The Bounce House Guy

In 2024 we did 230 rentals with an average rental of $291 excluding deliveries and extra fees. In 2025 we did 199 rentals but our average rental went up to $417 excluding delivery and any other fees. 2025 we sold our units that weren’t making any money and brought in units that did, we also capped our weekends so we didn’t kill ourselves. I believe 2026 we will have an even higher per rental and more rentals than we’ve ever had. Bring in the 2026 Bounce House season!

@bradncpa I had ai make it and then walk me through how to set up the database and host.

@jeshoopes Did you make the app?

Here’s the admin side of my delivery management app. It’s simple but does the job!

@FrontierBDesign It seriously is! I built a chore app for my kids and it was a blast. Even though I’m not doing the coding it still takes a lot of work to go back and check everything and make sure it works, you make a change it it could break something somewhere else.

@jeshoopes Figured. I played with it some this weekend as well. It's like the new video game system for adults.

I built a delivery app and actually launched it today! It’s taken hours to set it up but I can’t wait to try it this week! I’ve even got it set it up where I can input as an admin and my delivery drivers log in and can see their routes that I’ve preloaded for the day and then prompts to send pre filled texts to customers letting them know we are in route and how many minutes away we are!

@FrontierBDesign I used Claude to code it, firebase for the database and I’m hosting it on vercel. But Claude walked me through all of it.

@jeshoopes Which AI did you build through?

Our booking system works 99% of the time but every now and then things get a little mixed up, we just had someone book a slide to girl who was trying to book over the weekend. She had created two quotes so our booking software created a conflict and she never finished booking. Someone else just booked that slide. It’s not our fault but sucks because someone isn’t getting the slide. That was our last waterslide available for July 4.

@ToddLlewellyn Oh geez, that takes me back to scout camp.

Where are my fellow boondoglers at?

@lgsguy Yes I love it!

@jeshoopes How about a bounce house mausoleum

I told my wife today that I want my tombstone in the shape of a bounce house.

@lgsguy Yeah it’s finer than just a regular toothbrush so they are more willing to brush. It helps when they have a toothpaste they like too. Normal mint is too “spicy” for all of them. They really like the bello strawberry flavored toothpaste.

@jeshoopes One of the vibrating toothbrushes?

Need pro tips for brushing a 15 month old’s teeth… Feels like my wife and I have to go to war every night. One baby holder, one brusher. At best, we get 15 seconds of brushing. What’s the secret!?

Anybody else?

Unfortunately it happens sometimes. We’ve got three delivery teams now and have really dialed in our deliveries so we can avoid any of this. But in three years we’ve only been late to one or two parties and it’s always because you couldn’t find working power at a park. Or it’s at a park and they can’t find the water. Then the people after get it late and it makes us look bad.

@Kali_laur3n By this logic then should Uber Eats and door dash charge the same amount or even uber delivery if it’s 5 miles or 25 or 50 miles?

@jeshoopes I don't understand either, unless customer can do it DIY it, pick up, set it, return it, then you shouldn't charge delivery fee separate. having no such option, this should be in the rental.

I had another customer tell me know today because we charge delivery on top of our rental. What people don’t understand is that the $89 I charge doesn’t even cover my labor and gas. It takes two guys and the drop off is 1.5 hrs round trip and the same to pick up. 30 minutes each for set up and take down. So for one guy I pay 4 hrs at an average of $22 an hour is $88 if there’s 2 guys I’m $172. PLUS gas which would’ve been $60. So I’m into it $230 ish dollars not including any wear and tear or overhead. The only way it works is if we have multiple units going out to the same area. She wanted it tomorrow and it would’ve been the only rental. She wanted a 10% discount and the rental would’ve been around $370 total. Some people just aren’t my customers and I’m ok with that.

@TenLittleWords Sorry, the $89 is for delivery, the rental is $315. So after I asked what city she was in and then told her our delivery and set up charge she said no.

@jeshoopes Advertising 89 bucks and having to justify 370 once someone bites sure seems counterproductive. What am I missing?

@FlakeSamael Yeah that could work.

@jeshoopes no you price for you max distance and everyone pays the same.. its basically how semi local movers work, first hour is the overhead then the rest is hourly rate. like price for cost for 60 mile radius. some days you will make extra money some days you wont.

That’s a very difficult concept, it works if you only deliver within 10 miles but what if you have that customer that’s 30 miles away or what if you have that customer that’s 60 miles away. It takes way more labor and fuel to go 30 miles and almost impossible to help someone 60 miles away. If I limited to only my little town, we wouldn’t be the business we are. On our website, you are able to see all of our pricing and delivery upfront. But most of these issues are from Facebook marketplace leads where they don’t see a price and they reach out and then I tell them the price of the unit follow up with what city are they in and then give them the price of delivery and set up.

@jeshoopes Why dont you just price delivery into the rental... and sell it as "all in price no added fees or taxes" to compete if others have lower price. I would for sure buy all in listed items than negotiable/added fees.

@DougAWojtczak On this rental yeah, if I had two rentals in the city it totally changes things, but just for moments not worth it.

@jeshoopes Yeah unfortunately most have no clue what the cost is for service in this industry. You’re literally looking at making what $130-140 on the rental not including wear and tear?