Starting your own indoor bounce house business means you have full control and flexibility over decisions like the layout of your facility. That’s the reason why so many privately owned centers vary so much. Some centers have clearly defined areas by physical walls, while others are based on a very “open concept” with minimal walls.

Once you visit a few jump centers you’ll quickly notice the  lobby area can be either quite large, or rather small, which was the case at two of our centers. The larger, 12,000 sqft  facility had a large lobby area which allowed us to setup more tables and arcade games. This location had a small commercial fryer, which allowed us to served fries, chicken nuggets, and mozzarella sticks, so the additional seating space was required. The smaller, 6,000 sqft facility was limited to fewer tables and arcade games, but had the advantage of everything being closer together, not to mention a much lower lease payment. Both facilites allowed for a smooth party flow, even on the busy weekends – the important thing is to always stay organized and have the time frames for party start and end times planned well.

You don’t always need a large lobby to incorporate arcade games, some centers opt to use a separate room all together. A lot of your center’s layout will depend on the current floor plan. Keep in mind that in most cases it is far cheaper to find a location that’s close to what you’ve got in mind for the layout, rather than incurring the cost of knocking down and putting up new walls.

Another example of working with your building’s layout can be seen in our teen night setup at the smaller facility. With a small lobby, and over 100 teenagers at the facility, we used one of the cake rooms as a lounge for the those taking a break to eat candy, snacks or drink sodas.

Try not to partition your center too much, it may make it harder to supervise with minimal staff on the clock. During the weekdays, in an open concept layout with minimal walls, a single manager can easily work the front counter and supervise what’s going on in the jump arena.

Regardless of the layout, don’t forget to install surveillance cameras that record and display what’s going on in different sections or rooms of your facility. When choosing a system, get the one that allows for easy backups.

Lastly, your lobby, or at some centers “parents’ lunge” area, should include a comfortable seating area, some newspapers or magazines, TV’s and of course free wi-fi to cover the basics. You want to create a comfortable atmosphere where the parents can enjoy their stay while the kids play, making them much more likely to come back sooner.

Here’s a few pictures for ideas:

Very clean setup with upsell options above the front counter.

Example of Parents Lounge with a window overlooking the jump arena.

General “lobby” area combined with the jump arena and bounce houses. Notice the private cake rooms labeled “1” and “2” on the blue wall. Next, on the green wall you actually have a “parents only” lounge.

Lobby with seating and arcade games. Food menues placed on the tables. Straight ahead is one of the cake rooms and jump rooms are located in separate rooms to the far left.

One Response to “Indoor Jump Center Lobby, Arcade Games, and Parents Lounge”

1. Luther Williams says:

   January 15, 2013 at 6:20 pm

   Hi Norb,

   If possible, we’d like to schedule our 1 hr phone Q and A session for tomorrow, January 16. I realize it’s last minute, but it’s one of the few days that my partner and I have free together. Please advise.

   Thank you,

   Luther Williams
   Hop Around

   Reply