Dutch bowling is priced per lane per hour: the same hour costs six people a third of what it costs two

Rain on a Saturday afternoon, four adults and two children needing somewhere indoors for two hours. A Dutch bowling centre will ask how many lanes and how many hours. It will not ask how many games. That question is the price structure: the money is charged per lane per hour, and the number of people is the denominator you fill in yourself.

• Bowling Scheveningen: 39.50 euro per lane per hour; 44.50 euro per lane per hour for disco bowling from 21:00 on Friday and Saturday and on official public holidays; a Sunday evening special from 19:00 of one and a half hours for 39.50 euro per lane; shoe rental 1.50 euro per person with bowling shoes compulsory; bumpers 2.50 euro per lane for children. (source 1)
• Bowling Groningen: 24.00 euro per lane per hour Monday to Friday before 18:00; 30.00 euro Monday to Thursday after 18:00; 34.00 euro Friday after 18:00; 18.00 euro for under-18s Monday to Friday before 18:00; 18.00 euro for the Wednesday disco slot between 15:00 and 17:00. (source 2)
• Bowling Scheveningen also sells parking cards for the Zwolsestraat 426 garage at 7.50 euro for four hours and 3.75 euro for two, one card per vehicle. (source 1)

The sum: cost per person per hour = (lane price per hour divided by the people on that lane) + the shoe fee per person. Put Scheveningen's 39.50 euro through it. Six on a lane is 39.50 over 6, which is 6.58, plus 1.50 for shoes, so 8.08 euro per person per hour. Two on a lane is 19.75 plus 1.50, so 21.25 euro each. Same lane, same hour, and the per-head price differs by a factor of 2.6. Groningen's weekday-before-18:00 rate of 24.00 euro split six ways is 4.00 euro per person per hour, and that page lists no shoe fee, so ask on arrival.

Once you know where the denominator sits, two decisions get easier. First, gathering people beats picking a cheaper slot: moving from 39.50 to 44.50 at Scheveningen costs 5 euro more an hour, while going from four people on a lane to six saves 3.29 euro each. The second lever is much longer than the first. Second, the 2.50 euro bumper charge is per lane and not per child, so two children and four children cost the same 2.50.

The Sunday evening special is worth a separate sum: 39.50 euro for one and a half hours works out at 26.33 euro an hour, a third below the same venue's standard 39.50. If that slot fits your day, it is the cheapest unit of time on either of these two tariff sheets.

Hokimi field note: bowling shoes are compulsory here and billed separately, so do not read them as part of the lane price. Six people on a lane for two hours pay 6 x 1.50, or 9.00 euro, in shoes, and that line only appears at the till.

Where

Bowling Scheveningen in The Hague and Bowling Groningen in Groningen

When

Follow each venue's own published opening hours and rate bands

Price

Scheveningen 39.50 euro an hour for one lane plus 1.50 euro shoes each; Groningen 24.00 euro before 18:00

Booking

Book a lane ahead, since both venues schedule by the hour

Note

Bowling shoes are compulsory and billed separately, and bumpers are charged per lane rather than per child