How to Start a Trampoline Park

A trampoline park can be loud, joyful and busy from the first school holiday, but it is also one of the more demanding leisure businesses to open. You need a large building, serious safety systems, well-trained staff and a booking setup that keeps every session at a safe capacity. This guide walks you through the key decisions so you can plan with clear eyes.

Man performing an acrobatic trick in mid-air above a trampoline — The thrill is what customers pay for, and the safety systems are what let you keep offering it.

Key takeaways

A trampoline park needs a large building with high ceilings, so finding the right site and planning approval often takes the longest.
Safety drives everything: equipment, layout, rules, staffing, capacity and incident records. Check the industry standards and local rules that apply where you are.
Talk to specialist insurers early, because cover and its conditions will shape your design and operations.
Revenue usually comes from timed jump sessions, plus parties, memberships, special sessions, food and drink, and grip socks.

December shows the business at its most intense. Schools break up, families look for indoor activities when the weather turns, and holiday parties fill weekend slots. If you are planning a park, visit a few during the school holidays and watch how they handle queues, capacity, staffing and safety briefings on their busiest days. You will learn more in one afternoon than from a stack of reports.

A quick note before we start: this article is general information, not legal, insurance or financial advice. A trampoline park involves significant investment and risk, so work with qualified advisers, including a lawyer, an accountant and a specialist insurance broker.

Decide on your concept and audience

Not every trampoline park serves the same customers. Your concept shapes your layout, your opening hours and your pricing.

Family-focused park: open jump areas, a separate zone for younger children, toddler sessions and parties.
Active and sport-focused park: performance trampolines, foam pits, dodgeball courts and coached sessions for teens and adults.
Mixed leisure venue: trampolines alongside soft play, climbing or ninja-style courses, with a cafe for waiting parents.

Think about who lives within a short drive, what other activities they already have and what is missing. A town with plenty of soft play but nothing for teenagers might suit a sport-focused park, while a growing suburb full of young families might need the opposite.

Pro tip

Talk to local parents, schools, youth clubs and sports coaches before you commit. Ask when they would visit, what would make them choose you over other activities and what worries them about trampoline parks. Their concerns are your safety and marketing checklist.

Find and prepare the right building

Most trampoline parks use large industrial or retail units. The building is your biggest commitment, so check it carefully.

What to look for

Ceiling height: enough clear height above the trampolines for safe jumping, with no low beams, lights or pipes in the way.
Floor area: space for courts, a safe run-off area, a check-in zone, party rooms, a cafe, toilets and storage.
Parking and access: easy parking for busy weekends and safe drop-off for children.
Permitted use: whether the building can be used for leisure, or whether you need a change of use or planning permission.
Heating, ventilation and fire safety: large units can be cold in winter and hot in summer, and a busy venue needs safe exits and fire systems.

Planning, zoning, building and fire rules vary widely by location. Speak with your city, county or local council early, and make any lease conditional on getting the approvals you need.

Equipment and layout

Buy trampolines and court systems from established manufacturers with installation support. Ask suppliers which recognized industry safety standards their equipment and installation meet, and check which standards apply in your country. Good layouts separate age groups, keep jumpers to one person per trampoline, cover springs and frames with pads, and give staff clear sightlines over every court.

Common mistake

Squeezing in extra attractions to maximize capacity. Crowded courts, blind spots and narrow walkways raise risk and make supervision harder. A slightly smaller, well-spaced park is easier to run safely and usually feels better to customers.

Build your safety system

Safety is not one document. It is a set of habits, rules and records that your whole team follows every session.

5 or more employees In the UK, employers of this size must have a written health and safety policy and a written risk assessment under the Health and Safety at Work Act. In the US, OSHA's general duty clause requires employers to keep the workplace free of recognized serious hazards. UK Health and Safety at Work Act; US OSHA

Write a risk assessment. Go zone by zone and list the hazards, who might be hurt and how you control each risk.
Set clear jump rules. One jumper per trampoline, no double bouncing, age and height zones, no flips in general areas and grip socks for everyone.
Brief every jumper. Use a short safety video or talk before each session, and have staff repeat key rules on court.
Staff the courts. Put trained court monitors in every zone with a clear view, a whistle and the authority to remove unsafe jumpers.
Inspect daily. Check mats, springs, pads, nets and foam pits before opening, and record each check.
Plan first aid and incidents. Train first aiders, keep an accident book or digital log, review every incident and fix what caused it.

Waivers and customer information

Many parks ask customers, or parents for children, to complete an online waiver or participation agreement before jumping. What these documents can and cannot do depends on local law, and they do not replace safe operations. Ask a lawyer to review yours, collect only the information you need and store it securely. Form builders like Jotform, Typeform or Google Forms can collect forms, though many parks use the waiver features in their booking software. Check current features, pricing and privacy policies.

Insurance

Speak to brokers who work with leisure venues before you finalize your layout. Insurers may set conditions on equipment, staffing, rules and inspections, and it is far easier to design those in from the start than to retrofit them later.

Person jumping high on a trampoline with arms raised against a plain background — Clear rules, one jumper per trampoline and watchful court staff keep the fun going all day.

Staff and train your team

Your team is your front line for both safety and customer experience. Typical roles include court monitors, front desk and check-in staff, party hosts, cafe staff, a duty manager on every shift and someone responsible for maintenance.

Train every new starter on jump rules, zone supervision, how to intervene calmly and emergency procedures before their first shift.
Refresh training regularly and after any incident.
Plan shifts around session times and expected bookings, with extra staff for school holidays and weekends.
Check what background checks apply if staff work closely with children. Rules vary by country and state.

Rota and team messaging tools like Deputy, Homebase, When I Work or Connecteam can help you build shifts and share updates. Check current features, pricing and privacy policies.

Plan your revenue and costs

A trampoline park has high fixed costs, so you need to know how many jumpers you need each week to break even.

Revenue streams

Timed jump sessions: the core of the business, sold in fixed time slots.
Toddler and family sessions: quieter weekday slots for younger children and parents.
Special sessions: evening sessions for teens, fitness classes, dodgeball leagues and sensory-friendly sessions.
Parties and groups: birthday parties, school trips and clubs (keep your party menu simple and clearly priced).
Memberships and passes: for regular jumpers, especially in quieter months.
Extras: grip socks, food and drink, lockers and gift cards.

Know your fixed and variable costs

Fixed costs stay the same as sales change, such as rent, core salaries, insurance and loan repayments. Variable costs rise with each sale, such as grip socks, party food, card fees and extra staff hours. The break-even point in units is fixed costs divided by (price minus variable cost per unit). Use it to see how many jump sessions you must sell each week.

Weekly session planner template

Use this layout to plan capacity and revenue. The prices and numbers are made-up examples for illustration only.

Session	Price per jumper (example)	Safe capacity	Expected jumpers	Sessions per week	Weekly revenue (example)
Weekday after-school (60 min)	$16	80	40	5	$3,200
Weekend open jump (60 min)	$18	80	70	10	$12,600
Toddler session (45 min)	$10	40	25	3	$750

Set safe capacity first, based on your layout and staffing, and never let a booking target push a session above it.

Example

Imagine Marcus and Jo, who plan a mid-sized family park. Their made-up fixed costs come to $30,000 a month. With an average price of $17 per jump and about $3 of variable cost per jumper, each jump contributes $14. They need about 2,143 jumps a month to break even, roughly 500 a week. Seeing that number early leads them to add toddler mornings and a teen evening to fill quieter weekday slots. (These figures are made up for illustration.)

Bookings, payments and opening

Timed sessions only work with a reliable online booking system that caps each slot, collects waivers and handles payments. Many parks use specialist leisure booking software. General tools such as Square Appointments or SimplyBook.me may suit smaller venues. Anyone taking card payments must follow PCI DSS and should never store full card numbers.

If you offer guest Wi-Fi for waiting parents, run it on a separate network from your tills and office devices, with WPA2 or WPA3 encryption and a short usage policy. If you sell gift cards for the holidays, unused balances stay a liability, and in the US the federal CARD Act bars expiry within 5 years of issue or last load.

Launch marketing

Set up a Google Business Profile with photos, hours and your booking link, and post opening events.
Offer preview sessions for local schools, clubs and parent groups so they can see your safety approach in person.
Share your safety rules openly on your website. Parents look for them.
Plan a launch around a school holiday, with enough staff and spare capacity to handle the rush calmly.

Your trampoline park action plan

Choose your concept and research local families, teens and competitors
Find a building with enough height, space and parking
Check planning, zoning, building and fire rules before signing a lease
Get equipment quotes and ask which safety standards apply
Speak to specialist insurers and a lawyer about waivers
Write your risk assessment, jump rules and inspection routine
Recruit and train court monitors, front desk staff and first aiders
Fill in the session planner and calculate your break-even point
Set up booking, payments and waivers, then plan a school holiday launch

Frequently asked questions

How much space does a trampoline park need?

It depends on your concept and attractions. You need room for the courts with safe spacing, plus check-in, toilets, party rooms, a cafe and storage, as well as enough clear ceiling height. Equipment suppliers can help you plan a layout for a specific building.

Are there safety standards for trampoline parks?

Yes, recognized industry standards exist in several countries, and local health and safety laws apply too. Ask your equipment supplier and insurer which standards they work to, and check the official sources for your country or state.

Do waivers protect a trampoline park from all claims?

No. What a waiver can do depends on local law, and it never replaces safe equipment, good supervision and clear rules. Have a lawyer review your waiver and focus your effort on preventing injuries in the first place.

When is the best time to open?

Many parks aim to open just before a school holiday to build momentum. Make sure your team is fully trained and your booking system tested first, and consider a soft opening with limited capacity so you can fix problems before the rush.

The bottom line

A trampoline park can be a rewarding local business, but it rewards careful planning more than enthusiasm. Choose a clear concept, secure the right building and approvals, design safety into every part of the operation, and know your break-even number before you open.

Spend some time this school holiday watching how busy parks run, then build your plan around what you see. When your doors open, families will notice a venue that feels both fun and well looked after.