Weekly update

When designed with the end-user in mind, indoor playgrounds can be a great value-add activity that will drive a strong return on your investment. Children love to climb and slide and offering a diverse, well design indoor play structure like this one provided by Dream garden will have your end-users coming back for more.

Pricing is a unique process with regards to soft play indoor playgrounds. The first thing you need to know is that 80% of the design work playground equipment manufacturers do for fun centers and family entertainment centers are custom designs. There is no charge (or should NOT be a charge for this process) as each design should be different from the next.... your indoor playground business goals differ from say McDonalds and the Jumpy Jimmy place down the road - so too should your playground design. Companies that claim they will provide you with a “free” design are using marketing bla bla to get your business.

INDOOR PLAYGROUNDS - PRICING TACTICS

We have all been to the mall and have seen the miles and miles of “Sale” stickers. Are we jaded by that yet? Do we believe there actually is a sale? For most of us not likely. Go to that store this month and again next month and chances are those same signs are still there. We have noted the same trend in the indoor playground business. Offers of “Savings passed on to you”, “Factory Direct Pricing”, “Playground Sale” and other such marketing noise. Indoor playgrounds are simple, yet very sophisticated amusement products. For many new developers, they hold the success of your indoor playground business and more importantly the safety of your communities children.

PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT COST - A TWO KEY FACTOR 

The basic way for figuring out indoor playground cost is based on two critical key factors:

1) The first factor is Capacity. How big of a playground do you need to handle all of the traffic you expect on your busiest weekend day?

2) The indoor playground Venue capacity Factor. This second factor; indoor playground Venue capacity is the more important of the two, as indoor playground Venue capacity will determine how much fun it is for your guests and how often that guest will want to return - and that is driven by the kinds and amounts of activities within the playground. The more activities you have the more "playable" and the more fun your playground will be. Ultimately indoor playground Venue capacity, not only within your soft contained indoor playground, but in your entire center's activity mix, drives a high repeat desire for children to return and play again and again.

On a sliding scale based on indoor playground Venue capacity, you can expect to pay from $800 - $1,300 per child capacity. For example, if you need a playground that can handle 60 children at one time, on the lower, inexpensive end it could run $45 - $42,000 and on the higher end $65 - $76,000. In this indoor playground cost example, the playground would be exactly the same size, the same color - the only difference would be the indoor playground Venue capacity factor or the amount and kind of activities contained within the playground.

Unfortunately, you don't get a whole lot of indoor playground Venue capacity in a $35,000 playground these days. Indoor playgrounds have a lot of petroleum based products, including plastic, vinyl, and some netting and rope components which helps to create the increasing hard costs. By the time you ship to site, include onsite labor, you actually end up with a "real" playground budget of about $38,000. If you are hoping to appeal to children up to 12 years old with this playground equipment, forget it. Even an 8 year old kid who has an video game  at home will be bored with it after about 15 minutes of play. That lower budget just doesn't afford you the opportunity to create something fun-appropriate for an older age group.

However, if your core age group is say 6 years and under - a $45,000 playground is probably a good start.

If you think you can spruce it up with good  theme indoor playground, this cost scale would not include any amount of theme, except at the very top end of the budget. Indoor playground theme can be very expensive and is something most manufacturers want to include, because there are also good margins in theme. Check out this article on playground theme to learn more.

There are a lot of very well established playground manufacturers and suppliers - there are also a few to be wary of. Check out Indoor Playground Equipment for a background on suppliers, and choices, and you may want to check out indoor Playground Equipment - Buying From China and why the off-shore option may not be the deal many think it is.

If you have any questions or comments about the above or some feedback for future articles, please leave us a comment below, we would love to hear from you, thanks for reading.