Bounce House Rental Prices Study [United States 2019]

Bounce House Rental Prices in the United States, 2019

The party rental business is one where companies keep their internal data close to the vest. It can be a real challenge finding statistics relating to party rentals in general; the simple act of finding bounce house rental prices can be a headache-inducing ordeal. Adding to the dilemma are more spurious entries from companies that have little, if anything, to do with party rentals. They just see flashy keywords and try to capitalize on them with haphazard "research" of questionable value.

Seeing this as a real issue, we decided to conduct our own research into various elements of the party rentals business and then share that research with you. First up on our list? Bounce house rental prices.

How much does a bounce house cost to rent in the United States, on average? How much is it to rent a bounce house in San Diego versus New York City? Well, let's find out together!

How Much is it to Rent a Bounce House Nationally?

For our study, we looked at 30 individual bounce house rental companies in ten geographically- and demographically- different US cities, including both smaller towns and larger metro areas. Our small study included Portland ME, Brooklyn NY, Chicago IL, Fargo ND, Seattle WA, San Diego CA, New Orleans LA, Jacksonville FL, Atlanta GA, and the geographic center of the contiguous “lower 48” US States, Lebanon KA.

We then did cross comparisons with ten additional bounce house rental companies. These were chosen randomly from around the United States in cities other than the ones mentioned above. These included Philadelphia PA, Milwaukee WI, Portland OR, San Francisco CA, San Antonio TX, St. Louis MO, Reno NV, Denver CO, Nashville TN, and Baltimore MD.

The bounce house rental companies we included in the study were noteworthy for their performance in their local areas, based largely on available review volume and the strength of those customer reviews. That's not to say these were the best or most highly-reviewed companies, however; some companies lacked enough information on their websites to be included in this survey and were rejected based on that factor.

Most companies in the United States set rates based on full day rentals, while other swaths rent out in 6 or 8 hour increments. As such, we are calculating prices based on 8 hours of rental, which for all intents and purposes we're considering to be a "full day rental". Companies renting in 6 hour increments or smaller increments included pricing for additional hours, which we calculated on a company-by-company basis.

Bounce House Rental Prices

• National Average Bounce House Rental Price, per day (or 6 to 8 hours) = $238.44
• Low Average Rate = $97.57
• High Average Rate = $409.35
• Cheapest City to Rent a Bounce House In: San Diego, California ($99.00, on average)
• Most Expensive City to Rent a Bounce House in: Brooklyn, New York (NYC) ($541.66, on average)

Breaking down average prices per city, counting only those primary ten cities and excluding data from the secondary ten cities, we find that outside of New York City there aren't many differences between rural areas and urban ones.

Average rental price of these ten cities before considering the secondary cities: $207.91 per unit

* = Lebanon, Kansas, with a population of only 202 people, did not have a party or event company of merit specifically local to their town. We needed to look at companies servicing Lebanon from surrounding areas in Kansas to calculate their bounce house rental prices.

General Observations

Some of the broader general observations we made during this study of bounce house rental prices, which aren't supported by statistical information:

• Pricing isn't affected by city size in most places; San Diego, with a population of 1.42 million, has generally cheaper bouncy house rentals than Fargo, with a population of only 123k, or Lebanon Kansas, with a population of only 202 people (though with Lebanon, we had to widen our search area and find bounce house companies servicing Lebanon from other areas).
• Most party rental companies offer full day rentals. A slightly smaller swath of companies offered eight hour rentals, and a smaller group offered six hour rentals
• It's somewhat rare to find rental companies dealing in four hour blocks or less
  • Of the 40 bounce house companies we looked at in all, only one company offered less than a four-hour block; they offered only two hours, and were the priciest company we looked at, but their services did include an onsite operator who stayed with the inflatable and supervised play.
• It was fairly rare for companies to offer onsite supervisor/operator services
• Nearly all of the companies we researched considered setup and tear down to be complimentary services, or services included in the base price. Only two companies charged extra for these services.
• Most of the companies we researched showcased their local or state inspections, licenses, and insurance
• Only three of the forty companies failed to mention cleanliness on their websites
• Most companies mention their safety record

Survey Disclaimer

We tried to be as thorough in gathering this information as possible, but this should by no means be treated as definitive, conclusive, academic data. Use this information professionally at your own risk. Also, all of the companies this data is based on are and will always remain anonymous. We did not contact these companies; we compiled this data using publicly available materials.