Short Term Coffee Machine Rental: 1 Day Rental Periods and Upward

One of the most common requests we get each day is from a customer looking for a coffee machine short term rental. Whether it is an expo, a birthday party or corporate function, a coffee machine can give that extra touch of class to your event. In this post we will discuss the prices and options available for short term rental and when it is better opt to purchase or take out a long term rental.

What is a short term rental when it comes to coffee machines?

Short term rentals refer to any rental period of less than 1 month. The most common term is 3 days but in the case of birthday parties and corporate events, it is not uncommon for us to receive requests for 1 day rentals.

What does a short term rental cost?

If you are looking for value for money, unfortunately short term rentals are not cheap. There are 4 things typically charged for:

• Drop off and setup of the machine – The drop off and setup often requires to be done at a specific time in the case of a Birthday party or expo and access for expos can be tricky. Depending on the location the cost of drop-off and setup is usually around R750.
•  Minimum amount of coffee expected to be consumed – Instead of charging for just the coffee you use, coffee companies often charge a minimum coffee usage amount per day of around 50 cups. This minimum charge means that if you only consume 10 cups of coffee you will still be charged for the 50. In a short term rental context, a cup of coffee is usually charged at around R5.00 per cup making the daily coffee cost R250.
• Daily rental of the coffee machine (significantly higher than the rates charged for, in long term rentals) – The daily rental of the coffee machine depends on the machine rented. Below we list approximate amounts to budget for:

Bean Vending – R500 per day

Instant Vending Machine – R500 per day

Filter Coffee – R200 per day

Automatic Bean to Cup Machine – R400 per day

• Collection of the machine – Because no setup is required the collection fee is often levied at around R300.

What does a typical short term rental quote look like?

Let’s say you elect to rent a filter coffee machine for a period of 4 days. Your quote (using the numbers above will look something like this):

Delivery and Setup Fee: R750

Minimum amount of Coffee for 4 days: R1000

Daily rental for 4 days: R800

Collection of machine: R300

Total: R2850

When is it better to rent long term or to buy a coffee machine instead?

You’ll see in the above example it can be rather pricey to rent a coffee machine on a short term basis. Especially considering that the average monthly rental on a filter machine is R90 p/m with no delivery and collection fee.

This means that in the above example you actually get charged almost 3 times as much to rent a filter machine for 4 days as you do to rent a filter machine for a WHOLE year!

Alternatively a filter machine only costs R3990 so again in the above example you would probably be better off buying the machine if taking a machine on a long term rental is not your cup of tea.

Which coffee companies in South Africa offer short term rentals?

Unfortunately, the answer is not many. Because of the “poor” value short term rentals typically offer the consumer many companies in South Africa, like us, don’t offer this service at all. We usually recommend a specialist general equipment short term rental company like Teljoy or Go Rentals instead of opting for a specialist coffee company which primarily specializes in machine sales and longer term rentals.

To view our longer term rental prices please click on our link, Coffee Machine Rentals.