How to run a Game Rental Business

This page is a work in progress which we have started to create in 2025 (which is 8 years into our game rental business). We hope to include information here that will assist others in running their game rental business and we also hope this will provide a guide to the future buyers of our game rental business when we do eventually sell it one day (likely late in the year 2037).

Timeliness

If you are on time for a rental, then you are late. It is always a good practice to be about 10-15 minutes early when meeting a client for a rental pick-up or delivery.

Vehicles

We currently run our small game rental business with 2 vehicles. We use a nice pick-up truck where we load games in the bed and/or back seat, and we have a jeep that we use to pull a cargo trailer for times where we need more space or the weather isn't cooperating and we need to make sure the games don't get wet. We do have large vinyl cargo rain bags that we can use in the bed of our truck for when we don't want ot use the trailer, but when games become more than what we can fit in the bed and backseat, then we use the cargo trailer. It is always a good practice to have a back-up plan, and when it comes to vehicles having a 2nd vehicle (both with towing capabilities) will save your day when one breaks down and is in the shop. You don't want to ruin a rental because you can't meet the committment because a vehicle is out of service. So ALWAYS have a back-up vehicle that you can hook up your cargo trailer to if needed.

Attire & Logo

We wear our embroidered St. Louis Game Rentals logo on shirts that we get from Queensboro. They sell great polos, hats, jackets, t-shirts, etc. that will make your game rental business look professional. Queensboro also is the company that designed our logo, so if you need a logo, then reach out to them.

Reviews

At the end of every rental we email our client a request for a review. Currently we allow renters to leave reviews on either our Facebook page, Google or Yelp. All 3 options are in the email to allow them to review us if they wish to do so (no pressure). This allows for good work of mouth for future clients that do check up on reviews before hiring someone.

Game Rentals

Starting out we had about 5 different games. To date we are now over 70 different games. If you are just starting out you will either be starting from scratch or through another game rental business acquisition. If you are starting out from scratch, then you will want to start with at least the 5 most requested games. Those currenlty are Cornhole, Giant Tumble Tower (Jenga), Jumbo Connect Four, Putterball and Washers. As time goes on you will add games and grow. Some games will be a great fit and some will be a bust and not rented much. For games taht are lesser known or not as popular we have incorporated those into lesser priced games (about a $25 rental each) or included in a Party Pack option like seen under option #3 on our site (Party Pack) where people can choose 6 games out of a list of about 25 listed games. The anchor game for a Party Pack usually is a Cornhole set which will do include as a single pick option there. Most people choose a Cornhole set and 5 other games when selecting the Party Pack.

Service Area

Early on we had no service area really defined and we were driving far and it wasn't really worth it, since our time is very precious to us too. As time went on we realized that we had to have service area zones as seen in our service area map which increased the delivery fees based on the further out we travelled. Later on we realized that we also had to incorporate game rental minimums in the different zones to make it worth the trip, since solely an increase delivery and pick up fee wasn't enough to make it worth the while.

Game Rental Minimums

For those that pick up and return themself we do not have any minimums. That option is best for those that are on a budget or don't want to pay delivery fees. For those that want delivery we found out that we needed to incorporate game rental minimums based on the location of the delivery. Just a delivery fee was not enough to make it worth the trip. For example, if someone just wanted a cornhole set delivered and if we did not have any game rental minimums must just delivery fees, then that $50 cornhole set being delivery 1 hour away to maybe a zone 2 would have a $50 delivery fee and another $50 pick up fee. That would total $150 plus tax. Well, driving there 1 hour and back home 1 hour, then back again 1 hour and back home again 1 hour aftering picking up would mean 4 hours on the road for $150. That wasn't setting right with us, so we devised the idea of having game rental minimums which would increase based on the further zones away (just like the delivery and pick up fees would increase for the further zones away). So, a zone 2 delivery on a weekend would have a $350 in games minimum if they wanted delivery + tax + $50 delivery + $50 pick up. Now it was more doable for a rental of at least $450 + tax to be on the road for over 4 hours. If someone didn't want to meet the game rental minimum for a specific zone, then they could always pick up in one of 2 area locations that we were normally in for no extra delivery fees or minimums. We have about 50% of our clients opt to do that and about 50% of our clients that will pay the delivery fees and meet the game minimums (normally company events and events that need a set-up by us for an event).

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More to come. Check Back!