Choosing the Right Bounce Houses for Your Inflatable Business

One of the most overlooked aspects of starting an inflatable rental business is choosing the right inflatables. The correct assortment is very important for the survival of your business. Remember, you only make money when your rental fleet is rented out, so you need to focus on items that will appeal to the masses.

It is appropriate at this time to review the type of inflatables that are available to purchase. All inflatables used for your inflatable rental business must be made to Commercial spent. The main categories of inflatables are:

• inflatable houses
• Bounce houses with slides (often called combo units)
• inflatable slides
• Water slides
• Obstacle courses (for both young children and adults)
• Inflatable sports games (from basketball to batting cages)

Obviously, as a start-up or any other company, you have budgets that you have to meet. Since quotes are unique to the individual business, I won’t get started on this topic. Instead, I’ll walk you through the priority process for adding inflatables.

Since your goal is to rent your units as often as possible, you should select the units that are most popular. In our experience, bouncy houses rent most often, followed by combo units, slides and slides, inflatable games, and then obstacle courses. Depending on your budget and how many units you want to start with will determine what types of units you want. Another factor is its location. For example, if you are in Texas, water slides carry a lot more weight in terms of rental value than if you lived in Wisconsin. With that said, I’ll use two examples, a three-drive startup and a five-drive startup.

three unit company

• bounce house
• bounce house
• combined unit

five unit company

• bounce house
• bounce house
• combined unit
• combined unit
• Slide

These two assortments will give you flexibility while catering to the masses. Remember, you will never appeal to everyone’s needs when you start. Your goal is to survive and grow to the point where you can add more units.

Now that we’ve touched on variety, it comes to an equally important issue, which themes to choose. Just like your assortment selection, it should appeal to the masses. Traditional themes like castles, funhouses, sports, Disney and Mickey Mouse themed inflatables command a much higher rental rate than pink castles, lions and birthday cake inflatables. While all inflatables are for rent, we are only concerned with buying the most rented units while you start your business. Once you feel the need to add additional inflatables, you’ll know exactly what to add based on customer requests and any shortages you’ve had with your own rental fleet. Just because I advise you to stay away from more niche-specific units to start with doesn’t mean you should once you’re ready to branch out.

Inflatable rental business can be a very successful business. You should treat it like a business and not make emotional decisions. Every decision you make, not just the items you buy, should be made with the business in mind. Good luck and happy bouncing!