My name is Kyle, the owner of The Jump Party. I’ve personally helped plan and personally set up/experienced countless events over the years. This is my guide to help others.
At the bottom of this post, I’ve written out sample orders & how that order was determined.
Factors for Planning
A few things factor in when planning your inflatable rentals
- Number of attendees/riders
- Age range of riders
- Which season of the year is it
- Indoors / outdoors
- Space
- Path for the delivery team
- Electric
- Budget
Now let’s discuss the impact & considerations for each of these factors
Number of Attendees / Riders
Why it matters: Fairly obvious, but… The more potential attendees = the more attractions to keep them occupied.
Consideration: The “THROUGHPUT” of an inflatable
Throughput is the number of riders that can go THROUGH an inflatable in a given period of time. An example is that if you think about a standard bounce house… There’s one entrance/exit point. That bounce house may be able to handle 10 riders. Each rider’s average time inside the bounce hour is 10 minutes.
That gives us an hourly throughput of 60 people (10 people at a time x 10 average minutes / 60 minutes in an hour = 60 throughput).
Typical throughputs (links below will open in a new tab)
- Bounce houses – 50-60 people an hour
- Combo bounce houses (bounce house with slide) – 60-80 people an hour
- Obstacle courses – 220-260 people an hour
- Inflatable slides – 180-220 people an hour
- Inflatable games – 60-120 people an hour
- Dunk tanks – 15 people an hour
Age Range of Riders
Why it matters: Age itself doesn’t matter as much as you might think. Except for the far ends of the age spectrum, all inflatables are ready for riders of all ages. What matters is the GROUPS of ages. It is important to never mix an inflatable with a wide range of ages at once (different ages at different times is not an issue at all).
Consideration: As mentioned above, most inflatables can be used and enjoyed by people of all ages. If your event has MULTIPLE groups of ages (let’s say a toddler group of riders & then a high school group of riders), it’s typically best to separate these groups.
Toddler-aged group: Designate at least one inflatable just for toddlers
All age groups: Every other inflatable is available (can allow toddlers on all, just at times when older/larger riders are not on at the same time)
Which Season of the Year is it
Why it matters: It does and doesn’t matter… Barring dead winter, any inflatable can be used in any weather. The biggest thing that could factor in is a water inflatable (or not). However, most inflatables can be used wet or dry.
Consideration:
- Middle of summer. All items are available. If it’s 1 PM and zero shade on a 98-degree day… A covered bounce house will be a little warm (not unusable as they’re vented, just warm).
- Early Spring/Fall. Consider whether you want to connect water to your inflatables. With the exception of slip n’ slides, every single inflatable is designed to be used wet or dry. You could even run inflatables as “wet” during the mid-afternoon but then run them “dry” when things cool down in the day.
Indoors / Outdoors
Why it matters: With the obvious exception of “water” setups & space (including height)… It doesn’t matter. All inflatables can be used indoors/outdoors.
Consideration: If your setup is indoors, The Jump Party would “anchor” inflatables with sandbags (instead of stakes) and also place ASTM mats at the entrances and exits of all rides. Inflatables will not cause any damage to general indoor venue flooring (concrete, hardwood gym, commercial carpet, etc.).
Space
Why it matters: The square footage and height of your preferred setup area and the HEIGHT of your preferred setup area matter. The Jump Party lists both the “unit dimensions” and “space required” on each of our inflatables.
Consideration:
- Be sure to leave enough room for safe inflatable entrances and exits.
- Be sure to leave enough room for walkways & emergency exits.
Path for Delivery Team
Why it matters: This one is often not considered… When planning your inflatables, the delivery/setup itself matters. Inflatables are typically delivered on a box truck or a truck with a large trailer. From the vehicle, the 300-600lb inflatable is lugged by a normal-sized human being (we have not yet looked into hiring giants) on a large dolly on wheels. When rolled up, inflatables can range between 24 and 36″ wide.
Consideration:
- The delivery vehicles. For fear of causing damage to grass, delivery vehicles should never leave a hardtop surface.
- The path between the delivery vehicle and the setup area. Stairs or incredibly steep slopes can be the deal breakers.
- Doorways. A 4′-wide dunk tank cannot go through a 30″ fence. 400 lb inflatables cannot be lifted over fences. A large 60′ obstacle course cannot quickly fit through a standard framed single door (sometimes there are “tricks” that we can apply to get through doors).
Electric
Why it matters: All inflatables run on standard outlets (the same outlets you plug your cellphone into). However… Only 1-2 blowers can run off of a single outlet (ZERO exceptions) & more subtly… The same 1-2 blowers can only be run on a single circuit.
Consideration:
- How far away are the outlets from where you want to set up? Inflatables 100% have to be within 115 feet of a power source. You/I/we cannot connect unlimited power cords to reach 200′, 300′, etc. 115 the maximum, anything further is a fire hazard and/or will damage cords/blowers.
- How many outlets are available? You can do two blowers per outlet. It’s best to run one blower per outlet.
- How many circuits are available? – Electrician/Maintenance team talk… Circuits typically run 15 amps. Inflatable blowers typically require 7.5 amps. Standard person talk… If relying on outlets, we want to use outlets spread apart (hopefully separate circuits) versus clumping everything together. You do not want to run bounce houses off outlets where you’re also running DJs, concessions, etc.
- Do you need generators? – The Jump Party does provide generator rentals. On events with more than ~2 inflatables… A generator on the order is always a good idea. If to serve only as a backup in case circuits blow, if nothing else.
Budget
Why it matters: I like to think that The Jump Party is as transparent with our pricing as can be. Prices are listed online with each delivery. Delivery itself does not vary by the number of items being delivered ($X delivery is $X delivery for 1 item or for 10).
Consideration: Have a budget in mind early in your process. View The Jump Party pricing page and also take a look at some of the sample orders below, where a budget is listed.
Sample Order 1 – Small
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 50
- Age Range of Riders: All
- Which Season of the Year is it: Summer
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: No obstructions
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$1,000
Order
- Slide – Water (1)
- Combo (1)
Why? The water slide keeps people running through all day. Combos can be used for longer rides at once & can even have specific time windows for ONLY younger/smaller jumpers.
Sample Order 2 – Small
Sample Order 2 – Small
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 50
- Age Range of Riders: All
- Which Season of the Year is it: Fall
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: No obstructions
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$1,300
Order
- Slide – Dry (1)
- Combo (1)
- Generator (1)
Why? Same scenario as above, except the order is during the Fall instead of Sumer. In this scenario, either a slide or obstacle course will do, but an obstacle course was decided on. The generator is included because this is a 3-blower order, which will work on outlets, but we want to run off a generator just in case.
Sample Order 3 – Medium
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 400
- Age Range of Riders: Young adults
- Which Season of the Year is it: Fall
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: No obstructions
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$1,500
Order
- Obstacle Course (1)
- Inflatable Game – Large (1)
- Generator (1)
Why? Nothing quite gets the crowd going like an obstacle course, especially for older kids/young adults. The obstacle course will stay packed for the 400 riders & those who want to “relax” can head over to the large inflatable game and test their skills in basketball, football, soccer, axe throwing & more! The generator is included in this 3-blower order to run one inflatable while the other one runs off of the nearest building.
Sample Order 4 – Medium (Hot weather)
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 500
- Age Range of Riders: All
- Which Season of the Year is it: Mid-Summer
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: No obstructions
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$1,600
Order
- Dual Lane Slip n Slide (1)
- Slide – Water (1)
- Dunk Tank (1)
Why? The throughput on the slide and dual-lane obstacle course is super high. This means that fewer inflatables can keep a larger number of riders occupied. The dunk tank is located in between everything and is the main attraction for hours!
Sample Order 5 – Large – No Over-sized Items
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 500
- Age Range of Riders: All
- Which Season of the Year is it: Any
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: Indoor w/ a regular-sized entrance door
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$2,300
Order
- Bounce house (2)
- Combo bounce house (2)
- Inflatable game (4)
- Yard game (3)
- Generator (2)
Why? There is no way to get an overly large inflatable into this area, so we had to get creative. A few bounce houses & combos where we’ll be able to keep occupied ~50 at any one point in time & then a slew of inflatable and yard games scattered across the area. Each inflatable is run as a “station,” where we rotate through every ~5-10 minutes. A few generators are included. We’ll sit the generator outside of the area & run extension cords in order to alleviate the outlet situation.
Sample Order 6 – Large
- Number of Attendees / Riders: 1,000
- Age Range of Riders: All
- Which Season of the Year is it: Any
- Space: Unlimited
- Path for Delivery Team: No restrictions
- Electric: No concern
- Budget: <$3,500
Order
- Obstacle Course (1)
- Combo bounce house (3)
- Slide (1)
- Inflatable game (1)
- Generator (3)
Why? The obstacle course + slide give us HIGH throughput at roughly 400 riders per hour. The others keep to the combo bounce houses where 10-12 are riding at a time and cycling through every 5-10 minutes. Generators are included as this is an outdoor sports field where there are no power outlets close.
In conclusion… There are only a few factors that really matter, everything else is preferential. There is also no right or wrong answer & many different combinations of items can make your event an event that will be remembered. We’re here & happy to help. Helping plan events is a large part of why we enjoy doing what we do.
-Kyle
