I'm planning to rent a game later this week. Local known tech. Has been to my house several times so he has an idea what risk & conditions there are from seeing my games & space. Should go pretty seamlessly I'd assume. Seems like a win-win to me.

I forgot to say this earlier: this is an absolutely ridiculous policy.

Can you imagine if your rental car suddenly needed a new transmission and you were expected to pay for it?

still cant believe i got one of my fave games. the hobbit. and a good fish tales. its CRAZYYYYY the difference between a good and bad one!

Reminds you to read over what in the heck you are signing.

LTG : )

So far I've only found one place in NJ to rent a machine during this downtime. They want $795 a month plus tax.

Depends on your location. According to this thread it's not worth it but locally there are two operators that are renting games for $300 a month right now to keep some sort of cash flow moving. So it's obviously worth it for some but not others. The local operators are renting to pinheads and club members so I think it limits some of the concerns that others may be facing. I.E. - No service calls unless it's a board issue type of thing.

BTW here's a contract I wrote up if anyone wants to use it as a template or directly copy it. Feel free to modify it and use it as you see fit. You would just need to replace my company name with yours. This is the contract referenced here earlier. I've never written up a contract before, so my top priority was protecting my business and my assets, especially as a small business owner.(1 location, 6 games). I have mentioned to any interested parties that if I have the supplies and can fix the part it will happen for free.(Or if it's something minor and cheap, it would be no problem for me either, coil stop/rubber etc.) But if something major goes out, it could potentially cost me money to be renting this game to somebody. Which to me is just currently not worth the risk/work/money. The car reference seems to come up as a comparison to this, which is not a good comparative argument imo. Car rental companies are huge corporations with a lot of money and can afford potential losses. You also have to pay extra for the complete coverage. I know a guy who rented a car from I believe hertz last year and got a flat tire, he did not have the extra coverage so had to pay for that flat tire at like $350 or something. This is an example of something that can just happen from "regular use". If an airball breaks a plastic on deadpool, do I have to buy that $180 set off Marco? Maybe stern would hook me up, or maybe they would sell the singled out part. Not sure until that bridge is crossed, so this contract is there to protect me and my business from any "unknowns" that I could or could not think of. If I was renting these out as a primary business, it would absolutely make sense to charge an insurance, which would go into that disaster fund should a major issue arise(hell it might even make sense to slap that on anyway and take the extra profit? Nah, not my style). My rates are a $50 set up fee, followed by a daily rate of $5 for games that are typically $.50/-$1/3 on location and $10 daily rate for games that are $1/-$2/3. Also rental cars do have mileage limits on them. Typically these games are on a pay to play basis, so the mileage is essentially paid for with location prices from regular wear and tear. For comparison I currently have a Deadpool rented out, and the guy put 300 plays on it in 6 days, which comes out to $.20 a play, yeah he's working from home (At least it meant I got to go on essential business travel to give him a freshly cleaned and waxed game, fix the katana lock that was malfunctioning, and replace the right flipper button which was getting stuck in occasionally, and of course test play it and throw my largest score to date on it to boot. 2.4bil *toot*). All those repairs/maintenance were at no charge of course, though he does live fairly close to me. There are many other factors to take in account for anyone doing this seriously, and Ryan Wanger seems to have covered nearly if not all of them. Mileage to locations could be a big factor on set up fee scaling, collecting a deposit or pre-payment for a set amount of days would also be a good idea. For me this is just a side gig, for my side gig, until my side gig is back to being my side gig, instead of currently my main gig... lol.

Just throwing all this info out there to help the community/scene with different opinions and perspectives. What works for some people will not work for all. I do agree from a renters perspective that the wording of my contract is scary, I had planned on posting this contract on here sooner for some "peer review", and also for anyone to use should they need/want. From an operators perspective, renting to a stranger whom you know nothing about is also scary. This virus is changing a lot of things, and perhaps it is opening up the home renters market? Who knows, maybe this is a new "route" for some people. It's not a market for me at the moment, I love location play, leaderboard battles, tournaments, leagues, and am still on the horse of getting more games into the public eye for more exposure and growth of the hobby.

Good luck to all you operators out there during these times. We shall survive!

note: there are 2 pages to the contract, the display only shows page 1.

Pinball Rental Contract 2.pdf

Our Op here(Dr-Willy,SKL arcades) in Redding is renting out his pins to people he does business with!! $200 per Month,includes set up and return!This is a great idea from a dedicated OP!As us Diner owners like to hear,numba one!!!!

Agreed, the renter does not own the machine. Therefore paying to fix or maintain it is ridiculous. Certainly items damaged by abuse are different.

The reason many people rent things is to eliminate the cost of maintenance into one payment. No different than renting any other equipment such as a rototiller, aerator, skid steer. Another example is an apartment, some like the idea of not having to do maintenance or pay for a new furnace, water heater, or even painting. Hell we even pay for paint if the tenant wants to do the work!

Yes, a person that rents a pin is probably going to play a lot of games on the pin. But if they pay $300 + $50 setup, you should expect them to. That renter just spent $350....essentially he bought a bunch of plays "in bulk", so should expect a "per play" discount.

A person on location that puts in a $1 to a machine, is essentially renting that machine for a play. If the monitor goes out or a motherboard fries...that player is just going to walk away. He would never think that something he did caused a part like that to fail...its just a failure of the machine.

Or...think of it like this. Its no different putting one of your pins in a person's house vs putting it on location somewhere. You are still responsible for maintaining the pin in working order. If a monitor goes out....would you expect your location to repair it? The difference between the two is that you are splitting profits with a location, vs you are charging a flat rate to a home renter. As a pin owner, you would need to decide if the location is going to get enough people playing your pin for it to be worth it, just like if $300 to rent to a home owner is worth it to you. The current pandemic situation has just opened up the "home renter" market because your pins on location are making $0.

In no way should a location or home renter be responsible for fixing internal parts that they have no control over. Damage from abuse? Yes, absolutely. I would assume its really scary to rent to a stranger...but you can verify that they are already a pinhead and own several pins already and keep them clean then your risk level would be much lower than renting to the general population.

Well Ian and Drew from Poor Mans Pinball Podcast have started a new website for rentals www.pinswaprentals.com They take 12% but provide $10k insurance policy! Check it out