Games Tables for Caravan & Holiday Parks

A caravan or holiday park is where you go to make memories. But how can operators make those memories the kind that will last a lifetime - even when the weather is less than memorable?

Games tables are a great option for a holiday park operator. You can choose indoor tables, to install in a corner of your busy bar, or to create a dedicated games room with lots of options for guests. Or you can choose outdoor tables, designed to live outside all year round without rotting, corroding or breaking.

We’ve been selling games tables to holiday park operators for decades, so we know what you’re looking for. This guide will hopefully answer your questions, and if not, our friendly and experienced sales team is only a phone call away.

Who Uses Games Tables?

Everyone loves to play a game - especially when on holiday! You’ll find whole families gathered around your tables, as parents teach their children how to play the games, and the rest of the family spectates.

If your venue is reliant on good weather for many of its activities, you can find that guests become bored when it rains - and youngsters doubly so. Creating a games room gives your guests a refuge from the weather, and somewhere to go and spend time together.

Indoor Games Tables

The benefits of keeping your games tables indoors are obvious. Firstly, you can install any commercial-grade indoor tables without worrying about how the weather might damage them.

Secondly, it is much more secure - especially if you’re charging for game credits with a coin mech or with tokens. An indoor games room can be locked at night, preventing petty theft or vandalism.

However, indoor space is at a premium at many holiday parks, so you might decide to opt for purpose-made outdoor tables instead.

Outdoor Games Tables

Outdoor games tables are very popular for outdoor spaces at holiday parks. When the sun is shining, your guests will love having fun in the great outdoors, getting exercise and whiling away the day.

Games tables made for outdoor use will feature various weather protection features. When combined with a good-quality, heavy-duty cover for the off-season, your table should be fine when stored outside - all year round.

They will resist rust and corrosion on metal parts, rot on wooden parts, and UV bleaching on painted or laminated areas. Specialist components like pool cloths are made to be damp-resistant and waterproof, so they won't get waterlogged and rot. So long as they're stored carefully and protected, these special tables will need little more than a quick wipe down for the first game, at the start of the holiday season.

Which Tables Work Best?

This depends a lot on your guests. A pool table is almost a guaranteed hit, especially a quality slate bed table that needs little maintenance and plays well. There’s a vast range of indoor pool tables available, as well as some outdoor tables too, complete with weatherproofing features like marine ply cabinets and waterproof cloths. For an indoor games room, almost any slate bed table will be suitable.

Table tennis tables are always a safe bet. Again, they are available in both indoor and outdoor versions, with the outdoor tables being a little more expensive due to their weatherproofing features. Unlike a pool table, a table tennis table can usually be rapidly folded and wheeled away to create space, making them a good choice for multipurpose locations.

For a more compact space, you could consider a football table. They occupy a far smaller footprint than a pool table or a tennis table, but certainly deliver just as much fun. Often popular with kids, if your holiday park is a family venue, a foosball can be ideal to keep the youngsters busy.

Other options include air hockey tables, the stalwarts of amusement arcades everywhere. Air hockey is a fast, exciting game with plenty of noise. We offer a range of commercial indoor and outdoor air hockey tables.

And there are arcade machines, which vary from compact multi game arcades to large, commercial machines with special cabinets - often linkable for multiple players. Arcade machines will need to live indoors, though.

Whichever you choose, you’ll need to ensure you have the space and the right audience.

Lease or Buy?

At Liberty Games, we don’t lease games tables. This is because we believe that buying is a better choice for you, the operator. When you lease, you are often entered into a profit share agreement, which means that the leasing company keeps a percentage of your profits - sometimes as much as 50%.

And of course you don’t own the table. If it’s damaged whilst in your possession, the leasing company could charge you for repairs. The table could be required to be kept in one place for the duration of the term, with no possibility of moving it to other locations in your business. And at the end of the leasing term, the table is removed from you.

When you buy, you own the table. You own the payment systems and you keep every penny of revenue. A pool table in a good location can consistently make over £20 per day, which means you’ll pay the tables off fast and before long, you’ll be enjoying a steady stream of profits. And if the table is damaged or knocked by boisterous guests, there’s no leasing company waiting to charge you for the damage. We have a range of suitable finance products available to you.

And when the finance is paid off, the table is yours to keep for as long as you want, or to sell on, or to move to another location. Buying outright gives you the flexibility you need as an adaptable, versatile business.

FreePlay or Pay-for-Credit?

In many locations, games tables are pay-to-play. Most of the time this means your table is fitted with a coin mech - a mechanical or electronic coin acceptor. Your guests simply insert a coin or token to buy a game credit, which expires at the end of the game.

Freeplay tables are most flexible, and best suited to outdoor locations where security is not guaranteed. With no internal cash box, freeplay tables can’t be robbed. But you won’t be easily making an income stream from them. If you do want a pay-for-credit table in an outdoor location, consider adding a coin mech that is adapted to use tokens instead of cash. Tokens are far less attractive to thieves, and you can even give away tokens as prizes to your guests.

A mechanical pool table mech.

Pay-for-credit tables are better suited to indoor games rooms, which can be locked at night for security. Coin mech tables require coins adding to the value of a credit, and then the balls are released. They will require some maintenance, such as emptying the cash box and potentially lubricating moving parts. But the rewards are obvious - our research suggests that a games table can make up to £400-£550 per month in a busy environment.

Learn more about coin and token mechs in our guide.

Ready to Go?

Now get those new income streams open and watch your visitors enjoy your new games tables! Our specialist sales team will be happy to assist with any advice and guidance you need - just drop us an email, hit the chat button below during office hours, or call us on 0800 612 8180.