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

[neverplaywithasmoo]

I am paying £750 to exclusively hire a soft play for two and a half hours.

Included in that is obviously use of the facilities for an hour and a half then an hour with all food and drink (including the cake) napkins balloons etc with a theme we want. (DD wants princesses of course but there are others available.)

All guests also get a free return visit to the soft play and party bags are included too.

I can’t see how we’d do it much cheaper really.

How many kids? Why do you need exclusivity? I'd be horrified paying anywhere near that for a kids party

Wild, for that length.

How many kids?

Bloody hell! That's what I paid for my car!

Depends what you mean by reasonable value really - I’d expect to pay about that for what you’re getting, but I don’t think any soft-play age child derives £750 worth of benefit from a party. I could afford it but I’d regard it as a waste of money. But if you want to do it and can afford it then go for it!

My experience is that an hour is completely excessive for food and they’ll be bored after 15 minutes so suggest you have a backup plan for that time!

That's a family holiday cost for me.
If you can easily afford it then it's your money and go for it.
Personally I think you're nuts 😂

How much does that work out at per child coming to the party? Why do you need exclusive use?

That's about £400 around here and something I've only ever seen parents do for joint parties with another child in the same class.

Ridiculous stealth boast. Be better.

How many kids is that for?

Here for 40 kids, exclusive hire, picnic lunches for all the kids, unlimited juice and a cake it was 400. Very popular for joint parties as classes have around 20/22 kids then leaves 8/10 each for them to invite.

that’s an obscene amount to spend on a child young enough to enjoy soft play.

this is just a smug boasting thread

It depends how many children you are doing it for and why you need to cover the cost of a return trip to the venue for every child (most will get lost or not used anyway).

You could just go to the soft play instead of hiring the whole place

To answer your question, no it’s not reasonable value for a child’s party even if napkins are included!

I think it sounds like a lot unless it’s for 60x children. You’re paying a premium for the return visit for all of the guests and the party bags etc.

I’ve just checked and our local soft play would be £495 for 30x children for 2 hours. That includes hot food, unlimited squash and use of the party room. It’s still a lot but nothing like you’re suggesting. Why do you need exclusive hire?

I don’t think my son’s 13th cost that much! And that included venue, disco, food and limousine hire

It isn’t intended that way. Unless we had the party at home (which isn’t going to happen) then the only alternatives involve a similar amount.

So I could hire a village hall and that would be a minimum of three hours as we’d need to set up and clean up. That would be at least £200. Then entertainment like a bouncy castle would be around another £200, then food, party bags and so on. Plus a cake. And that’s also a lot of work for me. So honestly I’d rather pay! I also HATE bouncy castles but I know that’s my issue; the kids like them!

I am wondering if I live in a weird place as I’ve never known anybody have a joint party and I’d feel a bit awkward if someone asked me to tbh, as I wouldn’t really like it.

Jeeeeeeeeeeez yeah that's a lot 😳

An hour with the food? That is a long time and I think it will get boring.

How many kids? Near me, the cost per child for parties at soft play or trampoline parks etc is generally about £20-25, including the food and the time playing, and in some places a free return visit. So for a whole class you could easily get to £750 but I wouldn’t invite that many people.

Depends on your area. Round here (Home Counties) the local soft play party is £25+ a head without party bags/free return visit, so it'd even out if you had a class of 30.

Lots of parents round here do hall/bouncy castle hire and DIY the food and party bags, and I think it averages £600ish all in - IMO not worth it for all the extra stress/planning/making food.

It does seem like prices have skyrocketed in the children’s party space! I remember my mum point blank refusing me a ice skating party 20 years ago because it was £5.50 a child and ‘I’m not made of money’ 😂

The thing with exclusive hire is you get more children, whereas if it was non exclusive there’s a minimum of twenty which would mean leaving some children out which I don’t want to do.

It does work out expensive but part of that is just having it all sorted for you; it could be done more cheaply if I did the catering and entertainment but I think everyone (including the guests!) would prefer it if I let the professionals do it!

It’s party games / disco as well as the food.

It is a rather ‘posh’ soft play (if indeed soft play can be posh!) It always feels a bit cleaner than a lot of them, though!

It sounds like you’ve priced up an alternative but want to pay more for it to be stressful, so you’ve already decided it’s a reasonable amount to pay. Therefore, there is no point in asking on here.

Honestly, I think everything is just really expensive at the moment. We have a little farm near us with a petting area, cafe and children’s play area and it used to be £3 to get in and it’s now £7, so it’s more than doubled. It’s a lovely place but while you could once have a nice morning as a family of four it’s now nearly £30. Depressing really.

To be honest it was more because I mentioned it to friends of mine when we met up over half term and their reactions were more like those here - like ‘wtf how much!’ But their children are a lot older. I thought it was a fairly standard amount but maybe there’s some regional variation.