The next level of golf group accommodations is coming to Myrtle Beach.
The second Birdie House in the country is accepting bookings that will begin on Sept. 1.
The house near Arrowhead Country Club in the Forestbrook/Socastee area will have six bedrooms with 12 beds that are mostly queens and 6.5 baths.
The house will be golf utopia for visiting groups.
It will include a room with a Foresight golf simulator with an integrated PuttView simulator, billiards table, shuffle board, stretching fitness area, full kitchen, and a back yard with a 6,000-square-foot artificial putting and chipping green with surrounding bunkers.
A partially-enclosed hot tub, sauna and cold plunge will overlook the back practice area.
“We’re trying to raise the bar,” said Ryan Prickette, Birdie Houses head of operations. “. . . The goal is to make it the best possible home rental for golf travelers that we can possibly make.”
The initial Birdie House is open in Pinehurst, N.C., and the next is planned for Scottsdale, Arizona, which could open as early as this winter.
Birdie Houses is the creation of founder Tom Evans, who has taken numerous golf trips with friends and saw an opportunity for golf-themed, high-end accommodations.
It is a venture capital-backed entity. Old Tom Capital led an initial fundraising campaign for Birdie Houses.
“The concept is based in our founder Tom’s personal experiences going on golf trips every year with his buddies, preferring to stay in a rental house as opposed to a hotel, and realizing that even in some of the world’s best golf destinations the house rental options were somewhat lackluster, especially for the purposes of buddy trips,” Prickette said. “The reception of the Pinehurst house and feedback we’ve gotten has been great.”
The Myrtle Beach Birdie House is a newer custom-built home that the group found for sale and deemed it to be the ideal design.
It will be listed on Airbnb and VRBO, but Prickette expects most bookings to go directly through the company and its website birdiehouses.com. The Myrtle Beach home can be booked through the website.
Birdie Houses has joined the Golf Tourism Solutions marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market.
Other large rental condos, villas and houses on the Grand Strand have amenities that include billiards tables, pools and hot tubs, but nothing to the extent of the Birdie House.
It’s possible Myrtle Beach will gain a second Birdie House in the future.
“Our goal right now is to branch out into multiple popular golf destinations, so folks from all parts of the country and maybe even people coming internationally can find a Birdie House,” said Prickette, who had been in Pinehurst for a few years selling other vacation rentals before being hired by Birdie Houses.
“But our expectation is over time – and certainly Myrtle Beach being one of the top candidates – we’ll circle back in markets where we already have a presence and add additional properties.”
