Corporate Event Rentals, Phoenix
Frequency Of Use
How often is your child going to want to use their jumping playground? With bounce houses, it might seem like a high amount, but a large part of that is the surroundings. Most bounce houses are attractive because they’re large, impressive, and colorful. They also tend to be set up for special occasions, like parties and fairs. Trampolines, meanwhile, aren’t that “special” and adorn the back yards of millions of houses across the nation.
Children are more likely to just want to go out and play on the trampoline than they are to wait for a bounce house to be set up for them. Given the option, a bounce house would probably be more fun for an afternoon, but it’s definitely more of a special occasion thing rather than an everyday thing.
Bounce houses also have the concern of out-growing them. Small bounce houses that are suitable for young children only work for a few years before the kids get too big to play on them. Trampolines, meanwhile, can be fun and suitable for children and young adults alike, so long as they don’t misuse the equipment or surpass the weight limits.
A trampoline is likely to win out in the battle of casual, frequent use, but a small bounce house can get plenty of use for a couple of summers before being retired.
Cost
Cost is, of course, always a concern. How much does it cost to buy a trampoline or a bounce house? And how much does it cost to rent one instead?
Trampolines can vary in cost depending on the brand, the accessories, and the size of the trampoline. Small single-person trampolines and jump pads, like the 4-foot-wide jump pads for small children, run under $100 to buy. Larger trampolines (the kind that are 15-20 feet across with netting and all) can range from $250 to $500 to buy. Some of the more advanced models, with built-in basketball hoops and other accessories, can be as much as $900.
Adding Up Budget
Renting a trampoline, we generally see prices that work out to be about 1/10th of the cost of the device to rent it for a week. Pricing varies, of course. Some places are rent to own, and others rent by the day or by the hour. Still, if you want to rent long-term, it will be generally cheaper to buy.
Bounce houses, meanwhile, run a very, very wide range of prices, because there are thousands of different designs. Small bounce houses designed for small children under the age of 5, usually safely enclosed, small, and with accessories like a small slide or ball pit, run around $200-$400 to buy. Larger and more complex bounce houses, with larger slides, water features, or more surface area, can be $500 to $900.
The trick is that the bounce house you buy for your back yard, and the bounce house you see at the county fair, are very different devices. If a child has their heart set on the huge castle they saw at the fair, you’d be looking at a commercial-level bounce house, which can easily be $1,500 to $2,000 or more. Very large, ornate bounce houses can be $5,000. There are even massive slides that run over $15,000!
There’s also the added cost of the electricity necessary to run the air pumps that keep a bounce house inflated. Trampolines don’t have that kind of added cost.
Renting a bounce house has fairly broad pricing as well, usually depending on factors like transportation, size, and duration. You’ll usually end up renting for a few hours or a day, and it can range anywhere from $10 per hour to $250 per day.
Capacity
For a single child, capacity can be an interesting discussion. A small trampoline can be suitable for one person, or up to four or five, depending on the size of the device. A bounce house can range from space for 1-2 small children to 5-10 people for larger and more spread out installations.
Large Bounce House
Trampolines are also harder to use when more people are using them unless those people are coordinating their efforts. Bounce houses, meanwhile, can be chaotic but a ton of fun when more people are using them.
Really, though, it comes down to factors like how many friends your child has to bring home to play, and is a pretty personal determination we can’t help you with.
Renting Or Buying
The primary decision at the forefront of many parents’ minds when looking at something like a trampoline or a bounce house is taking care of it. The costs, the need for storage, maintenance; it’s all a factor. Often, then, the conversation boils down to renting versus buying.
Trampolines are a fixture of thousands of households throughout every city in America. You can see them peeking out from back yards and above fences throughout the year. These people are clearly not renting their trampolines, and indeed, buying a trampoline is the more common of the two options.
That’s not to say that you can’t rent a trampoline. It’s more common to be able to rent bounce houses, but there are companies all across the nation that offer one or the other, or even both.
Bounce houses, meanwhile, are rarely purchased, unless they’re small versions. Unlike a trampoline, which you can leave set up in the yard for months at a time, a bounce house requires storage and care. More importantly, in order to use a bounce house
In general, buying a trampoline is the more effective use of money, time, and space (compared to purchasing a bounce house instead of renting one). It’s more expensive to rent compared to the overall cost of buying one, especially if you expect to get more than 1-2 years of use out of it.
Conversely, it’s generally better to rent a bounce house. They mark special occasions and they’re expensive enough to buy that renting makes sense. Moreover, the setup, teardown, and storage concerns of a bounce house are more than most parents want to deal with. Renting just makes sense.