How much does a photo booth cost? The complete guide
There are three ways to get a photo booth in your venue. The first two cost you money. The third makes you money from day one.
You're already thinking option three, aren't you…
The 3 photo booth options and what they’ll actually cost you
If you've landed here, you already think a photo booth is a good option for your venue. Maybe you’re sold on the idea of a photo booth for driving engagement, boosting dwell time and growing your email list. Or you just want to add an extra slice of joy to your customers’ experience.
To help you work out which type of booth makes the most sense for you, here’s a straightforward breakdown.
1. Buy a photo booth
Most photo booth companies will quote you anywhere from £5,000 to £20,000+ to buy a unit outright. And that’s before you've thought about installation, branding, software, or maintenance.
That's a significant capital commitment with no guarantee of return. You own the asset, but you also own every problem that comes with it.
2. Hire a photo booth
Renting a booth for particular events is a reasonable, one-off solution and a good way to test the water. But it's a cost every time, not an investment.
The cost can be anything from £150 to £1,000+, depending on factors like the type of booth, how long you have it open, and staffing.
You can add the cost to client packages, but it’s not bringing in any extra revenue. Adding ‘organise photo booth’ onto your event manager’s already huge to-do list is also a considerable time investment, when you consider the whole process from booking, through install, to pick-up after the event.
3. Partner with The Photo Booth Company
This is where it gets interesting. We work differently. Instead of charging you upfront, we operate a partnership model.
We design, brand, build, install, and maintain the booth. In return, we take a share of the profit from every photo sold. You keep the rest, paid directly into your account every month.
And you get:
Zero upfront cost
No maintenance costs
No risk
No ongoing management from your side
A passive revenue stream that runs itself
Your instincts were right – option 3 is obviously the best!
What "zero upfront cost" actually means
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room. You’re likely thinking, ‘Yeah, but what’s the catch?’
We often assume that ‘no cost’ can only mean a basic, generic version of something.
But there’s no catch, and we’ve never built the same booth twice.
We’re interested in long-term partnerships with our clients and we know what makes photo booths successful, so we handle everything from the start.
Here's what that includes…
Custom booth design
We start by working closely with your team on the design. Everything is custom-created to your branding: exterior, interior, software, and templates. We want to get it right, so there's proper collaboration, and you have final sign-off before anything is built.
Bespoke build and expert installation
From there, your booth is built in our workshop by expert technicians who genuinely care about the finished product. Then it’s carefully wrapped, loaded up, driven to your venue, and installed by our team. They’re so experienced, it’s usually up and running in under an hour.
Professional placement in your venue
We'll also help you work out the best spot for it. Placement is crucial to your photo booth’s success. The ideal position does mean high footfall and good visibility. But it also needs to feel like a natural part of your customers’ physical journey through your space.
By the time we leave, it looks like it was always meant to be there.
Photo booths: Where joy generates marketing ROI
This is the bit that might surprise you.
Direct revenue from the photo sales is an obvious positive. But there’s a whole host of other marketing wins that start with something you can’t manufacture…genuine delight.
A fun photo booth experience is the foundation, and everything else flows from it. No persuasion necessary.
And because every element is customised to your brand, every single interaction is working for you. Here's how:
Improve engagement and dwell time
Think about the last time you saw someone walk past a photo booth without at least glancing over. The pull, that instinct to stop, giggle, and pile in, is exactly what keeps guests in your venue longer and spending more.
Boost brand awareness
Every guest leaves with a physical photo strip in their hands, branded to your venue. For younger visitors especially, a printed photo is a novelty, something tactile in a world of fleeting digital content. They keep it, display it, photograph it to post online (yes, even though there’s the digital version!), and remember exactly where it came from.
Instant UGC
When guests share their photos, GIFs, and videos online, your brand travels with them. That's immediate, organic, branded content you didn't have to brief, shoot, or pay for.
Grow your email list
Every guest enters an email address to get their digital photos. With every visit, you're quietly growing a GDPR-compliant email list. With no extra effort, you’ve got an instantly segmented target audience you can continue to market to.
Get more repeat visits
Add a discount code to the print and give guests an extra reason to come back. Simple, effective, and done for you.
Increase in-venue spending
A QR code on the strip can pull customers towards another part of your site, like the café, gift shop, or bar. The booth becomes a thread running through the whole customer experience, not just a fun add-on.
We've built campaigns around exactly this kind of thinking. For Lau Pa Sat in Singapore, we integrated a promotion where customers received a complimentary photo with every $10 spent, tracked digitally through a dashboard, with automated limits built in. When their next campaign launched, the booth was updated to match.
When a photo booth is fully integrated into your strategy, it’s a mini marketing machine. As well as a slice of joy for your customers.
Why the partnership model works
We've designed our model so that our interests are directly aligned with yours. If the booth isn't performing, we don't benefit either. We're genuinely invested in getting everything right: placement, branding, software updates, and ongoing performance. Your success is our success.
Compare that to buying outright. You spend thousands, manage the setup yourself, absorb every fault and every cost, and carry all the risk. If it doesn't work out, that's entirely your problem.
With our model, none of those risks sit with you.
For marketing managers and venue owners who are already managing full plates on ever-tightening budgets, that matters. This isn't another thing to run. It's a revenue stream and a marketing asset that we take care of.
Cost sorted. Now, is a photo booth right for you?
Now you know cost isn't an issue, why wouldn't you get a photo booth? They’re not a good fit for everyone, but we’ve seen brilliant long-term results with businesses in these sectors:
Retail
Hotels and resorts
Bars, pubs and restaurants
Food courts
Museums and cultural centres
Zoos and animal parks
Theatres and cinemas
Entertainment venues and attractions
To make sure it’s right, you can’t just stick it in a corner and forget about it. It’s not a vending machine. The ones that really work, that guests love and share, are the ones that feel intentional.
Here's what makes the difference…
Branding
A booth that looks like it belongs in your venue will always outperform a generic unit. We do this for you.
Position
Visibility is everything. The booth needs to be part of your guests’ journey, not tucked away out of sight. We help you find the perfect position.
Promotion
A quick mention on your social channels, a small in-venue sign, even light promotion makes a noticeable difference to engagement. This really won’t take you long.
You only need to do one of these! We're not just here to drop off a booth. We're here to help you make the most of its potential.
A lot of fun to leave on the table…
Imagine this connection with your venue.
Costs with The Photo Booth Company: nothing upfront, no ongoing fees, and zero hidden fees.
You bring the venue and the footfall. We bring the booth, branding, installation, maintenance, and support. In return, you earn a share of every sale, every month, with none of the risk.
That’s the obvious positives.
But without a photo booth, you're also missing out on:
A self-building, GDPR-compliant email list
Organic, branded UGC every single day
Longer visits and higher spend per head
A physical memory that keeps your brand in hearts and minds for years
A marketing tool that runs campaigns, drives repeat visits, and promotes other parts of your venue without any extra work from you
You don’t want to leave all that on the table, either.
Our business model is built on a simple belief: the best partnerships are the ones where both sides genuinely win.
Want to see what your photo booth could look like? Get in touch.
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