Guide · Trampoline parks
Jump sessions, toddler time and parties: what a trampoline park should sell
A trampoline park has one asset, the floor, and it is worth a different amount at ten on a Tuesday morning than at three on a Saturday afternoon. The session plan is how you sell the same floor to different people at different prices, without anyone jumping into anyone else.
The floor is the capacity, and the hour is the unit
Every other number in a trampoline park follows from one: how many people can safely be on the floor at once. That is set by the number of courts and the rule of one jumper per trampoline, and it does not move because a Saturday is busy. A park that sells beyond it has not sold more sessions, it has sold a queue at the barrier and a risk on the floor.
The second number is the length of a session. An hour is the norm, and it is an hour for good reasons: it is as long as most children jump before they flag, it is short enough to turn the floor over several times an afternoon, and it is easy to sell. But the hour includes the safety briefing, and the briefing takes five to ten minutes. Sell the slot as an hour, run the floor as fifty minutes, and stagger the start times so two briefings are not happening in the same corner at once.
Sell the hour, not the day. A capacity per hour is what keeps the floor safe and the price honest.
An open all-day ticket sounds generous and produces a floor that is dangerous at three and empty at ten. The hour is the unit everything else is built on.
Open jump, and the peak you must not overbook
Saturday and Sunday afternoons and every day of a school holiday will fill themselves. The discipline is not selling them, it is not selling past the floor.
- Capacity per session is the floor's capacity, full stop. Walk-ins on a Saturday are sold into whatever the booked sessions have left, not on top of them.
- Stagger the starts by fifteen or thirty minutes across the afternoon rather than running everyone on the hour, so the desk, the sock counter and the briefing area see a steady flow.
- Spectators are free and counted. Parents watching from the cafe are not on the floor, but they are in the building, and the fire capacity counts them.
- Peak is priced as peak. If a Saturday at three is selling out, it is priced correctly. Spend the discount on the Tuesday morning that is not.
Toddler time, and the morning that pays for the heating
Weekday mornings in term time are the park's emptiest hours and its most loyal customers. A toddler session sells the same floor at a lower price to a crowd that will come back every week.
- Under-fives only, and the big children kept off. The whole point is a floor where a two year old is safe, and a session that lets a nine year old in has broken its own promise.
- A carer goes free or nearly free, because the adult is on the floor holding a hand, not jumping.
- Lower price, quieter music, a shorter session. Forty five minutes suits a toddler better than an hour.
- It is a weekly habit, and a mailing list of the parents who came is how it stays one when the weather improves.
Disco nights and the teen slot
Friday and Saturday evenings sell to an older crowd who want lights, loud music and no toddlers. It is a different product on the same floor, and it needs its own rules.
- An age band, stated at booking, so eleven year olds are not sharing a floor with seventeen year olds in the dark.
- Drop-off is the norm, which makes safeguarding, the door and the collection time yours to run. Parents need to know when it ends and where to collect.
- Ninety minutes rather than an hour suits the evening, and the price reflects it.
- The lights make the floor harder to supervise. More court monitors, not fewer, and a briefing that is done in full light before the disco starts.
Fitness classes, the adults-only hour
Early mornings and weekday evenings sell an adults-only class with an instructor, a small capacity and a price per head that looks nothing like a child's jump session. It is a different customer with a different calendar, and a class pass or a block of sessions suits them better than a single ticket.
Parties: the highest value per hour
A party is a jump session with a room, food and a host attached, and it earns more per hour of floor than anything else the park sells. It is also the booking most likely to go wrong, because it has the most moving parts.
- Price per head with a minimum, so a party of six does not tie up a room priced for fifteen.
- Say exactly what is inside the price: the jump hour, the room for how long, the food, the socks, the host. The thing a parent argues about at the desk is the thing that was not written down.
- Grip socks included for the party, because thirty seconds per child at the sock counter is fifteen minutes of a party's hour.
- The guest list captured at booking, with ages, so the briefing and the food are ready and nobody is counting heads in the doorway.
- Paid up front, or a deposit at least. A party room reserved on a phone call and never confirmed is a Saturday afternoon you cannot sell twice.
The arithmetic of a party price, what to include, where the minimum goes and how food changes it, is worked through in what a soft play should charge for a party. It is written for soft play, and the maths is the same on a trampoline floor.
Grip socks, waivers and the things that belong in the booking
The desk queue at a trampoline park is made of three things: a waiver being read for the first time, socks being bought, and a parent discovering a height or age rule at the barrier. All three belong in the booking, not at the desk.
- Grip socks as an extra chosen at booking, or included in the price, so the number needed for a session is known before the session arrives and nobody is paying for them in a queue.
- The waiver done online before the visit, by the parent, at home, in the evening. A waiver read for the first time at the desk on a Saturday is the whole queue.
- The rules on the booking page: minimum age, height bands, one jumper per trampoline, the last-entry time. A rule discovered at the barrier is remembered as unfairness.
- The door then does one job. Scan the booking, check the waiver is done, hand over the socks. A queue that used to be ten minutes becomes one.
Holiday clubs and school trips
Midweek daytime in the holidays sells a holiday club: a morning or a day of supervised sessions with food, sold as a block and booked by a parent who needs childcare. Term-time weekday mornings sell school and club trips as a group booking for a set number at a set price, with the risk assessment the school will ask for already written and ready to send.
No-shows and the empty court
A no-show on a Saturday at three is not a lost ticket. It is a place you turned someone else away from. Taking payment at booking is the single biggest thing that reduces them, and it removes the chasing entirely. Where you would rather not take the full price up front, there is a guide on cutting no-shows without taking deposits, most of which applies here.
A sample week
| When | What the floor is doing |
|---|---|
| Weekday mornings, term time | Toddler time, then school and club trips as group bookings. |
| Weekday afternoons | Off-peak open jump at the off-peak price. Holiday clubs in the holidays. |
| Early mornings and weekday evenings | Adults-only fitness classes with an instructor. |
| Friday and Saturday evenings | Disco night, ninety minutes, an age band, drop-off. |
| Saturday and Sunday daytime | Peak open jump at the peak price, staggered starts, parties in the rooms alongside. |
| One quiet session a week | A lower-sensory session with the music off and fewer people, for families who need it. |
The general case for selling timed sessions rather than an open floor is made in timed entry or open sessions, and a trampoline park is one of the clearest arguments for the timed side.
Where booking fits
Booking is not what makes a park safe or busy, but it is what makes the session plan real. Each session is its own time, price and capacity, so open jump at three on a Saturday cannot be sold past the floor and toddler time on a Tuesday is simply a different price on the same floor. Socks and spectators are ticket types, so the sock counter knows what a session needs before it arrives. A party is its own event with a per-head price, a minimum and the guest list captured when it is booked. Parents move their own booking when a child is ill rather than ringing the desk, and the door scans them in on a phone and hands over the socks.
That is how Hatch works, with the money going into your own Stripe account as bookings are made, and there is more on booking software for trampoline parks. The party pricing and the no-show pieces above are the companion reading.
Common questions
How long should a trampoline park session be?
An hour is the norm for open jump, and it works because it is as long as most children jump before they flag and short enough to turn the floor over several times an afternoon. The hour includes a five to ten minute safety briefing, so the floor time is nearer fifty minutes, and it is worth staggering start times so two briefings are not happening at once. Toddler sessions suit forty five minutes; disco nights suit ninety.
Should a trampoline park take payment in advance?
Yes. A no-show on a peak session is a place you turned someone else away from, and taking payment at booking is the single biggest thing that reduces them, as well as removing the chasing entirely. It matters most for parties, where a room reserved on a phone call and never confirmed is a Saturday afternoon that cannot be sold twice.
Can grip socks and the waiver be handled at booking?
They should be, because they are most of the desk queue. Socks sold as an extra at booking, or included, means the number a session needs is known before it arrives. A waiver completed online by the parent before the visit means nobody is reading it for the first time at the desk on a Saturday. The door then does one job: scan the booking, check the waiver, hand over the socks.
What should a trampoline park charge for a party?
A price per head with a minimum number, so a party of six does not tie up a room priced for fifteen, and an exact list of what is inside it: the jump hour, the room and for how long, the food, the socks and the host. The thing a parent disputes at the desk is always the thing that was not written down. The arithmetic of where the minimum sits and how food changes the price is worked through in the party pricing guide, and it is the same on a trampoline floor as in a soft play.
Written for UK trampoline and inflatable parks. Session lengths and capacities here are the common shapes rather than rules: your floor, your insurer and your operating standards set your own.