Is your bounce house company insured? How to check.

Plenty of party rental websites in Indiana say "licensed and insured." The phrase has become wallpaper. It appears in footers, on about pages, and in ad copy, and typing it does not require a policy.

That is not an accusation aimed at anyone in particular. Plenty of companies that say it are telling the truth. The problem is that the claim and the proof look identical from the outside, and you do not want to find out which one you booked after something goes wrong.

Checking it takes one email.

Three documents settle the question

1. A current certificate of insurance

A certificate of insurance, almost always called a COI, is a single page issued by the insurance company or the broker. It does not come from the rental company, so it is far harder to invent than a sentence on a homepage.

A real COI names the insurer, the policy number, the coverage limits and the policy period. Ask for it by name and ask for the current one.

2. An additionally insured endorsement, if your venue wants one

If your party is in a public park, at a school, at a church, in an HOA common area, or on corporate property, the venue will often require that it be added to the rental company's policy for the day. That addition is called an additionally insured endorsement, and it is issued per event with the venue named on it.

Ask about it early, because a venue may set a deadline for it, and ask the rental company what it charges.

3. A W-9, if you are booking through an institution

Not an insurance document, but an institution will need it. School district and corporate accounts payable departments generally cannot set up a new vendor without a W-9 on file. If you are a PTO treasurer or an office manager, ask for it in the same email as the COI. Ours sits alongside the insurance certificate on our schools and churches page, downloadable rather than sent on request.

How to read a certificate of insurance

When the COI arrives, read three fields before you file it.

• The policy period. Two dates. Your event date has to fall between them. Policies renew, so an old certificate can still be sitting in a company's files. Check the dates.
• The general liability limits. Usually shown as a per occurrence figure and an aggregate figure. If your venue specified a minimum, compare it with this number.
• The certificate holder box. If you asked for your venue to be added, the venue should appear here or in the description of operations. If you asked and it is blank, the endorsement was not issued.

If the document has no insurer named on it, or it is a screenshot rather than a certificate, treat that as your answer and ask again.

Insurance and safety training are not the same thing

Insurance is what responds after something has already gone wrong. Training is what reduces the chance of it going wrong in the first place. A company can carry a perfectly valid policy and still stake a unit badly.

One credential you will see in this industry is SIOTO, the Safe Inflatable Operators Training Organization. It is a separate question from insurance and worth asking separately, because a certificate proves a company bought a policy, not that the person driving to your house has been trained on how to set up and anchor an inflatable safely.

The follow up question is the useful one: is the person who sets up my unit certified, or just the owner?

The questions to ask, word for word

Copy these into an email. A company with its paperwork in order can answer all six quickly.

• "Can you email me your current certificate of insurance?"
• "Does the policy period on it cover my event date?"
• "Can you add my venue as additionally insured, what does it cost, and how long does it take?"
• "Is your crew safety certified, and will a certified person set up my unit?"
• "What is your wind and rain policy, in writing, and what happens to my deposit?"
• "Are units cleaned and disinfected between rentals?"

You are not being difficult. An established company will have answered these before.

What a good answer sounds like

Speed and specificity, mostly. A company with real coverage attaches the certificate rather than describing it, gives you a number for the additionally insured fee rather than "we can look into that," and states its weather policy as a rule rather than a maybe.

The warning signs are the mirror image. Verbal only assurances, a certificate that never quite arrives, vagueness about who does the setup, or a weather policy that appears to be decided per customer.

How we handle it, so you can compare

Our 2026 Insurance Certificate and our 2026 W9 form are posted as downloads on our Important Documents page, so you can check them yourself rather than requesting them and waiting.

KidZone Party Rentals is licensed and insured in Indiana with a general liability policy, and we are SIOTO certified. Additionally insured certificates naming your park, school or venue are $25 per event. Nathan and Becky Suddarth have owned the business since 2010.

Use the six questions on any company you are considering, including us.

If you have already done the paperwork check and just want to see what is available, the bounce house range is the usual starting point, and our general liability coverage applies to every event we deliver.

Common questions