Should your festival sell locker rentals, and how should they work?

Someone buys a festival ticket, checks the weather and asks whether there's anywhere to leave a jacket. Another buyer wants to bring a bag but doesn't want to carry it all afternoon. You start looking at festival locker rental, and the commercial pitch sounds straightforward. Rent some units, charge for access, keep the difference.

I'd offer lockers when you can show a real storage need, make money after the full delivery costs, and recover access when something goes wrong. If you can't answer who opens a jammed locker after the headline set, you're still planning the service. Taking payments doesn't make it ready.

The interesting part is that a locker creates a promise lasting much longer than the sale. People may return throughout the day. Their phone can die with the access code on it. Their transport may leave shortly after your published closing time. The rental has to work through those moments, including when your other teams are busiest.

Here's how to decide whether lockers belong at your festival, work out the quantity and price, and run the service without sending every problem to the main entrance.

Establish what people actually need to store

The first thing you want to do is separate storage demand from general interest in extra facilities. A question about bag restrictions doesn't necessarily mean someone wants to rent a locker. They might want permission to bring a small backpack, somewhere to leave luggage before hotel check-in, or reassurance about carrying medication. Those are different problems.

Read previous support messages and ask returning attendees what they would put away, when they'd arrive, and when they'd need it back. Ask about the size of their group too. A couple sharing one locker creates different demand from two people buying one each. Count expected rentals rather than assume every interested attendee buys a unit.

A day festival with good public transport might have demand for coats and small bags. A camping festival might have people who want somewhere to keep valuables during the programme, but their tent remains the place for larger belongings. Someone arriving directly from an airport may need luggage storage that a small locker simply cannot provide.

Put real internal dimensions in front of people before asking whether they'd buy. Include the usable door opening. A bag can fit inside a compartment yet fail to pass through its doorway. Ask a teammate to try the types of belongings you're describing rather than rely on a supplier's label of small, medium or large.

Then show the proposed price and access hours. An enthusiastic response to free storage tells you little about demand for a paid rental with an early collection deadline. A small advance sales test can tell you more, provided you have confirmed equipment and clear terms before taking money.

Consider the alternative too. You may already have a staffed cloakroom, a venue storage arrangement or permission for attendees to return to their cars. Compare those choices with lockers. The broader question in our guide to adding event revenue beyond tickets still applies. What useful purchase can you deliver without making the event harder to attend?

Choose who runs the service before choosing the hardware

You can hire the equipment and run the rentals yourself, appoint an operator that sells directly to attendees, or agree a shared arrangement. None automatically gives you the best result. The difference is which work, costs and customer obligations stay with your festival.

If you hire equipment, you may keep the sales proceeds while paying for delivery, installation, software, staffing and removal. You also need someone responsible for refunds, faults and settlement. Buying the hardware adds maintenance, transport and storage between events. That can suit repeated use, but it isn't the sensible default for a first test.

A specialist operator might take payment and provide its own staff in return for keeping a share of sales. Check exactly what that share buys. Does it include attendance until the last customer collects? Who answers questions before the event? Can its staff reach the units during a site evacuation? Does your security team still need to supervise the area?

With either arrangement, establish who the customer is buying from. The festival page, payment receipt, rental terms and support messages should agree. Don't let buyers discover two organisations denying responsibility for the same failed code. Your commercial agreement needs to name who handles each problem, even when the customer initially approaches the wrong team.

Ask for the complete proposed cost schedule. Include transport, installation dates, power requirements, overnight attendance, replacement keys, damaged units and collection delays. Ask which charges change with rentals and which apply regardless of sales. A revenue share with no hire charge may still require festival labour and site services.

Get evidence of equipment suitability, relevant insurance and the operator's planned support arrangements. Describe the site conditions honestly. Uneven ground, dust, rain and poor connectivity aren't surprises at many outdoor events. A supplier cannot make a useful proposal if it receives a neat map with none of the constraints its equipment will face.

Calculate what remains after the locker costs

Start with the rental income you can retain, excluding tax collected for the authorities. Subtract the costs caused by offering lockers. Keep this calculation separate from the festival's overall profit, because it answers a narrower question. Will this addition improve the result after you pay to deliver it?

Use actual supplier quotes for hire, delivery, installation and removal. Add the staff hours you need, payment costs, connectivity, signage and any site works. Include a reasonable allowance for refunds and replacement access based on your terms and available evidence. Don't describe an assumed allowance as an industry benchmark.

Count staff preparation and closing time. The person setting up access records, answering advance questions and supervising the final collection is working on the locker service. Their time doesn't become free because they're already employed by the festival. If the work fits an existing paid shift without displacing another task, explain that assumption in your budget.

Here's a fictional calculation in US dollars, excluding tax. Assume you have 300 rentable lockers for a single festival day. The fixed delivery costs total $3,000. Each rental brings in $20, and costs that change with each sale total $2. That leaves $18 per rental to cover the fixed costs.

At 150 rentals, sales are $3,000 and variable costs are $300. After the $3,000 fixed cost, the service loses $300. At 200 rentals, it leaves $600. At 250 rentals, it leaves $1,500. These are invented planning inputs, not supplier prices, forecast demand or typical festival returns.

The chart shows calculations using the fictional assumptions immediately above. All three scenarios use the same 300 available lockers, $20 rental price, $2 variable cost per rental and $3,000 fixed cost. It compares money remaining after those service costs, before the rest of the festival's costs.

You need 167 rentals to cover those assumed costs, rounding up because you cannot sell part of a rental. That's about 56% of the available lockers. If your credible demand is below that level, negotiate the equipment quantity or cost before deciding that a higher price will fix the problem.

For a shared sales arrangement, calculate your retained share using the agreement's definition of sales. Then subtract your remaining festival costs. Ask how discounts, refunds, taxes and payment fees affect the split. Compare both models using the same sales assumptions and service hours. Otherwise you may prefer a proposal simply because it leaves more costs out.

Check payment timing alongside the total. An advance equipment deposit can create a cash problem before rentals start. A supplier paying your share after the event leaves you funding site preparation first. Work those dates into your event budget, including what you owe if the festival is cancelled or moved.

Set inventory by rental period and locker size

You need an inventory plan for what you promise, not just a total number of doors. A weekend rental occupies a locker across the whole weekend even if its owner doesn't use it on Saturday. A day rental may be resold the following morning only after the previous booking ends and staff confirm the unit is empty and ready.

Avoid assuming several customers can use the same locker in one day unless the service explicitly manages timed rentals. A customer retrieving a jacket hasn't necessarily finished their booking. If you've sold unlimited access until closing, that locker remains theirs until the agreed end or a confirmed early surrender under your terms.

Separate sizes in your sales inventory. Ten unsold small lockers cannot fulfil ten bookings for larger ones. Keep accessible units available through a process agreed with your access lead, and hold back the number your operator needs for faults or replacements. Sell only the units you can confidently provide.

For a new service, advance bookings are useful evidence but don't settle the final quantity on their own. Buyers may wait until they know the weather or travel plan. Others might assume lockers are included. Track the questions and explain the offer before treating slow sales as proof that nobody needs storage.

Agree the final equipment commitment date with your supplier. Before that date, review confirmed rentals, the remaining ticket sales period and what extra units would cost. After it, stop promising that you can expand. The supplier may have other events, and your site plan may have no safe space for another bank.

Keep the sales record and physical inventory connected throughout the event. If staff mark a locker faulty, remove it from available stock before another customer buys it. If a unit returns to service, confirm that its access credentials have reset and no previous customer can reopen it. An apparently empty locker is not automatically ready to rent.

Price the rental people can understand

Choose a simple unit of purchase. Is the price for one locker per day, one locker for the weekend, or one person using a shared facility? For most straightforward rentals, charging for the locker makes the capacity clearer. People still need to know whether sharing is allowed and who controls access.

Explain whether customers can open the locker repeatedly during their rental. State the opening and closing times, where it is located, what fits and what is excluded. If your weekend offer requires customers to empty the unit every night, describe that prominently. People may interpret weekend rental as continuous overnight storage unless you tell them otherwise.

Price against your costs and the buyer's practical benefit. Compare the inconvenience the service removes with what you're asking someone to pay. A storage option far from the arena may be less useful than one near a natural arrival route. Charging more doesn't solve a location that makes collecting a coat an exhausting trip.

Show the complete payable price before purchase, including unavoidable charges. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority explains this requirement in its price transparency guidance. Check the rules where you sell, and make optional rental choices clear. A buyer should understand the charge without reaching the last payment screen.

Explain any deposit separately from the rental price. State why you take it, the conditions for repayment and when customers can expect it back. Don't treat refundable deposits as extra earnings in the budget. If your provider takes a payment hold instead, check how that works and describe it accurately.

Sell the convenience honestly. Avoid promising that belongings are completely safe, insured for any value or instantly available unless those claims are actually supported. Publish the relevant exclusions and claim process in language customers can understand. Ask your insurer and legal adviser to review liability terms rather than copying a supplier disclaimer into your event page.

Put the lockers into the crowd plan

A convenient position needs space for people using the units and people waiting for help. Don't select the location by asking where the equipment fits after everything else has been placed. Consider the bank with doors open, customers sorting belongings and friends waiting nearby. Those activities use more space than the equipment footprint.

The UK's Health and Safety Executive says queues should leave emergency access clear and allow people to leave without pushing against the queue or entering moving traffic. Its crowd control guidance is a useful check when your site team reviews locker placement. Walk the actual route before approving the plan.

Decide whether the lockers belong inside or outside the security perimeter. Inside placement means people may have to pass your bag checks before storing anything. Outside placement may require re-entry to collect belongings. Neither arrangement changes what your security policy allows. Explain the route and check it against the customer's likely arrival and departure.

If prohibited bags cannot enter, don't sell an inside locker as the answer. You may need a separate approved service outside the search point, or a clearer bag policy instead. Security staff should never improvise storage for rejected items because the rental description promised something the site cannot deliver.

Check the route after dark and in wet conditions. Include drainage, lighting, ground protection and space to stop without obstructing through traffic. Confirm installation and anchoring with competent people and the supplier. Heavy units, temporary electrical supplies and vehicle unloading need planned arrangements before customers reach the area.

Plan for closing, not only arrival. Several acts finishing together can concentrate collection into a short window. Keep support staffed during that period and coordinate with transport information. A published rental end time that coincides with the last performance needs a practical collection arrangement, rather than a hope that customers leave the music early.

Make access work without perfect phone coverage

Ask the supplier to demonstrate the entire purchase and access journey using the actual setup you intend to hire. A sales page working on office Wi-Fi proves very little about the opening mechanism at your festival. Establish which steps need internet access, mobile reception, power, an app or a charged phone.

Then ask what happens when each dependency fails. Can someone retrieve their belongings if their phone is flat? Can staff verify a booking if the network drops? Does a power failure lock units shut or release them? The answer affects your operating plan and insurance review. Get it from the supplier before accepting the equipment.

Send customers access instructions they can keep before arrival, where the system allows. Tell them whether to save a booking reference or collect a key at a desk. Don't encourage them to share a secret code publicly or write it on a visible locker label. Make the distinction between a reference staff can search and a credential that opens a door.

Create a separate help point for access failures so a difficult case doesn't stop every new rental. Staff need an approved process for checking ownership before they open a unit or change credentials. Someone knowing a locker number isn't enough evidence by itself. Agree what records and checks are appropriate with the provider.

Control staff access too. Name who can use override tools, record their use and store keys securely. Explain when a supervisor must attend. If someone reports missing belongings, preserve relevant records and follow the agreed incident process. Don't reset the unit and rent it again before the responsible team assesses the report.

Rehearse a customer arriving with a dead phone, a booking made by a friend and a door that won't open. Check whether the team can resolve each situation without calling the festival director. The rehearsal usually exposes missing instructions much faster than another discussion about how easy the software is supposed to be.

Treat accessibility and medical needs separately

People need to reach the locker, operate it and collect their belongings. A low compartment isn't accessible if its door faces a narrow muddy path or its controls require a movement the customer cannot make. Review the complete service with your access lead, including the booking screen and help process.

In the US, the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design address locker provision in section 225.2.1 and storage features in section 811. Where those standards apply, at least 5% of lockers, with at least one of each type, must comply. Confirm the requirements for your particular site and installation with a qualified adviser.

Don't use that minimum as your demand forecast. Customers may need accessible storage in different locations or sizes, and assistance shouldn't depend on finding one particular staff member. Check your approach against the wider event accessibility plan, including how people request help before arriving and what happens if a reserved unit fails.

Medication creates another question. A general locker may become too hot or lack any temperature control. Don't market ordinary storage as suitable for temperature sensitive medicines. Refer customers to the event's medical and access arrangements, and ask the responsible specialists what service you can accurately promise. Avoid collecting unnecessary details about someone's condition just to answer a storage question.

Keep essential access arrangements separate from a commercial upgrade. If someone needs a reasonable adjustment or a medical provision, assess that need through the appropriate event process. Don't assume a paid rental solves it. An optional place to leave a coat and an essential support arrangement have different purposes, even when both involve belongings.

Decide whether charging belongs in the offer

A charging locker adds electrical and battery questions to the storage service. Ask what devices it supports, which chargers customers use and how faults are detected. Establish who inspects the installation, maintains the equipment and responds to overheating. Don't add charging to the description because a bank of ordinary lockers happens to be near a socket.

The US Fire Administration's battery fire safety advice advises stopping use when lithium-ion batteries show excessive heat, visible changes in shape, an unusual smell, leaking or other odd noises. That general advice doesn't certify a commercial charging locker. Have your supplier and competent electrical and fire advisers assess the proposed installation.

Agree what staff should do if a device becomes hot, emits an unusual smell or shows visible damage. Include communication with event control and emergency services under your emergency plan. Customers and untrained staff shouldn't have to decide how to handle a suspect battery while a queue forms around them.

If you cannot provide charging safely and reliably, offer storage alone and say so clearly. Keep a separate phone charging service distinct in the customer instructions. People should know whether their phone will be charging, stored without power or kept with them. Ambiguity here also affects whether they retain access to their ticket and transport information.

Check the sales page against the actual journey

Before launching, ask someone outside the locker project to read the offer on their phone. Ask them where they think the lockers are, what they can store, when they can return and who helps if access fails. Let them explain without prompting. A misunderstanding during that test is much cheaper than one discovered by a customer carrying luggage at the gate.

Make the location description usable before the full festival map is published. Name the entrance or area and explain whether the customer needs to pass security first. When the map becomes available, update the instructions consistently. If you move the lockers after people have booked, contact affected customers rather than expect them to notice a revised page.

Put the rental confirmation somewhere buyers can find separately from their admission ticket. Explain that buying storage doesn't provide festival entry, and that an admission purchase doesn't reserve a locker unless the ticket explicitly includes it. For group bookings, clarify who receives the access instructions and what happens if that person arrives later than everyone else.

Brief the teams customers naturally approach. The information desk, entrance stewards and accessibility staff should know the location, support hours and escalation contact. They don't all need permission to open units. They do need to send someone to the right place without passing them between desks while the final bus departure gets closer.

If you sell remaining stock on site, show the same rental conditions and complete price. Don't let a hurried verbal explanation replace the information an advance buyer received. Test the payment method and receipt process, then check that a successful payment actually creates an available rental. A charge without an assigned unit needs a defined recovery process immediately.

Agree what happens when the service changes

Weather, equipment faults and changes to the site can affect a locker service after you've sold it. Decide who can stop new bookings, move customers or authorise refunds. Keep those decisions consistent with the customer terms and applicable law. The person facing a disappointed renter needs a practical answer without negotiating a new policy on the spot.

If several units fail, distinguish replacing the rental from recovering the customer's belongings. Offering another locker doesn't resolve a bag trapped in the broken one. Tell the customer who is working on access, where they should wait safely and how updates will reach them. Avoid promising an opening time your supplier hasn't confirmed it can meet.

A site evacuation needs its own instructions agreed with event control. People shouldn't return against evacuation directions to collect a coat or phone. Brief staff to follow the emergency plan, explain where customers can get later updates and protect the records needed for recovery. Agree when the responsible team can inspect the units once authorities permit access.

Cancellation and postponement also need clear ownership. Your festival and the operator may have different sales systems, but customers still need to understand whether the rental moves with their ticket or gets refunded separately. Confirm the process before announcing it. Check that the person issuing refunds can match the booking, explain the payment timing and record unresolved cases for follow-up.

After any substantial disruption, review what customers were told against what actually happened. Correct the immediate information first, then fix the equipment, staffing or contract issue that caused it. A refund can settle a payment problem while leaving a serious operating weakness in place for the next event.

Keep support records useful and limited

The provider may need contact details, a booking record and an access history. Ask why each field is necessary, who receives it and how long records remain available. Establish which organisation answers privacy requests and who can view the records on site. A spreadsheet shared with every festival volunteer is a poor answer to a support problem.

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office says personal data should be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in its data minimisation guidance. Apply the relevant privacy rules locally. For locker operations, ask your provider how it can verify a booking without collecting unrelated personal information or routinely keeping identity document copies.

Document the handover between shifts. Outstanding access failures, damaged units and items awaiting collection need an owner. Record the minimum information the next team needs to resolve them, using the approved system. Keep access secrets out of general radio conversations, public notes and sponsor reporting. A support log should help customers recover their belongings without exposing them to another risk.

Finish collection before judging the result

For the first event, write down what would make you repeat the service before sales start. That might mean covering the quoted costs at a conservative rental level, keeping access support within the staffing plan and completing collection without unresolved belongings. Use your own operating limits. Setting them in advance helps you avoid calling the test successful just because the gross sales looked impressive when the final payment report arrived at your desk.

Explain the final collection deadline before purchase and remind renters while they still have time to act. Say what happens to belongings left behind, who holds them and how customers can arrange recovery. Agree a reasonable process with your operator and relevant advisers. Don't invent disposal or extra charge rules when someone misses the deadline.

Before removal, reconcile every unit with its booking and physical status. Confirm that nobody's belongings remain inside equipment being loaded onto a vehicle. Record unresolved cases and assign someone to answer after the festival team leaves. The service isn't finished when the final act ends, or when the supplier submits its invoice.

Then compare actual rental income with every delivery cost, refund and extra support hour. Review failed access attempts, waiting times and complaints alongside the financial result. Ask whether customers could use the service when they needed it. Renew the arrangement when both the money and the delivery justify it, with specific changes agreed before the next sales page opens.