Could COVID put fear into the 2021 Haunted House Season Again?
In one simple word...YES! Many cities have already started implementing new mask mandates and who knows what’s next. The CDC has already issued a warning that even vaccinated people should wear masks. Oh no; here we go again. What should you do as a haunted house owner to prepare for the 2021 Halloween season? We list TEN things haunts should or could do for the 2021 season and beyond.
1) OPEN FEWER DAYS: Haunted houses should open fewer days, Covid or no Covid. In the past, haunted houses tried to open more days, earlier into September, and later into November. Again Covid or no Covid, haunts should re-train their customers to come when you’re open. Do not give guests so many options to attend your attraction. For starters, if you’re looking to cut expenses the easiest way to cut labor is simply by not opening as many days. Is it really worth it to open in early September for 500 people? You might say yes because you make money, but what if you didn’t lose those 500 people and they came a different day? Based on that possibility, you'd actually increase your profits. Remember, it's not about how many people come thru the door; it's about how much money you have left at the end of the season. Your biggest expense is labor. You don’t need to cut the number of actors. You simply cut out how many days you’re open. As for Covid, by opening only Friday thru Sunday you give your staff 5 days between opening again to report an illness. Imagine if you’re open on a Wednesday or Thursday and then you find out…It's possible half your staff doesn’t show up on Friday. I’d rather give myself a full five days between events to find out if anyone got sick. An added benefit...Your staff is fired up and ready to go every weekend, producing an overall better show.
2) WARNING SIGNS: Do NOT be caught DEAD without tons of warning signs on your website and everywhere on-site at your attraction. Warn about risks of everything from asthma to Covid. Furthermore, you should continue to have warning sign check points asking people with recent signs of flu or fever not to attend. It doesn’t hurt you to require masks, or at the very least suggest everyone wear a mask. I hate to say this but you might have to pony up and buy more masks to have available just in case your town requires them once again.
3) REDUCE STAFF: You should absolutely reduce staff inside your haunted house. We reduced staff inside The Darkness 2020 by 40% and heard zero guest complaints. Let's be real for a moment; if you have 100 actors, how many are actually GOOD actors? What would happen if you ran with the very best actors only? Isn’t one of the top complaints about actors not the greatest? A few bad ones can drag down the entire attraction, so why not focus on hiring only the best, and let them make your guests scream? Why did we ever hire 100-150 actors to begin with? Lightbulb: Haunts should have between 30-60 actors tops, depending on the size of the show. Another great point...size! Why is your haunted house so long? At The Darkness, we sold our side attraction, an add-on zombie haunt, and we replaced it with escape rooms and mini golf. Both make 100 times more money for 1/10th the operation cost. At Creepyworld, we eliminated three entire haunted houses, while at the same time improving the overall attraction. We give the customer what I believe is the absolute best product now. Cut out the dead weight and focus on the meat and potatoes Lastly, if you’re planning on cutting out length to your haunted house consider removing 20% of the ending and revamping into a Midway with games, escape rooms, photo ops, a retail store, concessions, and more. Our retail stores and midways at both Darkness and Creepyworld are real money makers! Remember this, people don’t come to your haunt to get scared, so much as they come to have FUN!
4) OPERATE AT A FASTER PACE: Haunts need to open earlier and get the party started earlier. On busy nights, we advertise a 6:45pm open time. Even if the first group doesn’t enter until 6:55, it doesn’t matter, we’re getting the ball rolling. Then once you open those doors, your through-put needs to be just as fast as you would if the place was swamped. What is better?...trying in vain to distance people inside the haunt, or having a massive line around the block? Push people through your haunted house. Allow 10-12 people into the haunt every 30 seconds and keep up the pace all night long. Some might suggest doing timed ticketing. However, this might cause fewer people to buy a ticket, and no one wants that. Buying a haunted house ticket is likely a spur of the moment thing for many. Don't discourage them from buying.
5) CLOSE EARLY: Ever heard the song, "Freaks Come Out at Night" by Whodini? No haunted house should stay open past midnight. Right now crime is out of control and some no longer respect authority. Get your guests through your haunt safely and keep the lines short. The main cause of fights is line-cutting. Last season, several haunts saw a drastic uptick it violence at their haunts including shootings. In most cases, it started late at night over line cutting. You put yourself, your customers, and your staff at risk being open late into the night. Follow what I’m suggesting...Open earlier and run them through quicker. You'll be closed before midnight with everyone safe.
6) ADD MORE SECURITY: You must add more security because crime is at an all time high. You can’t take chances. Do not even second guess hiring local police to work your security detail along with your in-house security staff. Your focus should be on the back of the line where all the cutting takes place. Another form of security is a healthy amount of line actors to keep people entertained, plus the extra eyes are helpful. Make sure you have a lot of 2-way radios inside the attraction too. We have roaming actors and maintenance crew who circle around sections of the haunt with radios checking for anything out of the ordinary. The more eyes and ears you have, the safer your attraction will be, so buy MORE radios and add more security.
7) ADD AIR CANNONS: So you’re cutting staff, but still want the show to be top notch. Adding cool animations are great, but they typically don’t scare many people and often break. The best, cheapest form of scare is the good ole fashion AIR CANNON. They never fail and always get a scream. Last year in the Darkness we added about 10 more on top of the 10 or so we already had. Haunt owners should be focused on buying ANYTHING that makes a LOUD NOISE! (Attention haunt vendors: We need MORE NOISE MAKING animations and props! As haunts decrease the amount of staff in their attractions, haunts will be focused more on buying noise making devices.)
8) AVOID PUBLIC RELATIONS: Once again, I call on haunts to AVOID talking to the media this season, because they will pin you down and drill you about Covid. I don’t care if you have the best plan on planet earth. The media will spin your plan. I did ZERO MEDIA last year along with ZERO sponsorship and we did better than the year before. If you don’t want a target on your head, keep a low profile. Just put your head down and create the best and safest show you can. Going back to opening fewer days falls into this category too, because you’re out of sight and out of mind. With the advent of digital marketing, we can target our crowds and zero in on those people. We no longer need TV, radio, newspaper,s or free or paid PR. Marketing is now cheap and can direct target your audience. While on this topic I strongly suggest you not throw a wide net this year for customers, focus on the most likely and you’ll be fine.
9) DITCH MAKE-UP FOR MASKS: When you offer makeup & makeup artists, you have people touching other people and people digging into community makeup, touching it with their fingers and transferring to other people. Don’t take the risk. Last year we ditched makeup all together in favor of ALL MASKS. Another option to offer your staff is for them to do their own makeup at home and arrive ready to go. Come up with a plan: Maybe actors can buy their own makeup, or you could supply it for home use, or maybe offer free makeup lessons preseason, or simply require ALL MASKS labeled specific for individual actor use. Mask quality is so good now, we can’t realistically create characters as quickly or as good with makeup. Hire the actors who have no problems wearing masks; it makes life easy and safe.
10) SCARE BOXES: Confine actors to scare boxes All actors roaming creates a less safe Covid environment. Assign actors to the most pivotal spots and you’ll find this works better anyway. Last year at Darkness, we focused on making these scare boxes better than ever so they touched more area’s of the maze. Therefore actors could scare one group and then turn around and scare another group on the opposite side of the maze., If you take this approach and rely more on the aircannons to fill in the gaps you should be golden! Scare Zones are the wave of the future for haunts as they pair down staff. You need to offer those actors more access to the maze from the same position. For example, you have a wall right there, but what if you removed it; what’s on the other side?…Oh a different scene!... Then tear it out. You can do more with less if you focus on it. Sure, adding animations are GREAT, but actors are the life blood of any haunt, so hire the best actors and give them MORE room to scare without leaving the same spot.
Good luck on your haunt season and keep checking back at Hauntworld.com for more how-to haunt articles.
Transworld Haunted House Convention / Tradeshow 2021 Review
The 2021 Transworld Haunted House Convention/Tradeshow is now complete and behind us. Now Transworld looks forward to producing the annual Midwest Haunters Convention June 25, 2021 (learn more details click here)
Watch our Transworld 2021 show floor highlight videos below and subscribe to our youtube page for more updates about the haunted house industry.
Transworld 2021 was not the same show we've seen in the past due to covid related issues. Transworld was forced to cancel the 2020 show, then delay the 2021 show until May, causing a lot of headaches. Despite the event being postponed until May the convention was very successful if for no other reason than it happened. Tradeshows for nearly every industry have either been canceled all together or pushed back until late summer. Moving the haunted house show back any later than May, would have been pointless for the haunted house industry. Haunt owners need months not days to produce their attractions. Vendors need months not days or weeks to fill orders. May was never going to work for either side however just having the show was a first step back. Everything should return to normal in 2022 with Transworld hosting their convention in March 2022.
Transworld deserves a lot of praise for pulling off the show, despite all the challenges. As we predicted here at Hauntworld most vendors wouldn't be able to take a lot of orders and this was the case. Once the show was announced for May opposed to March, buyers took to the phones and placed millions of dollars in orders prior to the show happening. With that being said vendors who hadn't yet filled all of their production schedule filled those schedules by the end of the first or second day of the show. Many buyers were very disappointed when they visited a booth and exhibitors told them they're no longer taking orders for 2021. Transworld moving the show back to March in 2022 should change the dynamic for most haunted attraction owners buying habits, with more orders being placed at Transworld. Transworld also did their best to organize events for buyers such as a vampire magic show, trips to the famous City Museum and a haunted house tour of Six Flags which received mixed reviews. At the end of the day Transworld did their best despite the all the constant road blocks due to covid. Hopefully now covid is behind us.
Covid 19 situation has changed many industries including the haunted attraction industry. So what should you expect from a haunted house convention in 2022?
First lets start with a reality check, haunted attraction owners have been woke! Haunted Attraction owners now realize they can cut their marketing budgets in half thanks to digital marketing. Additionally they can cut their labor costs by almost 50% rethinking how they operate. Haunted attraction owners going forward are cutting their staff by 30 to 40%, and reducing operation days by 15 to 25% thereby cutting down labor overall by a lot! The haunted attraction industry is no longer about being open every day, or having 125 actors, or having the World record longest haunted attraction but simply giving your guests a great experience. As haunted attraction owners learned giving guests a great experience doesn't mean just making them scream, but creating photo opportunities, uncharged attractions, and more. Most haunted attraction owners have branched out to create their own escape rooms, axe throwing and other year around business, leaving their haunts with less attention.
Owning and operating a haunted attraction isn't a hobby its a JOB, and your JOB is to make money, otherwise what started as your HOBBY is now your NIGHTMARE! Wake up people, if you're having FUN operating your HAUNTED HOUSE then YOU are doing something WRONG! Operating haunted houses is hard work, and require a lot of operational skills to keep them safe and fun for your customers.
Transworld on the other hand now faces new challenges. The haunted house industry is NOT growing and neither is the escape room industry. What we've seen from the escape room show is reduction and there is a simple answer... there was too many escape rooms and now many are closed or closing. Furthermore as I predicted the haunted house industry would dive into this industry and basically take it over. Haunt owners brought more theming, animations, special fx, and proved a point that escapes aren't about the puzzles they're about the SHOW! Here is where we're at with conventions/tradeshows... most of the exhibitors know the buyers, and now understand clearly how to sells their goods directly covid forced them to learn direct marketing. I would predict many vendors will cut down booths going into the future, while turning more attention to direct marketing, a skill they honed during the pandemic.
Look at Poison Props, Unit 70 and others they sold OUT 110% without a tradeshow, while other vendors sold out 75 to 80% prior to the 2021 show. These are new realities so I have a few suggestions to keep the show going strong and grow. Originally the convention benefited the vendors more than the buyers, with Transworld finding buyers and bringing them to the vendors. Now its flipped the show is more for the entertainment and education of the buyers than the vendors. All we kept hearing was buyers want the show, buyers want the show to happen they want to get together... while vendors are like wow we're almost sold out. Tradeshows and conventions are now mostly the benefit of the buyers due to vendors knowing their customer base and access for direct marketing.
Buyers should be willing to pay up to $250.00 per person for entry to help offset programs to keep vendors buying more booth spaces. Transworld should raise their prices for entry, thereby creating more revenue to offer venders discounts to keep current booth sizes. Buyers don't need vendors cutting their booths in half, we need vendors to spend all winter making new products, and bring everything including the kitchen sink. In order to make this happen buyers will need to spend a lot more to help offset other costs for vendors benefit. Transworld should also look to add another industry to the mix such as bringing back what's left of Halloween retail or adding a family fun center show (amusement expo). Transworld should take advantage of bringing so many small amusement business owners to one show, by adding an entire new section with a focus on family entertainment. Furthermore Transworld could grow the food/beverage vendors by creating an entire section just for them. The bottom line Transworld SHOULD NOT put their focus on trying to grow the show with haunt vendors, but vendors who would benefit from all the theme parks to small amusement operators who already attend. The haunt vendor side might shrink but there is plenty of room to grow the show for the benefit of all the buyers. We need more insurance companies, digital marketing, business to business services, food and beverage all the way to amusement attractions, games and vending. Look at ticketing, once all the entertainment ticketing companies found out about the industry they flooded the show floor, the same will happen with other digital marketing companies, food service, insurance and everything between. Most haunts must realize you don't grow revenue by buying another monster, its from finding better business to business services. Haunters need to be shown the way especially with seminars and education opportunties.
Can we just be honest for one second, haunt owners are moving away from haunts every day when they venture off opening a bar with axe throwing, escape rooms or even a family entertainment center. Successful haunted house owners are already TELLING this industry... we're looking to start new business which create revenue every single day! Transworld should pounce, they have buyers, now find new industries to fill the space from wall to wall! FOCUS on growing this into a mega amusement show, and please move away from things like Haunters Hangout. Vendors are at your show to MAKE MONEY, not to talk to enthusiasts about how to paint or mold something. Let's focus on real buyers, and making this show a tradeshow not a haunt fan convention, time is better spent growing the show and reaching out to all ends of the amusement industry. This show can make a complete transition from convention to tradeshow if we raise addmission, focus on real buyers needs which is adding more business to business and amusement vendors. Transworld has an opportunity to create a show to rival IAAPA and I hope to see this happen.
In closing let me say once again KUDOS to Transworld for pulling off what seemed impossible but now the real work begins as the landscape has changed. What will happen next no matter what we'll be here to report it! Good luck in 2021.
PS: Sorry we didn't open our haunted houses. We'll reconsider opening in 2021.
The Midwest Haunters Convention is the largest Halloween show of its kind in the US, dedicated to ALL Haunters; actors, enthusiasts, home/pro haunters and Halloween enthusiasts. Open to the public the MHC features a haunted house, horror and Halloween trade show, educational seminars & workshops, a chartered haunted house bus tour on Friday, contests, family-friendly activities and much more! The show happens Wisconsin Center - June 26-27, 2021. Pre-convention Haunt Tours happen June 25, 2021. The show includes a smaller tradeshow filled with haunt vendors, seminars and much more.
PRE-CONVENTION HAUNTED HOUSE BUS TOUR
PRE-CONVENTION BUS TOUR
*Please note you need to sign up for the Midwest Haunters Convention before you can purchase tickets for the Pre-Convention Bus Tour: CLICK HERE to register now!
The Pre-Convention Haunted House Bus Tour can be purchased either WITH or WITHOUT a Bus Ride.
With the Bus Ride, it’s $300 per person.
Without the Bus Ride, it’s $235 per person.
These are Early-Bird Prices good through Friday, June 11th at 11:59pm CDT.
From June 12th the prices increase to $320 per person With the Bus Ride, and $255 per person Without the Bus Ride.
ONCE YOU HAVE REGISTERED, and only IF YOU WANT TO TAKE THE BUS, click HERE to choose the bus you’d like to ride
Here is the itinerary for the Pre -Convention Bus Tour ( please note times could be subject to change due to traffic)
11:30am Load buses from the Convention Center
12:00pm Depart for Abandoned Haunted Complex ( travel time 1/2 hour)
12:30 Arrive at Abandoned Haunted Complex (2- 1/2 hours will be spent at this location)
Lunch will be served at this location
2 ‘Lights Off’ Haunt Tours With Actors
1 ‘Self-Guided’ Haunt Tour (No Actors, Partially Outdoor)
Daylight Tour of Their Outdoor Trail, The Howling Hollow
Lights on AND Lights off Tour of Mr. Jingles Funhouse
Lights on AND Lights off Tour of Shawano Manor Haunted House
Q&A With Staff
Tours of Kidnapped: An Extreme Escape Room Experience (Self-Guided)
Snacks and Beverages Available (Included with Ticket)
7:00pm Depart Green Bay Fear ( travel time 10 minutes)
7:15pm Arrive at National Train Museum
7:30pm Dinner ( cash bar with beer and wine) & Q&A Featuring Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group
Hosted by Ben Armstrong from Netherworld Haunted House
8:30pm Loading and Train Transportation to Terror on the Fox
8:45pm-10:30pm Special MHC Unveiling of Terror on the Fox’s Legendary Sound, Music and Light Pre-Show, Lights off Tour of BOTH Attractions, with actors and after party
10:30pm Depart Terror on the Fox to return to the Convention Center ( travel time 2 hours)
What to Expect: The annual tradeshow will feature hundreds of vendors selling haunted house props, costumes, masks, animations and busines to business services. Additionally the show has morphed into a Christmas Light and Display tradeshow with a massive section of vendors to help you build a Christmas attraction. The show also feature a large section dedicated to escape rooms, virtual reality and much more.
Events: Transworld is offering tons of educational seminars, vampire ball, trips to City Museum and Six Flags. The Darkness haunted house will not feature a tour in 2021.
Health and Safety: The health and safety of our attendees, exhibitors and staff is of the utmost importance to us. TransWorld is working closely with the America’s Center, Explore St. Louis, and other show partners on multiple health and safety measures. Detailed health and safety plans will be communicated closer to the show. Please review our health and safety page for more details: https://haashow.com/health-and-safety/
WHAT DID WE LEARN AND WHERE ARE WE HEADED – Haunted House Season 2021
Not every haunted house or escape room will survive covid 19 the season from hell known as 2020. However, the haunted house and escape room industry are about to change forever. The escape room industry is an easy one to discuss first so let’s dive in. Somewhere on the internet there is a website tracking escape rooms that have closed the list is LONG! So, the obvious is yes, many escape rooms closed but for many different reasons. Let’s analyze.
PART 1 - ESCAPE ALIVE FROM THE ESCAPE ROOM INDUSTRY
Escape Rooms closed in droves because it was destiny, lets be honest there was way too many. The same thing happened to the haunted house industry back in the late 1990’s and the same is happening to the escape room industry. If we’re calling a spade a spade most of the first batch of escape rooms were not very good. As I predicted haunted house owners would swarm in like a pack of killer hornets and change the industry. Haunted House owners understand theming, special effects, and showmanship a lot better than the first wave of escape room owners. I remember the early days of escape rooms it was all about puzzles and nothing else mattered. Now escape rooms are about PRODUCTION first and puzzles second this is where the haunt owner is stronger. At the end of the day the customers only care about having a good time. Yes, there are some really hard-core escape room players who care but the mass majority of customers care only about the overall experience.
Today we see more reviews from guests talking about the theming, special effects and less about the puzzles. So, in short, the escape rooms that are surviving are the ones who’ve ramped up the production. Yes, puzzles are important but not nearly as important as the quality of the experience. Many escape rooms owners just don’t have the experience, skills or knowledge to do both puzzles and create Hollywood level theming. Clearly many escape rooms went out of business due to having no customers during the covid shut down. However, I believe other escape rooms are falling out due to lack of overall quality of the escapes. Escape rooms cost on average $30.00 to play per person and when many don’t have jobs, how many escape rooms do you honestly think they can visit at $30 per person? How many haunted houses do guests visit every year at $30 per person? I can answer that question about 1.5 per Halloween, which means the overwhelming number of possible visitors will only experience one haunt per year.
Escape Rooms also lost the ability to have corporate events, single players booking into unfilled games, which slashed revenue but, in the end, there was just too many escapes, and way too many bad ones. In one big tidal wave haunted house owners double the number of escape business within an 18-month period it simply overwhelmed the industry. Covid or no covid escape rooms are here to stay they’ve proven it but maybe 4 or 5 per market not 20 plus. So, if you’re still surviving what will put you over the top or keep you business?
Escape Rooms need great word of mouth so customer service is very important as is producing HIGH TECH HOLLYWOOD level theming and special effects. I can honestly say we don’t have the best puzzle streams but who’s outdoing us on theming and special effects? Our escape rooms are out pacing every single other escape room in St Louis combined. What are we doing different? I can tell you… we’re not thinking along the lines that we’re an escape room facility as much as an entertainment facility. We’ve added blacklight mini golf which EXPODED … now we have people playing golf and we’re booking them into escape and vice versa. Furthermore, we added pinball machines and arcades giving guests something to do while they wait for their escape experience. Everything puts us heads and tails above some 3,000 square foot escape located in a strip center with a small lobby and 4 escape rooms. I think if you want to be really successful you must think more along the lines as ESCAPE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER. Furthermore, I think its important to rotate and update your escape rooms adding new themes and experiences. Update your escape rooms adding pre-shows, animation, and improved theming. Lastly, I think its very important for escape rooms to have great videos, photos to give guests more information when they choose which escape room to visit. Overload your guests with information and strong visuals. If you haven’t already figured out digital marketing the key to reach guests, one quick not I would mention facebook is not worth the investment. People don’t go searching for escape rooms on facebook, they search for them on Google. Keep that in mind, we do ZERO marketing on Facebook for our escape rooms.
Hopefully very soon you can re-open your escape rooms, start booking private parties, and opening your rooms up to single players which will really increase revenue. With all that being said the escape rooms that will survive are the ones which create experiences for your customers. Due to covid and nothing to do we added THREE new escape rooms and the mini golf… we didn’t throw in the towel we kept investing and now it paying off in spades. If you believe in what you’re doing, then take chances because in the end no risk no reward. Good luck! On a side note our escape rooms will be open to the industry during Transworld Escape Room show you can learn more at www.StLouisEscape.com
PART 2 – HAUNTED HOUSES AND THE FUTURE OF HAUNTING
I’ve been making people SCREAM for 32 years but who’s counting. Every single year I think I have it all figured out then Y2K happens, or 911, but Covid never saw that coming. Every haunted house got thrown into a panic as the Transworld show cancelled, vendors didn’t know what to do, haunters not knowing if they could open, simply put a mess. Vendors struggled but survived and many haunts pulled the parachute on the season long before even a single leaf fall to the ground. The haunt season looked BLEAK but guess what… haunts that opened got overwhelmed with business. Why? Very simple most everything that people do normally like NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, College Football to amusement parks, bowling and everything between didn’t allow people in the door. People were starved to do something anything and visit haunted houses they did in droves. With strong demand came a lot of problems, such as a lot of violence, unruly customers, fighting, shootings, it was a complete nightmare. In one weekend we saw 4 or 5 shootings across the industry on the same day along with one being fatal. At my haunted house we saw the same however we took action beefing up security, working with the local police, closing early and more.
I predicted from the start you couldn’t follow covid rules not for a haunted house, you would create wait times so long you’d create worse problems. There was only one way to get control of your haunt you had to get people into the door faster… the longer people waited the more problems you had. Yes, we took many covid precautions and even got a lot of compliments from our city officials and guests. We did things we never did before like offer washing stations, hand sanitizer, required face masks, but keeping people 6 feet apart inside a haunted house that was NEVER going to happen. I believe haunted houses across the country did the very best they could to keep their guests and staff safe while trying their best to stay in business. If you’re going to operate a successful haunted house you must operate a SAFE haunted house which means good security. I know a lot of haunts dealt with customers who just acted like idiots… best way to deal with this now and into the future is by NOT keeping them at your facility waiting in line for hours.
At our haunts we’ve changed EVERYTHING and for good! We’re closing at 11:45 pm, we’re stopping all ticket sales at 11:30, and we’re moving them into and thru the haunted house faster than ever! Not only are we moving them thru the haunted house fast but we’ve also cut actors by 35%. But how do you keep up the quality of the show you might ask? Your first thought is to buy a bunch of animations but WRONG… animations break just like actors get tired. We focused on creating all scareboxes to access more areas of the haunted house so one actor can do the work of 2 or 3 actors. Furthermore, rather than adding tons of really expensive animations, we added 20 air cannons to Darkness and 30 to Creepyworld. Air cannons are the best animation money can buy and they’re the cheapest! Air cannons added a lot of screams and they almost NEVER break! Furthermore, we made all of our haunted house’s SHORTER… at Darkness we sold and removed the Hive which required 18 actors. In replacement of the Hive we built a mini golf and TWO more escape rooms that make 5 times more money than the secondary haunt while also requiring virtually no labor. At Creepyworld we removed two whole entire haunted houses and in 2021 we removed yet another haunt from the show.
Now you might be asking if our customers are happy about shortening the haunted experience. We actually got the best reviews ever by decreasing the length of the haunt, you also decrease the perception of how many actors you should or shouldn’t have. The biggest complaint is you don’t have enough actors, but when you shorten your show to accommodate the actual number of good actors you can employ you also improve the overall experience. Then when you create scareboxes that can access multiple zones of the haunt you create the perception of having twice as many live actors as before.
Today its not about how long the haunted house is but the experience of the overall attractions. At Creepyworld we’re replacing a haunted house with a video mapping attraction which requires NO actors and could end up being the most talked about and shared experience on social media. I would call that a win win! We want people sharing EXPERIENCES at our attractions because its not about SCREAMS it’s about giving your guests an amazing experience. I can promise you Creepyworld with fewer actors, fewer haunts, will get the best reviews we’ve ever had and it took 32 years to figure this out. The Darkness now has the most amazing gift store, arcade and museum with TONS of photo ops! The last impression is the best one for guests as they snap photos, buy t-shirts, and leave happy!
We’ve also gone heavy with special events, in 2020/21 we’ve DOUBLED our attendance for Krampus, Valentines and Scream Break attracting nearly 5,000 guests. Unlike many haunts around the country we attracted 5000 paying guests with ONE NIGHT ONLY events rather than opening for an entire weekend or across multiple weekends. This brings me to my next point, why are you open so many nights during the season. Why spend the money, wear and tear if the guests will come across fewer nights? We did MORE guests in 2020 than we did in 2019 across fewer nights, and fewer hours, with less marketing dollars, and the lowest number of actors ever!
The future of the haunted house industry is simple… open fewer nights, sell your tickets online where you can collect taxes, ticketing fees and collect your guests’ data for digital marketing. With digital marketing you can TARGET your customers reducing costs by 50 to 75%. Traditional media is over, no TV, no radio, and even billboard didn’t buy a single one. Why would we? We attracted 2000 guests to Bloody Valentines one night only event with about $3000 in digital marketing by simply targeting the people who are more likely to buy a ticket. Next Halloween our goal will be to reduce the cost per customer to $1.50 by simply targeting the most likely customer, rather than a broad approach. Couple reducing marketing, with reducing labor by creating scarezones for actors to work multiple angles, hiring just the best actors, adding tons of air cannons and lastly reducing the size of the haunted experience. With the space you remove from the haunt you add 5 minute escape rooms, zombie paintball, gift stores, pumpkin displays, photo opportunities all of which either increase revenue or guests experience.
PART 3: Conclusion and the EXIT
What is a typical haunted house? I can tell you… wait in a long line, finally you get in actors jump around and scream at guests, then they exit the last scene and boom they’re back on the street heading to their car. Isn’t that kind of anti-climactic? Today’s haunted house should look to reduce the size of the haunt and create space for a new ending one that doesn’t scare anyone but one that leaves the guests with the last chance to take pictures, do something or buy something!!! Minimum wages are going up no longer can haunts afford 150 actors, you must get down to 40 or 50 or 65 actors. There is an old saying more/bigger isn’t always better and in the case of the haunted house industry its dead on the money. At the end of the day today’s customers want a FUN experience, a SAFE experience, and finally the opportunity to experience cool stuff, take pictures look around in a gift store, or shoot some zombies with a paintball gun. Remember everything now escape or haunts is about the EXPERPEINCE not the puzzles not the screams but the overall EXPERIENCE.
After you visit the Transworld show in 2021 and then get back to your haunts remember this observation. We created a small Jack o Lantern display at the exit of Creepyworld where I noticed everyone crowding around taking photos. I realized upon witnessing thousands of people stopping just to snap the photos with carved pumpkins that people want opportunities to celebrate Halloween, then share them with their friends and family. In response Creepyworld will now have a MASSIVE PUMPKIN BARN as the exit, with 4 times as many carved pumpkins, and hopefully many more thrilled customers. Haunts are no longer about the SCREAMS they should be about the ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN EXPERIENCES. Many will buy seminar after seminar at haunted house tradeshows, or watch youtube videos, or read comments on facebook about how to grow your attendance and most of them will be wrong. There is no need for you to waste two seconds of your time or money just read this next sentence… GROW YOUR ATTENDANCE by focusing on creating the ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN EXPERIENCE! Create an EXIT strategy for your haunted house giving your guests the opportunity to capture HALLOWEEN on their phone then share it with all their friends. Create the conclusion to your haunted house with photo opportunities centered around a massive gift store, selling multiple versions of t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, masks, and everything you can put your logo on. Create 5 minute escape rooms, zombie paintball arena, anything that gives your guests another chance to create memories which can be shared.
Going forward target your audience and save marketing costs. Cut actors, hire the best ones, give those actors better options to scare MORE people by opening up access points. Add air cannons, tons of photo opportunities, buy a big monsters instead of putting in the haunt put them at the exit! The future has to be cutting costs, reducing operation days, reducing marketing, while at the same time INCREASING revenue and customers experience. Bigger isn’t better, scariest is no longer the bat signal but overall customer experience, where you create HALLOWEEN memories for HALLOWEEN fans!
Good luck in 2021 and Happy Hauntings
Larry Kirchner
PS: There is another Hauntworld Magazine on the way just after Transworld. Stay Tuned.
