Site Owners - on average, how much paint do punters shoot?

[deaallen]

Hi guys,

As some of you may know, I'm in the middle of starting up my own paintball site. (should hopefully be open this half of the year )

I've spoken to a few sites already just to gauge an understanding of the business. The main thing I'd like to know however is on average, how much paint will a typical punter will use through a day.

So far I've heard anything from as low as 400-500 a day but also up to 800-1000!

we've also broke the punters down into 3 different groups - Low users, medium users and High users. We're assuming the following breakdown from what we've heard so far:

Low users (average of 500 balls a day) 35% of punters
Medium users (700 balls a day) 55% of punters
High users (1500+) 10% of punters

So I know a lot of this is hearsay but I'd just like to know your guys experience.

Thanks for any help, its much appreciated.

Dean

 

[H]

It all depends on your pricing and deals. In my experience customers rarely consider how many balls they are shooting and are more interested in how much it's costing them. I've organised many rental trips for groups of friends and colleagues at my favourite and generally go for an all day package for around the 40 quid mark which is 600 balls, but by paying the full balance ahead of the time you get 50% extra balls free which gives a perfect 900.

Paint consumption is drastically affected by the field layout and game rules so it's extremely difficult to put a finger on in advance. Concentrate on income, expenses and the customer experience and other details will shake out.

 

[deaallen]

Hi H, that's been my point all along, I'd rather concentrate on getting repeat business and making sure people have good experience rather then ripping people off. From my point of view as long as its a good site, with good staff and customers have a great day then we're get people coming back time and time again.

 

[Kevin Winter]

I used to work as a site manager. Your figures look about right to me. It also depends on the groups though - a bunch of 12 year old kids might not have the cash to buy extra paint and be limited to a few hundred balls all day - whereas a stag do will use a lot more!

Don't forget though - that paint is the biggest controllable cost. Staffing, insurance, maintenance etc are all relatively fixed - the money you make on paint is what determines if you have a viable business. Most punters want to know how much the day costs as a whole - they will usually buy a package for the day, and maybe a few extra on top. If I organise a day balling for mates, I get asked the overall cost, not how many balls.

Whilst it seems a good idea, the less you charge for the paint, and the more the punters use as a result, the less money you make. I suspect there is a very good reason why most punter sites end up charging about the same (£6/7 a hundred, maybe £50 for a thousand)

 

[MadmanTMH]

Not a site owner myself, but I've been involved in the running and marshalling of my step-dad's site for about 6 years now. Tends to be quite a few factors in determining how much paint your average punter is going to use. Like was said, depends on the age group, what kind of group they are (kid's party, stag-do, corporate event), what kind of packages you'll have on offer, the size of your fields, what game objectives will be played on said fields etc.

From experience, I'd say the figures you gave are about right, though in our case, we get more low-users than mid-users. Though that may be due to the fact we're quite far North near Inverness and the population isn't as high as the bigger cities down South. I'd say, on average, most of our customers use around 500-600 paintballs.

 

[deaallen]

Thanks guys, we've redone our business case which now includes a lot more variables. Thankfully its still looking good. I'm sure I'll have some further questions for you later down the line though

 

[SamC89]

When I first started playing at mayhem 10/11 years ago i was always allowed to join rental groups as my friends weren't interested in paintball but I found from playing with different rental groups that it was actually the marshals that dictated how much paint would be bought! I had days with groups that the marshals would just hide on the fence line and call the odd person out and most people would just hide and not really try to shoot paint, but then their were the days when you'd have the marshals running back and forward between the guys bunkers spurring them on giving them tips on where to put down fire ect which always got everyone keen and sometimes laning all be it at 0.5bps but the point is they were the guys having the most fun and by break asking me where they buy more paint as they thought 200 was going to be enough when they booked but they have used it in the first two games. Point is good marshals making it fun and spurring them on at a well layed out site with just the right balance of cover to move up but not just live in equals more fun for them and more money for you. Win win.