It is Tuesday night, the party is Saturday, and a parent is on the sofa searching for websites for bouncy castle hire in Dublin with the garden in their head. They want to know if a castle will fit in it, whether you have something for a three-year-old or something for a gang of ten-year-olds, what it costs for the day, whether you deliver to their estate, and what happens if it lashes rain. If they can answer all of that and book the date without ringing, the booking is yours before you know about it.
We build the site, set up the booking calendar and the deposit by card, and send you the numbers each month. You deliver, pump up and collect.
One page per castle
Each castle gets its own page answering the same things in the same order. A photo of it inflated in a real garden, ideally with children on it. The footprint of the castle and the space you need around it, including height for the blower and the clearance from washing lines and sheds. The age range and how many children at once. Whether it can go indoors. The price for the day and what the price includes. The same goes for slides, obstacle courses, soft play and disco domes, and for extras such as candy floss machines and tables and chairs.
Parents measure gardens by pacing them. Give the sizes in metres and feet, and say which castles fit a small garden. It saves a cancelled delivery when the castle will not fit past the side gate.
Where you deliver and what it costs to get there
“Do you deliver to Lucan” is a question castle hire answers all day. A list of the areas you cover, grouped by delivery charge, with a line about how far you go for a bigger booking, answers it without the call. Say what time you deliver and collect, whether overnight hire is possible, and what you need from the customer (a power socket within reach, a gate the castle fits through, grass or hard standing). Every one of those has caused a row at a gate on a Saturday morning, and every one can be settled on the page.
Rain, wind and the deposit
Weather is the castle trade’s daily problem and the website is where to deal with it. Write your wet weather policy once: what a rain cover does and does not do, that castles cannot be used in strong wind and who makes that call and when, whether the deposit moves to another date or is returned, and how far in advance a customer can cancel. Put it on every castle page and in the booking confirmation, so the customer who agreed to it when booking understands on Friday night.
Say you carry public liability insurance and that the castles are inspected and cleaned between hires. Schools, creches and clubs will not book without it. The deposit is paid by card when the date is booked, and the rules are in how to take deposits online in Ireland.
Communion Saturdays and the summer months
The season runs from the first dry weekend in March to the end of September, with peaks inside it. Every Saturday in May is a Communion somewhere, and the families book castles weeks ahead. The school holidays bring birthdays every weekend. The last week of June brings creches and primary schools wanting a castle for the end of year. Winter is quiet unless you have units that can go indoors in a hall, and if you do, the site should say so loudly from October.
A booking calendar that shows what is free does more for a Communion weekend than any amount of phone answering: the parent books at eleven at night and you find out in the morning. There is a guide to how online bookings work if you want to see what is involved.
Booking the date without the phone
The booking flow is short: pick the castle, the date and a delivery slot, pay the deposit, done. It lands in your calendar so the same castle is never promised twice for one day, the customer gets a confirmation with the weather policy attached, and a reminder goes out the day before. After collection, one text with a direct link to your Google review box. Reviews from Communion weekends carry you into the summer.
If the party needs more than a castle, name who you work alongside: a face painter, a kids’ party entertainer, the cake maker.
What we need from you
A photo of each castle set up in a real garden or hall, its size and the space it needs, the age range and the number of children, your day rates and what is included, your delivery areas and charges, your wet weather and cancellation policy in your own words, your insurance position, and ten minutes on the phone.
Plan and price
Complete, at €1,499 to set up and €100 a month, is the plan for a castle hire that wants the dates booked and the deposits paid while the van is on the road. Essentials, at €499 and €50 a month, suits a smaller operation taking bookings by phone. The plans are compared on the pricing page; outside Dublin the first chat is a phone call.