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.

Definitely no good if you’re born the week before Christmas! The great British weather is too variable for me to risk anything outdoors.

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.

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

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.

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

It isn’t a chain; it’s a local place. It is pretty nice as soft plays go to be fair.

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

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. 😬

I don’t doubt it. I guess I’m just pointing out different areas have different cultural norms and things that are seen as standard in one place would probably not be in another.

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.

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.

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 ☺️

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!

Did that include all the stuff OPs has?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Well, it’s often impossible to choose a day it’s not raining in mid December! But more to the point I honestly, seriously can’t imagine anyone being up for that. Parties are supposed to be enjoyable; realistically there is nothing enjoyable about freezing your tits off in a grey park with slippy wet equipment and soggy sandwiches.

I was talking about a day out, not a party, I

Exclusive use of a soft play center with food provided in my local area is €300!

But I don't see the difference. A day out could be soft play or a farm park. A party is a party. It could be in a hall or at home.

@sorryIdidntmeanto one involves going to a farm, one involves a party.

Sorry … I know that sounds like I’m being an arse but the party is everyone together, the farm is everyone far and wide: the party has a set time, the farm doesn’t, the party provides food and has a time to eat it; the farm doesn’t, the party is a disco and games, the farm doesn’t do this, why is this a discussion? 😂

You look at the weather forecast for the week, pick a day when it's not meant to be raining and hope for the best. Obviously it's not the most fun for the adults, but that's not the point. Kids round here love this, but they are country kids. Maybe city children wouldn't be used to it but I think it's a bit sad if kids are only capable of having fun if it's manufactured for them.

If I had £750 to spare I can think of a hundred things I'd do with it before I spent it on a soft play party. From your child's point of view - how much value will they get from it? Is a soft play party five times more fun if you invite 25 kids rather than 5? Won't they just be over-stimulated by it? If you put the £750 in a SIPP (pension) for them and added nothing else it could be worth fifty grand in 60 years time...