To think this is actually reasonable value for a child’s party?

Do your kids just not play outside in the winter? Choose a day when it's not raining and bundle up. For children, playing together in a big pack is the most fun thing they can do. They don't need soft play, entertainment, discos or any of that stuff. They are literally designed to make their own fun.

The whole thing takes an hour or so and is mostly effort free.

So what represents bad value to you??
A village hall for 3 hours here would cost £50, as would trampoline hire, why is yours so expensive?
Your local farm park for £7 or whatever you said sounds good. Take the kids there.

This, I live in Surrey and they £20 an hour.

I have done this (London) for one of my twins’ parties. Was a bit cheaper but that was 10 years ago. Had about 60 kids and it was well worth it to have the place exclusively. Didn’t feel bad about the cost seeing as it was for two children.

Urm I paid about £200 for similar on dds 4th birthday. It didn't include a cake but I could easily provide my own. The lunch was individual lunch boxes which kids were fine with

Did that include all the stuff OPs has?

I think she wants to invite everyone and is happy with the choice.

We're just doing my son's 13th which will probably come out at £300-£400 so £750 sounds a lot, but I guess it depends on what you want, and what you can afford!

It sounds like a lot @neverplaywithasmoobut it all sounds quite good value for a large number of kids and lots of stuff included. You can turn up, have fun and walk away without the stress. I’d pay good money for that.

over the years we’ve done various versions of parties. We’ve done a leisure centre hall with activities - we did the food, music, cake, party bags and decorations. Prob £400 - 500 ish but a lot of work and stress. We’ve done a small slightly grubby (but fun!) soft play. That was prob £10 per head with some basic food only. We only had a few kids (the minimum of around 15 I think) as we had to keep cost down.

yours sounds good and clean too which is a bonus.

it’s all relative. Those suggesting house parties and parks - have you seen the weather lately?? And who wants 30 kids in their house.

if you want loads of kids and have the money - go for it - enjoy ☺️

I live in a expensive SE town.

Soft play parties are usually 15-20 kids. No one invites all 30. And that’s fine!

Only a couple of places do exclusive use. I just looked one up and it’s £300 and up to 45 kids.

£750 is ridiculous. I’d look elsewhere. I haven’t done village hall parties for the same reason as you - getting the entertainment is always pricey.

Do any of your local leisure or sports centres have soft play or trampoline parks?

Even if you want to invite 30, let’s say it’s £8 a child that’s £240. That’s a hell of a lot over for some food and a free ticket that you don’t need.

Yes, having looked at the actual prices near me - I have passed the phase of having DC of soft play party age - I think it's not a bad deal. Especially if you're in the south. I see the sense in booking something where everything's taken care of if that's what is important rather than shaving some money, probably less than you'd think, off the budget.

Just checked my local independent place. We are not London or anywhere particularly fancy. It’s a decent softplay , but nothing amazing . £660 for 30 kids (without party bags , cake or exclusive hire). Now I remember WHY did only had 10 kids. 😬

My child’s last birthday we hired a bouncy castle at home, I made the cake, we made all the food. Was probably around £200 for 20 children and we had bouncy castle all day

No thats not good value. I’ve done two decent soft plays 1 for 200 including food and the other 175.

There’s always wine at kids birthday parties around our way. Sole exception are those in the local Methodist church where booze is barred but handily, their kids party slots are all at 10am in the morning. But I digress.

I wonder if you're trying to book out one of the huge chain places like Kidspace that has a capacity of 80 or similar.

You need to use one of the smaller independent type ones because actually if you have "just" 30 kids in a huge space then it feels a bit empty.

As I say I once booked out a 45-capacity soft play and we had 15 kids attending (21 invited but not all could make it) and it felt like we weren't using it all. (Still less than £300 though!)

If you're using something like Kidspace then you don't need exclusive hire, they do packages where you have a private room for the food.

Still better value to use an independent one

Very expensive, my dd recently attended a pool party where the entire local pool was hired out exclusively and a party room provided (no food etc.) For £190 for 1 hour. I thought THAT was a bargain.. £750 is a small fortune to me so definitely wouldn't even consider it an option.

So £20-25 each all included is actually quite a fair price - the question I would ask is: is this really necessary for 4 year olds, and so many of them? It sets the bar high for other parents so may actually cause a bit of resentment amongst them as they will feel they will then be forced to spend similar sums to hold similar level/sized parties - when most kids are really very happy with a smaller group pizza and a craft activity and an hour in the garden.

At that age we held them at home or went to the church hall parties, had a party entertainer for an hour if necessary and provided the food/party bags for about 12-15. And at half the cost. It was plenty.

It may actually be very overwhelming for the 34 kids you’ll have coming, all of whom will have a parent who will stay at that age - so you are presenting them with 70 people, mostly strangers, in a high octane environment for over two hours. I say this as someone tho ran both Beavers and Brownies in our local hall for approx 28. 90mins was often too much for 4-6yr olds.

Honestly, I think there will be tears and upset within an hour and would consider scaling it back?

Some kids are born in winter. Inconsiderate little buggers!

Well that’s going to be shite if your child’s birthday is in November.