How much would you expect to pay for your child to bounce for 5mins on this ?

[handlemecarefully]

\link{http://www.rainbowminigym.co.uk/EquipmentHire_monkies.html\bouncy castle}

at a fete or similar

PLus think of people with more than one child! I have 4. There is no way I would pay £4 (or £8 at Duxford! ) for 5 mins of entertainment.

The visiting funfair a couple of weeks agao charged £1.50 for 5 mins (althought they had longer as it was really quite) -tbh I was expecting it to be more.

DD's school has one at their summer BarBQ/party and its £1 for 5 mins. I don't mind paying that as the proceeds are going to the school so it will benefit my children.

When wehad one at our school fair it was 50p a go, not sure whether it was 5 or 10 mins (suspect 10 because we had to wait a while before getting on). Don't think it should be any more than 50p for a school fair type of thing. You would easily recoup £40 I would have thought.

HMC - as the castle provider for a discount as it's for a good cause - offer them some free advertising - e.g in the programme ( assume you are doing a programme? sell advertising space in it, we always do)

oops see Dominic has already thought of that - sorry

£1 is too much .. 50p max .. and increase the time

if you only charge 50p and have to pay £40 to hire it, you will need 80 customers before you break even.
How many children on at a time? not many on a castle of that size - 3 or 4

4 x children for 5 minutes is 48 per hour

if the fete is 2 hrs long that's a max of 98 kids - realistically it will be fewer with changeover time

economics not looking good at 50p for 5 mins

oops 96 kids

50p. I have 3 kids - at 50p for 5 mins I'd let them all have a go.

At £1 for 5 mins, I wouldn't let any of them go on it. Not value for money with 3, sorry.

Agree bollox to the 50p! That's giving it away....

Agree with lotuseater that was btw.

Some excellent ideas from DominiC about negotiating discount through some sort of publicity thing....

I should clarify - it is not so much a school fete as a 'Family Fun Day' on behalf of our Pre School held in a local pub with a well equipped pub garden. We only have about 20-30 families at our Pre School so can't guarantee a big crowd.....(hence the worry re 50p needing 80 paying bouncers)

I take on board the point that at school fetes there is so much available that the money has to spread further, but tbh our Family fun day is small fry compared to a standard school fete. The bouncy castle will be the major attraction, then there will be 5 or 6 smaller stalls (we will have a fairground striker for say 50p a go, a fishing pond for 20p a go etc)...

But anyway thanks everyone for your feedback - it's been good market research.

Maybe I'll offer a discount for siblings (e.g. £1.50 for 2 children)... or for a second bounce!

How about £2.50 per child and they get a sticker with their name on and can come and go as they please. If it gets busy, do a timed on for 5 mins and then go away for 5 mins while the second lot have a turn??
I would pay more for a timed but return as often as you want thing than I would 50p x several gos IYKWIM :)

bagelbird - that's brilliant!; I'll charge the £1 standard rate, or offer the "super value bonanza bounce all you like" deal of £2.00 / £2.50 to those who want it. Genius!

At a local gala, someone was charging £1.50 for 3 slides down one of those inflatable slide thingies, which I thought was taking the piss. But it had massive queues! More money than sense, some people.

Gosh that would be me then fullmoon - I'd happily pay that for 3 slides..but then I probably do lack a bit of common sense

I suppose it's ok if you only have one child, but £3 or more for a minute's entertainment?

Anyway, sorry HMC, hope your fun day is a roaring success - full of indulgent parents

HMC -have a think about how well-off most of the parents are and wheather you think most of them would be willing and able to spend a bit of cash on the fun day and tailor it accordingly

Ah, well most of the parents are pretty well off (lots of SUVs at drop off time)

deffo £1 a go then