Tent Rental Prices: What Rental Companies Charge by Size and Type

Size sets the price more than anything else, and the spread inside one size is mostly about what the price includes. A tent only rate from a rental store and a delivered, staked and walled rate from a full service tent company can differ by about three times for the same 800 square feet.

20x20 tents cover a backyard party of about 30 to 40 seated guests.

Read 31 October 2026.

20x40 tents are the most common party size: about 64 to 80 seated guests by the operators' own capacity notes.

Read 31 October 2026.

Three things explain most of that spread. The $375 tent is one the customer picks up and stakes, which Grand Rental Station says takes two to three people 75 to 90 minutes. The $549 tent excludes setup and delivery. The $1,120 tent at Rocky Mountain Rental includes installation, takedown and a window sidewall.

40x60 tents seat about 200 to 240 at Long Island Tent & Party Rentals' package counts.

Read 31 October 2026.

A 30x60 tent rental cost $1,500 to $3,600 on the US pages we read, and $1,950 to $2,295 CAD at Encore Tents in Ontario. At 1,800 square feet it is the size most companies point a 100 to 180 guest wedding toward.

Read 31 October 2026.

TentandTable, a tent seller that publishes a rental price guide, gives $1,600 to $2,500 for a 30x60 frame and $1,100 to $2,200 for tents from 30x45 to 30x60, which brackets the white tents in the table. The high end belongs to clear tops: $2,400 in Gardena and $3,600 a day in Richmond, Illinois.

Two notes on the 30 x 60 tent rental price:

• Check the surface. Awesome Entertainment of Ohio charges $999 and up for concrete blocks under its 30x60 when it cannot stake. On a parking lot that is most of a second tent's price. How ballast is sized is in tent weights.
• Check the hold. A 30x60 for a Saturday wedding often goes up Thursday or Friday. Long Island Tent & Party Rentals installs 1 to 3 days before the event and removes it 1 to 3 days after, inside its one day rate. Your price has to cover those days off the shelf.

Pole tents are the cheapest per square foot, frames cost more and the premium grows with size, and clear tops and sailcloth sit at the top. Zola's 2026 wedding guide says pole tents run 20 to 30 percent below other styles and that sailcloth and clear top cost 50 to 100 percent more than basic tents.

Pole tents hang a vinyl top from center poles and need ground to stake into. Tremont Rentals in New York says plainly that "Pole tents must be staked into the ground", and Grand Rental Station's pole and high peak tents are "Grass setup only".

Frame tents stand on an aluminum frame with no center poles, so they go on patios, decks and parking lots with ballast. That costs more labor and more metal, and the price shows it. Encore Tents publishes both styles side by side:

Source: Encore Tents pricing page, read 31 October 2026.

High peak tents are a frame or pole tent with a tall pitched top. Awesome Entertainment of Ohio prices its high peak range at $299 for a 10x20, $399 for a 20x20, $549 for a 20x30 and $899 for a 40x40 hexagon, a day for up to 8 hours, and notes its high peaks have center cross cables, so they are not clear span. It also says patio heaters cannot be used under them.

Clear tops cost about half again as much as white at the one company that lists both: BR Party Rental charges $240 for a white 20x20 frame and $360 for a clear one, and $480 against $720 at 20x40. J & J Tent and Party Rentals prices every clear top at exactly $1 a square foot, from $400 for a 20x20 to $4,000 for a 40x100, our arithmetic.

Sailcloth tents are pole tents with a translucent fabric top, and they are priced in their own sizes:

Read 31 October 2026. Event Rents includes installation and teardown and excludes delivery. Tremont and Benson do not say what the price includes.

The same 44x63 tent cost from $2,600 to $5,000 across four companies. Part of that is region and part is what sits inside the number, so when you check a competitor, ask what their sailcloth price includes before you match it.

Dividing each published price by the tent's area turns a list of sizes into one number you can compare across companies and tent types. On the pages we read, our arithmetic gives these bands:

Per square foot is price divided by area, our arithmetic, from the tables above. Long Island Tent & Party Rentals and Herriott's Rents, Tents & Events in Champaign, Illinois publish their ranges directly. Read 31 October 2026.

More of the same arithmetic, so you can see where common rates land:

Read 31 October 2026.

Two patterns hold across the list:

1. Small tents cost more per square foot. Awesome Entertainment's 10x20 high peak is $1.50 a square foot and its 40x40 hexagon $0.56, our arithmetic. Setup labor and the truck trip do not shrink with the tent.
2. Installed rates sit higher, but not always. Rocky Mountain Rental's installed 20x40 is $1.40 a square foot and Event Rents' installed clear top $1.71, while the tent only, setup excluded and self setup rates land at $1.08 or less. Long Island Tent & Party Rentals includes delivery and setup at $0.75 to $1.25 for frame, so a dense market can price installed tents low.

Our guide to starting a tent rental business covers per square foot pricing for a starter inventory and whether that inventory pays.

A tent price is the top and frame at minimum, and every other line is a choice each operator makes differently. Before you compare your rate to a competitor's, check five things: delivery, setup, anchoring on hard surfaces, walls and the rental period.

On the pages we read, Rocky Mountain Rental, Event Rents, Long Island Tent & Party Rentals, River City Events and A Classic Party Rental include setup in the tent price. Awesome Entertainment of Ohio includes neither setup nor delivery, Grand Rental Station charges extra to set up its high peak, and J & J and Event Rents exclude delivery. Rocky Mountain Rental and River City Events include a sidewall or walls; most others charge for them.

The extras that add cost, with published prices:

Read 31 October 2026. TentandTable's guide is dated 16 December 2022 and Zola's was last updated 19 February 2026.

Permits are the extra most customers forget. Under the fire code as many cities adopt it, a tent over 400 square feet needs a permit. Woodland, California requires one "in excess of 400 square feet", exempts tents open on all sides up to 700, charges $258 per event, and wants the application 14 days ahead with an inspection in the 24 hours before the event. Arlington, Virginia sets its line at 900 square feet and adds together tents less than 12 feet apart. Encore Tents' terms put building and fire permits on the client. Whoever files it, a 20x40 is already 800 square feet, so most tents you rent need one somewhere. Tent permits are covered in licenses, permits and inspections.

Heat is the extra with the most rules. Awesome Entertainment of Ohio says patio heaters cannot be used under its high peak tents and are not recommended under any tent. What a heated tent needs, and how to price it, is in heated tent rentals.

A wedding tent costs $500 to $2,800 for the structure alone, and most couples spend $1,200 to $2,000, per Zola's guide last updated 19 February 2026. With floor, walls, lighting, tables and chairs, the operator packages we read ran $1,650 to $5,500, and a full sailcloth wedding with a floor can pass $40,000.

Zola sizes the tent by guest count:

Read 31 October 2026.

Published wedding packages, where the operator prices the tent with the furniture:

Read 31 October 2026. Michiana's customer sets up the tables and chairs, and linens cost extra.

Three more published numbers frame the top and bottom of the market:

• The starting price. WeddingWire puts the average starting price of a tent rental in the US at $300, from couples' reported spending. That is a 20x20 at most, not a wedding.
• The planning budget. Herriott's Rents, Tents & Events in Champaign, Illinois tells couples to plan $50 a guest for tent space and decor, before food and drink. Its worked example for 160 guests puts the tent at about $2,400 for 2,400 square feet and the total near $9,400 with tables, linens, a dance floor and lighting.
• The top end. French's Point, a wedding venue in Midcoast Maine, published the actual Wallace Events cost of a sailcloth tent with a full floor for 300 guests: $40,027.38 for the weekend. That is about $133 a guest, our arithmetic. Herriott's notes that flooring "can be more expensive than the tent itself".

Wedding dates also cost more than the size alone suggests. Zola says a Saturday in June can cost 40 percent more than a Thursday in March, and Awesome Entertainment of Ohio adds a holiday fee on dates like July 4th weekend, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Canadian tent prices on the three pages we read ran close to US prices in Canadian dollars: a 20x40 frame at $875 to $1,225 CAD and a 30x60 at $1,950 to $2,295 CAD. None of the three pages names its currency; all three are Canadian businesses, so we label the prices CAD.

Read 31 October 2026. River City Events' page showed a last update of 30 October 2026.

Three Canadian terms worth copying or knowing:

• Locates. River City Events makes the client complete Utility Safety Partners (AB One Call) locates before installation. Decide who requests locates where you work, and either put it on the customer or price your time to do it.
• Deposit and cancellation. Encore Tents takes a 30 percent nonrefundable deposit and charges the full rental for cancellations less than ten days out, with full payment on delivery.
• Permits on the client. Encore's terms say building and fire permits, and their costs, are the client's responsibility.

Add GST or HST, and PST where it applies, on top of every price.

Set your tent prices from three numbers: what your market charges per square foot for the same service level, what your crew and truck cost per install, and how long the tent is off your shelf. The published pages show the moves operators actually use.

1. Decide what your base price includes, then say it. The biggest gap in this guide is not between cities but between "tent only" and "installed". If your price includes delivery, setup and walls, write that on the product page, as Rocky Mountain Rental and River City Events do. If it excludes them, write that too, as Awesome Entertainment of Ohio does: "Set Up & Delivery charges are not included in the rental fee."

2. Charge more per square foot for small tents. Labor and the trip cost about the same for a 20x20 as for a 20x40. Awesome Entertainment's 10x20 high peak at $1.50 a square foot and its 40x40 at $0.56 is the pattern.

3. Price the surface separately. Stakes in grass are the base. Concrete blocks or water barrels on a patio are a line item: Awesome Entertainment charges $399 and up under a 20x30 frame and $999 and up under a 30x60, and BR Party Rental lists water barrels at $10 each. Ask at booking what the tent sits on.

4. Set an order minimum and delivery bands. A minimum order keeps a lone 10x10 from taking a Saturday crew. For delivery, A Classic Party Rental charges $200 round trip within Indianapolis and its surrounding areas, and TentandTable's guide puts delivery at $75 to $200 within a set radius or a per mile surcharge beyond it. A flat delivery fee loses money on long runs; distance bands are worked through in how to price bounce house rentals, and the same math applies to a tent truck, with more weight on it.

5. Charge for timed delivery and the hold. A Classic Party Rental in Indianapolis charges $250 to promise morning or afternoon, $500 for a set time and $750 minimum after hours. If a tent goes up Thursday for Saturday, your rate covers Thursday, Friday and the drying day after.

6. Take a real deposit. Published tent deposits run high: Encore Tents takes 30 percent nonrefundable, and A Classic Party Rental takes a reservation fee equal to 100 percent of the tent cost, nonrefundable on cancellation. A tent booked for a June Saturday cannot be resold on short notice.

7. Add a damage waiver and a peak rate. Grand Rental Station applies a 13 percent damage waiver to all rentals and A Classic offers one at 10 percent. Peak dates carry holiday fees at Awesome Entertainment of Ohio.

Corporate and municipal customers usually pay by invoice rather than by card at checkout. The free party rental invoice template makes one as a PDF with the tent, walls, delivery band and deposit on separate lines, which is also how a customer can see what your price includes.

Most tent inquiries start with a number of guests, not a size. Convert guests to square feet, pick the stocked size that covers it, then add the lines the event needs.

Step 1: square feet. Herriott's plans about 15 square feet a guest for a wedding, which puts 120 guests at 1,800 square feet, a 30x60, our arithmetic. Zola's guide puts 75 to 125 guests in a 30x50. Cocktail layouts need less, and a dance floor, buffet, bar and band need more. The tent size calculator turns a guest count and seating style into square feet and the tent sizes that cover it, and the dance floor size calculator sizes the floor to add inside it.

Step 2: the tent and the surface. Check grass or hard surface before you price. A pole tent quote that has to become a frame on a patio is a 6 to 47 percent increase at Encore's prices, plus ballast.

Step 3: the lines. Here is a 120 guest seated dinner priced from one published list, Encore Tents, so every number is the same company's:

Prices from Encore Tents' pricing page and planner, read 31 October 2026. Delivery, which Encore charges by location, and HST are extra. Quantities are our example, not Encore's.

That $3,718 CAD subtotal is about $31 a guest, our arithmetic, and the tent is 62 percent of it. The pattern holds across the market: on a wedding, the tent is the anchor and the walls, light, heat, power and floor are what turn a $2,300 rental into a $3,700 one.

Step 4: the terms. Put the permit, the locate, the surface, the install and removal days, the deposit and the cancellation window on the quote, in writing, before the customer pays.