Inspired by their shared passion for tennis and pickleball, Ashley and Tim created CourtReserve in 2016 to simplify court and class management. Their goal was to make the game more enjoyable for everyone involved. We sat down with Ashley to learn more about the future of Court Reserve and what she thinks the future holds for the pickleball marketplace.
Ashley, please tell me a little bit about Court Reserve – What does the software provide- who are some of your clients and how does it support racket sports and Pickleball specifically?
CourtReserve is an all-in-one club management and court reservation software designed to help start, grow, and scale your pickleball or tennis business.
Our software provides a comprehensive suite of tools, including online booking, payment processing, membership management, event scheduling, and communication features, all tailored to the unique needs of pickleball and tennis clubs.
The bulk of our clients include tennis and pickleball clubs, parks and rec organizations, colleges/universities, HOAs/POAs.
CourtReserve specifically supports pickleball by offering features like court reservations, lesson scheduling, events/programming management, and leagues management, ensuring that both players and administrators have a seamless experience.
While our customizable platform is used by sports clubs beyond tennis and pickleball, my husband and CourtReserve CEO/Co-Founder, Tim Owens, and I have decided to “niche down” and cater to the pickleball and tennis industries. We are avid pickleball and tennis players ourselves and we even just opened our own pickleball club, Old Coast Pickleball here in St. Augustine, FL.
Since we co-founded CourtReserve in 2016, we’ve built a supportive network and community in the tennis and pickleball worlds and we’ve come to understand their own unique challenges at their clubs. We could certainly open ourselves up to cater to all sports, but we’d rather be masters at tennis and pickleball, rather than ‘jacks-of-all-trades’ in all sports.
How did Court Reserve start? What was the idea? /inception- what pain were you solving for the industry?
Back in 2016, we were heavily involved in the tennis community, both playing and coaching at our local club in Gastonia, NC. Tim and I were taking classes, participating in leagues, coaching our children, and even captaining teams for USTA tournaments. We were fully immersed in the sport!
However, our home club’s lack of technology was a significant frustration. There was no way to check court availability or sign up for lessons without physically driving to the club, which took over 20 minutes. The only way to find out about classes was by spotting flyers on a cork board. We knew there had to be a better solution.
This need for a more efficient system sparked the idea for CourtReserve. We built the first version of the software, hoping to solve the problems we encountered at our club. To test the market, Tim suggested running a few Google ads to gauge interest. We believed in our product, but we didn’t know if it would resonate with our target market just yet.
Our big break came at a USPTA conference in Palm Desert. We offered a six-month subscription to CourtReserve in a silent auction. Jason Spears from USPTA Eastern visited our booth, engaged with us about our new technology, and ended up winning the subscription for $75. He became our first customer and remains a loyal user to this day.
Starting CourtReserve was a risk we were willing to take. With my background in sales and marketing and Tim’s expertise in software development, we divided our efforts. I focused on building relationships and promoting our product at conferences, while Tim continued to develop and enhance the software. This combination of skills and determination helped us establish CourtReserve in the tennis world.
Tell me about your facility and the realization that your software can be even more helpful.
Opening our own pickleball club, Old Coast Pickleball, has been a dream for Tim and me for years. While we’ve always been passionate about playing pickleball and advancing the sport forward, a huge motivation behind opening our own club was to better understand our own customers’ journeys as club owners. We wanted to experience firsthand the little victories and the challenges that club owners face daily, so that we could bring that knowledge back to the CourtReserve product.
This new perspective as club owners has been invaluable for us at CourtReserve. We’ve been able to see where our software excels and where it needs improvement. Within a week of opening Old Coast Pickleball, Tim and I were already identifying gaps that we could address to further streamline club management. This hands-on experience has allowed us to innovate more effectively and quickly, as we are eager to solve these challenges for both ourselves and our club customers.
With Tim heading up our product team again, we’ve been able to implement these insights rapidly. Understanding the club owner’s point of view has enabled us to make meaningful enhancements to CourtReserve, making it even more useful for our clients.
Where do you see the world of Pickleball going? What do you think makes Pickleball so special?
The world of pickleball is growing at an astonishing rate. Since we started CourtReserve, it’s been astonishing to see how much growth this sport has witnessed since 2016 alone! I think part of what makes pickleball so special is its accessibility and inclusivity. The game is easy to learn, promotes social interaction, and offers a great workout without the intensity of other racket sports. At Old Coast Pickleball and beyond, we see players of literally all ages, skill levels, genders, and beyond playing! It’s also a fun way to practice healthy living, while still being fun!
I think the sport is poised to grow even more over the years, but I think we will also see a lot more exploration of other racquet sports. It’s all very exciting and we are honored to be a part of this community, as everyone has been so welcoming and supportive.
Who are your competitors? What do you think sets your software apart?
You probably won’t like this answer, but we honestly try not to focus on our competition. We are focused on our product’s own innovation, providing excellence in all that we do, superior customer service from real, live humans.
One thing I am proud of is that we are really focused on building relationships here at CourtReserve. I want to know our customers and their families. To be able to put a face to a name of a customer who has sent an email saying how much CourtReserve has helped change their business is one of the best feelings.
We also have an amazing customer success team who goes above and beyond to ensure that our customers’ inquiries are solved. I mean, they will even create personal videos to demonstrate solutions to our customers’ problems. We don’t stop until we can get the job done for our customers, and this is a consistent positive feedback we receive from our customer network, and we are really proud of that.
What is the best advice you were ever given on the Pickleball Court?
Honestly, to have fun and not take it too seriously. That’s when you have your best games. I always tell myself my best game is around the corner.
Who is your ideal customer? What is next for Court Reserve?
Our ideal customer is a tennis or pickleball club owner, director, instructor, or manager who is struggling to meet the demands of their club’s admin and facility management needs. CourtReserve is like your invisible staff waiting in the wings to get your courts and club up and running and organized, so you can focus on more important tasks. We want to help clubs who have been inundated with the headaches that come from “pen and paper scheduling” by digitizing their court reservations and their club’s operations.
CourtReserve is committed to continue innovating, listening to our community on what they’d like to see next from our product, and growing with our tennis and pickleball communities.
About Ashley
Ashley Owens, Co-founder of CourtReserve, previously served her community through a career in law enforcement. Now, she continues to make a positive impact by supporting local tennis and pickleball clubs, parks and recreation, and other community-driven hubs that aim to promote physical activity and wellness through racquet sports.
