One of the biggest factors in the cost of a photo booth vendor is the market they serve. Some more mature markets (ie. California, Michigan, etc) have prices that go as low as $500 for four hours with some options thrown in while in other markets you can expect to spend around $1k for the same service. That is a big price gap and unfortunately, its just the way it works out. Where are you located? If I know any of the vendors where you are I could get more specific.

One thing you could do, depending on your budget, is have a booth for a smaller amount of time. Often a booth company will offer idle hours, allowing you to have a shorter running time, but exactly when you want it during the party. That way you can have the booth online at the hottest time and avoid wasting money on time that the booth sits unused.

What I suggest is that you take time look at each individual company. Even between companies in the same market, price can vary a great deal. There are a ton of new vendors getting into the business each year, some are making a real effort, and others are treating it as something to provide them with beer money. As you can imagine, the ‘beer’ crowd are cheap and by that I don’t mean value packed. With those boothers you get what you pay for, as the old saying goes. When it comes to recommending them, I have yet to see a new company in the past year that was worth a spot on my referral list.

Frankly, the low end is something I would avoid. Sometimes anyone will do. When it comes to your event however, a vendor has one chance to get it right. You want to make your selection based on who is able to live up to that expectation. I have seen my fair share of brides calling me in a panic because their booth vendor did not show or cancelled the day of. When I look into the company, its always someone that I have never heard of. Paying a little extra for a company with a better rep is almost always worth it in the end. Not to mention the bargain basement vendors either won’t be around very long or, if they are any good, will be raising their prices in short order. Either way, its a gamble.

In any case, please let me know! This would make a good subject for a post ;0)

Thanks for all the good tips! I’m attracting to look into photo booth rental and was wondering if you can provide me some info on what’s a reasonable price range. I just want to get a frame of reference. I’ve seen rentals from hundreds to over a grand.

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the reply! You have some great points. One other advantage I hear ink-using booths tout is that they can do non-standard print sizes whereas DS printers are limited to 2×6 prints. When I asked more they could only tell me it was a software limitation or something.

I disagree 100% on the quality of the printer. This is one thing a lot of companies skimp on that really makes the difference in the quality of the photo strip. We use professional grade dye sublimation printers that are very fast and print amazing looking photo strips. They print in about 25 seconds and are self laminating, meaning they don’t smear. The clarity on them is equal to a normal photo. I have seen photo strips from other companies that use lesser printers and if you had one of our photo strips next to one of theirs, I guarantee a customer would say ours look better 99% of the time.