I was passing by a building today that looked very spooky and is in a prime location. I wanted to know, for all those haunters who run a single haunted attraction, are they in your opinion successful?
This location would call for just one haunted house and possibly no additional sources of revenue: ie. no carnival sort games, no rides, no extra houses...just ONE STAND-ALONE HAUNT!)
My guess is that they wouldn't do as well because you have nothing else to offer your customer...they just stand in line for an hour then leave.
Are they successful run in this manner?
Assuming I could have additional attractions, I am sure it would be worth while...
Thanks for all who reply!
I am not sure if LV Scott T's comment was supposed to be encouraging or sarcastic??? HAHAHA! I think it was the fact he wrote "...in about 10 years." that made that comment seem more sarcastic...
And Slightly Mad...when I lived in California...the haunts were on farms, but they had multi-elements...Indoor Maze, Hayride, Outdoor Maze, Concession...etc. so I could see that being profitable...
I just wasn't sure if a haunt sitting by itself would suffice!
A good friend of mine ran one in Chattanooga and it got shut down by a local church. The Paster went on a one man campaign which lasted months. He managed to close them down because the property wasn't zoned for commercial (even though it was only open 2 weeks/year AND all profits went to charities). The town council didn't want to shut them down but the Paster managed to force them to due to the zoning technicality.
There is a lot to take into consideration when planning a commercial haunt. Not to mention insurance, taxes, prop expense and time. Plus, it takes a reliable full crew to run a consistent and successful haunt.
Ahhh! That is terrible...I guess I knew all of that in the back of my mind...just when I see it in print, it is terrible...plus, ironically enough, the building that I was looking at is an old church...but it is a creepy building!
I think you have to have supplements to bring in money besides the haunt, though. Concessions, souvenirs, glow sticks, face painting, games, etc.
If (when) I do my haunt, I will use a reservation system. I can't stand waiting in lines. You book online or buy your ticket for a time frame and don't worry about lining up until it's your time.
Doing that you free up people to wander around and buy your other stuff.
Just my input!
Do your research and find out what kind of volume you would expect and how many nights you could stay open, then figure out how much it will cost to run the place. A break even point would be easy enough to guesstimate. Don't forget insurance, security, parking, advertising, advertising and advertising.
I meant to add, the Jaycees no longer do their HH here, for whatever reason. A local farm has a huge hayride/haunted house/maze and xmas trail. They are far enough away and different from a true haunted house that both could survive. We are 350k in the metro area, with a huge military base nearby and only 90 miles from Atlanta too.
Would love to buy an old warehouse and build sets inside rather than have a stand alone house. Anybody want to help?
Here in Orlando we use to have a few stand alone haunts...Terror on Church Street and Skull Kingdom, both of which now are gone. There is a place in Kissimmee called the Haunted Grimm House which I have never been too...I think the reason they are still around is they are located in a heavily tourist traveled area and are within a shopping/eating setting called Old Town.
There is a new stand alone HH attraction down off of International Drive, I want to say it's called Haunted Orlando, but that sounds wrong. They just opened up this past month I believe.
I've often though, if a stand alone haunt can't last here year round, that speaks volumes as to how hard it must be to keep one up and running. I can easily see one being seasonal and being successful, but year round, i'm sure that's a different story altogether.
(Although personally, I think it'd be awesome...it'd be like Halloween, 365 days a year! )
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For the stand-alone Haunters out there?
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