Things You Should Know Before Renting an Inflatable for the First Time.

Renting an inflatable for the very first time can seem overwhelming but it's actually quite easy. Especially when you book your inflatable rental with 3 Monkeys Inflatables. One of our goals is to make the process as seamless as possible. So then, where do you begin?

First, know your space. It's always best to measure the area so that you know exactly what footprint you are working with. There will be no questions as to whether or not something will fit if you already have your dimensions ahead of time. While you have your measuring tape out, determine where the closest outlets are and make sure they are no more than 100' from the expected setup area. Don't guess or eyeball - measure!

Next, assess who your main crowd is going to be. Do you have all young children? Do you have all teenagers? Maybe it's an all adult party. There's a likely chance you have a mix of young children and and older children. Perhaps it's a family function where you need something for everyone! Determining who your audience is will help us, help you, pick the right items for your event.

Knowing the different types of equipment categories is quite important when choosing the right inflatable rentals. 

• Very basic and a staple and many events, is a bounce house. These are inflatable jump houses and standard size is about 15'x15' and allows up to 8 riders or 800 pounds, whichever is exceeded first.
• A step up from a bounce house would be a combo bouncer. A combo, combines a bounce house with a few other inflatable features such as a basketball net and a slide. Combo bounce house rentals tend to keep children entertained slightly longer as they do give them more to do. Even better, for the hot, summer months, many of the combo rentals with 3 Monkeys have the ability to be used wet or dry. So when it is hot, get that garden hose out and let our professional set up crew connect it to the slide and watch it transform into a waterslide! 
• Obstacle Courses come in two different categories; race obstacle courses or playground obstacle courses. The race obstacle courses are designed for just that, "Ready, Set, Go!" But it's not a necessity. Riders can go through without racing an opponent to challenge themselves rather than someone else. The playground obstacle courses are where children to through at their leisure and no racing is involved. There is one entrance and one exit.
• Who doesn't love a slide? Inflatable slides are great for faster moving lines. Our dry slides are dual lanes which means two riders can go at a time. However, only one person on the steps at any given time. The reason being, is if the climber loses their footing and slides back down, they are going to take anyone who is climbing behind them, out along the way. We have a large collection of water slide rentals which get booked very quickly during the summer months so don't procrastinate!
• Go big, or go home! Last, but not least, extreme interactive inflatables are the mac daddy's of our inflatable collection. These inflatables are often much larger than a traditional bounce house and may include one or more participants. They are game-like, and present a specific challenge, with a very specific goal to accomplish. 

Electric. Each inflatable gets blown up with a blower that is provided by our company. Each inflatable, depending on its size, age, or design, requires a different amount of blowers as well as different size blowers. When we say different size we are referring to how many amps it pulls when it is running. Amps?! Don't get scared. It's actually quite simple. An outlet (the thing you plug into) is connected to a circuit breaker which has a certain number of amps. Just be careful, because multiple outlets can be connected to one circuit so you could be pulling amps from several different outlets. Worst case scenario, you overload a circuit, trip the breaker, and it needs reset. Or you run around your house unplugging items to free up amps! Another thing that's important to mention is that the blower does have a surge of power (meaning it will pull more amps) at the time of start up. Are you super confused and unsure of whether or not you will have enough power? You can always play it safe and rent a generator! Then you won't even have to worry about feeling like you are trying to play electrician. 

Weather. Most customers want to know, "What if it rains?" We have a very distinct weather policy. We do not make any changes for weather until we can see the 24-hour hourlies for your specific delivery location. We go by 60% chance of rain, or higher for at least 50% of your rental period. So, if the day before it looks like it's going to be a wash out and it falls under our weather policy, give us a call and we will work with you to find another date to move your rental to so that you don't lose your deposit. Most of our rentals can be operated in the rain, with a few electronic, specialty item exceptions. Our inflatables can be used in the rain, but not high winds, lightening, or thunder. Keep in mind, that during the hot summer months there's always a chance for a shower or thunderstorm it seems. After all, isn't this Mother Nature's way of cooling things down? All you would do is turn the blower off for the duration of the inclement weather, and once it passes, you can turn it back on and resume the fun!

Do I need an attendant? Every inflatable requires its own attendant by law. This does not mean you have to get an attendant through our company. As long as you have someone, who is over the age of 16, monitoring the use of the inflatable at all times, you have an attendant. Other parents watching their own children can be their attendant. If you want a designated attendant for your inflatable party rental, we always suggest checking with local high schools or churches for teenagers who are looking to either fulfill volunteer hours or make a few bucks!

When booking your inflatable rental with 3 Monkeys, you want to give us your party or event start time as well as the end time. Please understand we cannot take delivery or pickup time requests or we would never be able to get everyone's events set up on time. What we will do is ensure you that if you tell us your party starts at 1 p.m., we will have everything set up, ready for you to use, by 1 p.m. With that said, we also ask that you allow us flexibility; meaning if we need to come set up a day or two before and/or pick the inflatable up a day or two after, that's okay. Someone does need to be there for set up so that they can instruct the delivery crew on where to place the unit and where the power is located. Once the unit has been placed it cannot be moved. About two days before your scheduled event, you will receive an email asking you to confirm, one last time, the details of your order and in that email it will inform you of your scheduled, estimated time for both the set up and the pick up. We will ask that you reply to that email so that w have acknowledgement and know someone will be there. 

Not everyone has their events at home and cannot allow for flexibility. We do understand that. For those customers who are having events at public locations and need the rental delivered and picked up in the same day, there is a $100.00 public location fee. This is because we have to make sure we designate a truck to do your run on a given day and it provides some restrictions on that truck. If you have further questions about this, please don't hesitate to call us to discuss it further.

This was a lot of information in one article and we hope it answered a lot of those inflatable rental newbie questions you may have floating around in your head. If you have more get the answers today by calling us at 717-650-7657 or by emailing us at info@3monkeysinflatables.com. We also welcome suggestions on what we could add to help other first time inflatable renters. The bottom line is that your guests are going to have a blast so don't do too much second guessing. Let us help you through the process so that you can enjoy your special event too alongside your guests.