bookings on a shared spreadsheet next to a platform that was supposed to get them off spreadsheets in the first place.

That's the moment a lot of multi-sport operators start looking at alternatives. Not because PlayByPoint is bad software, but because it was built around a specific set of sports and a specific pricing model, and neither one flexes for every club. Here's an honest look at where PlayByPoint fits, where clubs run into walls, and how Facility Presence handles it differently.

Where PlayByPoint is a solid choice

PlayByPoint was built specifically for racquet sports, and it shows. The branded mobile app is polished, group reservations split cleanly across players, and there's an in-app pro shop for merchandise and rentals. If your club runs exactly tennis, padel, pickleball, or squash, and you want the club-branded app experience, it's a reasonable platform. This isn't a case against it. It's a case for checking the fit before you sign.

Where clubs go looking for an alternative

Three things come up over and over when operators explain why they're shopping around:

• Badminton isn't supported. Clubs running badminton alongside pickleball or tennis end up managing a second system, a second calendar, and a second set of member records just for one sport. That defeats the point of having one platform.
• The cost stacks. PlayByPoint runs about $299 a month, and on top of that, every card transaction carries a 2.7% plus $0.15 processing fee. On a club doing real volume across a season, that per-swipe fee adds up on top of the subscription, not instead of it. Facility Presence charges no per-transaction fees. Stripe's standard card rates pass straight through to you.
• Open play is a different job than court reservations. Reservation blocks work fine for lessons and private court time, but drop-in open play needs a live queue, fair rotation across courts, and a way to confirm or dispute scores so standings stay accurate. That's a different problem than booking a court for an hour, and it's one we built specifically for.

Facility Presence vs. PlayByPoint, at a glance

Vendors update pricing and features regularly. Confirm current details directly with each provider before you decide.

What actually changes for your front desk

Members check in by scanning a QR code instead of your staff pulling up a name on a screen. Session and package credits deduct automatically the moment someone checks in, so nobody's tracking a 10-pack on a sticky note. Payments run through Stripe with real refunds and PDF invoices, and every family group, tag, or segment you use to organize members lives in one CRM instead of split across a booking tool and a separate spreadsheet.

Open play is where the difference shows up most on a busy night. Players join a queue, courts rotate fairly as games finish, and when a match ends, both sides confirm the score before it posts to standings. If there's a dispute, it gets flagged instead of just being whoever typed faster. That's the part reservation-first platforms weren't built to handle, because their whole model assumes you're booking a block of time, not managing a rotation of forty people across six courts.

How the switch actually works

You send us a member export, your current booking history, and your Stripe account details. We migrate your members, packages, and court setup for you at no charge, and we build out your pricing and court templates before you ever log in. Most clubs are live within a week, and we stay hands-on through the first sessions to make sure check-in and open play run the way you expect on night one.

Frequently asked questions

Does Facility Presence actually support badminton alongside pickleball and tennis?

Yes. Badminton, pickleball, tennis, and padel all run on the same platform, including open play, court booking, and membership management for each.

What will switching from PlayByPoint actually cost?

There's no per-transaction fee on top of your subscription, and migration is free. On a club processing meaningful card volume, dropping the 2.7% plus $0.15 per-swipe fee is often the bigger number over a season, not the subscription price itself.

Do we lose our member history when we switch?

No. Migration covers your existing members, packages, and booking history, and we handle the move as part of onboarding.

If badminton is part of your program, or you're tired of a per-transaction fee eating into busy weekends, get on a call and see the platform running with your actual court setup. Book a 15-minute demo: https://cal.com/jungho-ham-jar83g/30min