For an indoor jump center, Saturday nights are teen nights. They can be crazy, loud, and lots of fun, but they can also make you a lot of money. Before you jump into offering Teen Night at your facility make sure you’re properly staffed, have everything setup and ready to go. You don’t want to run out of sodas, or run short on change when you have 100+ teenagers in the building do you? To make sure you’re Teen Night runs smooth and turns out to be a great success follow the detailed breakdown below.

Typical setup of our Teen Nights:

Admission

You need two employees behind the register at sign-in. That way as the teenagers are walking into your facility one employee will ring them up and take the money, and the other employee will put a wristband on their arm and make sure they sign-in. We used cheap disposable wristbands, different color every week.

Check-In

Next, each teenager would “check-in” their shoes, jacket, hats, etc. You can use a cake room for this purpose. Move a table so that it blocks the doorway to the room and assign one employee to write out numbers and cut them out into squares to go along with each teenager’s checked in items. Make sure everything is ready before you open up, as your employee will never catch up when things get busy. The wristbands we used had numbers printed on them. We used the last 2 or 3 digits as needed, that way teenagers don’t have to remember their number – it stays around their wrist. Make sure you rotate the employee working this room – no one wants to sit in a stuffy room with shoes for three solid hours.

Jump Rooms

You’ll need at least 2 bouncers, as we would call them, in each room. For Teen Nights we always tried to hire a couple of college kids and paid them cash at the end of the night. Either way, you need staff that is not afraid to yell if they need to and to call the teenagers out when they break the rules. With younger employees make sure they know they are there to work, and not play with their friends.

Off Duty Officer

Yes, we’ve had an off duty officer at every Teen Night. This may almost seem unnecessary, but at $100 a night it was well worth it. Even some 12 year olds can get pretty rough, so it’s great to have someone in a police uniform in your building. Not only that but it also gives parents piece of mind that their kids will be safe at your facility.

That in a nutshell is how we prepared for our teen nights. Of course you have to be flexible, when you open up the doors and have a line of 50 teenagers trying to sign-in and get their stuff checked-in, you’ll want to send extra help where it’s needed the most, like the check-in room, but as the jump room begins to fill up, send the bouncers back to make sure everyone is playing safely.

The “Hang Out” Spot

You may be asking yourself “What if the teenagers get bored of the inflatables after a few weeks and stop coming?”
That has not been a problem for us. If you provide a fun environment, then you won’t need to worry about it. In fact, over time, many of the teenagers that came to our teen nights would come to simply “hang out” with their friends. Sure they might jump on inflatables a few times, but mostly they would walk around, sit or hangout in groups and gossip. The important thing is you’re giving them a place to be themselves, while giving the parents a place where they know the kids will be safe.

Music and Disco Lights

Turn the music up and the lights off! Make sure you have good stereo speakers and turn the volume up! Also install disco lights in the jump rooms and cut the lights off. This was a huge hit at both of our indoor centers. You can equip your bouncers with flashlights to shine on to those breaking the rules to quickly get their attention without screaming over the loud speakers.

Break the Rules and You’re Out!

You want everyone playing safe. This is a two-step process. First, you want to announce that everyone must follow the jump room rules posted on the wall. Be sure to go over these rules the first night you open up. Second, you want to enforce the rules. Don’t let the kids run a bus over you. Everyone gets a first warning and a time-out. Yes, you’ll actually get to put teenagers in time out! Make it very clear that next time they break the rules they’ll be asked to leave, or on serious offenses, asked to not come back again! Usually telling them, you’ll have to call their parents to pick them up works as a great deterrent from breaking more rules.

Redbull and Pizza

These teenagers love to get wired on candy and sodas. Make sure your fridge and counter is stocked up. It’s always a great idea to keep additional top selling sodas behind the counter if your supply room is further away.

Bathrooms

Make sure you keep an eye out on the bathrooms. If you see something suspicious send in an employee to check it out. Some kids are full of pranks. You also want at least one female employee that can walk into the girls’ bathroom. We’ve busted girls several times for sitting up on the sink and talking.

Last Call

At 15 minutes to closing we turned the lights on. This gives everyone a heads up we’re closing soon. Some kids would go ahead and get the stuff they checked-in so they don’t have to wait in line when the rush comes. Once everyone is out of the jump rooms make sure to send all the help you can to the check-in room. You may have 100+ kids trying to get their shoes and jackets all at once.

Cleanup

You’ve got a good handful of employees on the clock now. Assign tasks to make sure cleanup gets done quickly – bathrooms, jump rooms, restocking, lobby, mopping, etc. We hand out short to do lists with assigned tasks to each employee. Once they are done they write their initials, clock out and go home. Be mindful of the employees that may have been working that day since 10 am, they should be the first ones to get off.

Do the Math

I’ve already said teen nights, when done right, can be quite profitable, but how profitable? Our 6,000 sq ft facility would average at 100 kids per Teen Night. Our record night was set at 186 kids! Admission is $10 each. No refunds. On top of that you have concession sales. Many new centers now also incorporate video games on big screens like Guitar Hero.

In my experience teen nights are a blast! The key to success is getting it done right and being prepared. I’ll write a follow up article on marketing your Teen Nights soon. Until then, What are some plans for your Teen Night? Are you already offering Teen Nights at your center? Share your comments and suggestions below.