BS Haunt Reveiws

[Jordan24]

After opening this morning's newspaper I noticed the anual write ups on the area's haunts.

In our are there is only one other commercial haunt besides us and then the theme parks.

But we were reviewed by a guy who admittingly told us he didn't attend our event? And we were given a lower rating than the competition, which is also BS and untrue.

I guess having the cash on your side gets you a long way... Hopefully that fake review won't hurt us too much...

Has anyone else delt with issues like this?

[WelchWitch]

Reviews

Yes, it happens here. Problem here are some of the reviews come from biased and controlled locations. I have chosen to ignore it and read between the lines. I find that so far we never really needed them to begin with. We are doing awesome job with high turnout and repeats visits. So I guess, that the bark was worse then the bite. If you do a great job, you don't need someone telling you that you do a great job. Word of mouth travels faster then any print. Hard thing is you want to say something to let it be known, but at that point you would be stooping down to that level and wasting your energy. I think that if someone were to read their review and then go to the house or have someone else go to the house and see the difference in review, he could be looked at as non creditable at some point and have that karma come around and bit him in the ass. Keep in mind money can only buy so much. At some point, people will see past the approvals and BS and see them for who they are.

[Slain]

top haunts

Guys, This is the same thing when you go to America's Best Haunts or Best Haunted Houses...
What ever the gimic is this year..
No one reviews anyone. Its what is in your pocket they care about. Our haunt could be listed as Americas Best's for $5000.. Whether your running a 1000 square foot haunt or 50,000. All you got to do is pay for it. No one will come review anything...

[Speculo]

Well I did and Atrox was awsome!

Thanks!

[PAT MATTHEWS/HOUSE OF WAX]

The reviewers are getting worse each yr. They know they got you by the wallet. ive never had one as bad as not show and see the show they review but we have had a few stupid reviewers in the past. A few yrs back I had 1 give me a bad review as he put it " I was too terrified to see anything I covered my eyes and missed the whole show" Or how about 1/2 the team was too scared to enter and they took off points. Yep ive seen that a few times as well. I think there are a few good reviewers out there but many more who are outta control. God help you if they are personal friends with a rival haunt.

[Jolly Pumpkin]

A way you can find out if a review site is one you can trust is if you go to the website www.hauntreviewersassociation.com. I'm a haunt reviewer with my website City Blood-Ohio Haunt Reviews and created that association about a year and a half ago. It lets people know which review sites they can trust.

[Ghoultastic]

Do you guys have any tips for those who are reviewing houses?


Should a reviewer take notes in the house, or once out of the house?

[Mike Goff]

In the scheme of things, I don't think that reviews have that big of an impact on the number of tickets a haunt sells. Sure a haunt can lean on a good review and say look what so and so said about us. Who can blame them if they did. Word of mouth will make you or break you regardless of a review.

In our neck of the woods, I think that the guys doing the reviews are honest and generally know what they are talking about. The only complaint that I have, and it is not really that big of a deal, is that if they want to get an accurate sample of what the average customer experiences, then they need to come unannounced. In a perfect world the reviewers would get thier tickets in advance possibly by mail and then just show up.

Reason being is that, as things are, they get a stacked show. I went to a show 4 years ago, about 2 hours away. They sucked so bad I swore I would never go back, not that I'm cheap, but I wasted my time going there, when I could have went somewhere else. Because of a review, I decided to give them another chance. I had heard rumers of new management and so off we went.

Heres what happened, my wife and I were number 29 and 30 in a 50 person cattle line. The first 4 or 5 people probably got a descent show the rest of us felt like we had experienced a night in prison with a guy named bubba.

I have been to many shows that can file people through like cattle and still give them a good show, this was not one of those places. Had I reviewed this place I would have made the suggestion to stop placing state wide media buys, and put the money into the show. Usually when I leave a show that isn't all that good, I feel a sense of confidence about my own show. That night I was just mad, I got screwed!

I have no doubt the reviewers were first in line, saw everything, and the actors got fair warning of thier presence.

[shawnc]

But we were reviewed by a guy who admittingly told us he didn't attend our event? And we were given a lower rating than the competition, which is also BS and untrue.

At the very least I would point this out to the editor and publisher and demand a retraction and correction. Even in this day and age the media is supposed to have some standards. Word getting around that they did something like this would hurt their image among their readers, especially those who don't go to haunts. That's why they would want to do the right thing.

The reviewer may get points for honesty but probably won't be reviewing anything else. How can you review something you didn't see? "Well, I heard it was a really good (or bad) movie/haunt/concert from friends. Did you actually want me to go see it before I reviewed it, Mr. Editor?"

[Randy Schadel]

The mass media is notorious for reviewing haunts they haven't been to (or plan on going to, for that matter). In Cincinnati, they run the gamut-TV stations use stock footage from an event taken 5 years earlier (and none of which you'll find in any of the haunts currently). Newspapers have written reviews for haunts that hadn't even opened by the time the stories ran. They also run reviews that mention rooms from years past that no longer exist-the most blatant example being when 1031 Productions took over the Dent Schoolhouse, gave it a complete refit and retheme, and got a review that did nothing but mention the attraction as it was under the previous owner. They also routinely spell the names of actors, staff, and characters wrong. It's just lazy, sloppy journalism-and in the Cincy market, a story/review in the local paper still carries an impact.

[DamienReaper]

Your right Randall

The mass media will never take time to review a haunt because they not interested with the art of it. They think it's haunted house every haunts is the same fake blood, dead bodies. Like me being on Mertomix's cover which is great
they misspelled my name I think they called me Damon the Reaper,Or call Bludzo, Bloodzo or whatever. They misspelled the doll girl's real name in it too so I made a comment on there website to change it. So I mean you, Ohio Valley,City Blood ect take time and find out about the actors,owner ,rooms because you guys CARE about the haunt business. Word of mouth helps alot, too. Youtube is the best for a haunt to show updates and show your self as a actor ect. Working for Dent has been a blessing for my career anyways.

I belive in the mass media there will never be respect because we have no A list actor from hollywood. What I learned is Ohio is the birth place of Haunted Houses (as a business) WAIF, St Rita's Haunted House ect. Someone should do a Documentary on haunted houses in the midwest with St. Rita's, USS NIghtmare, Haunted Hydro, Dent schoolhouse, Land of Illusion,The Chambers of Horror,Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall, Sandyland Acres Haunted Hayride and down the line where they made such an impact in there communities over 30's years. The owners and some actors who are also apart of this great job we live for. I'm proud to be apart of that for 11 years.

That should be all covered in the mass media too. After that and put on youtube or a DVD maybe people would more respect us like other entertainments
we work harder than a theater, movie ,tv actor.

That my say

[Badger]

I think it was Ronald Reagan who said "Given the choice betwen the critics and the box-office, I'll take the box office every time."

If you're doing well via word of mouth, advertising, and actually having a quality haunt, then it doesn't matter what a reviewer says. The public ultimately decides if a haunt is successful or not.

I would bet that there are reporters told to go review a huant that hate being scared and therefore would write a poor review because they were terrified and/or embarassed by going through.

[WelchWitch]

A way you can find out if a review site is one you can trust is if you go to the website www.hauntreviewersassociation.com. I'm a haunt reviewer with my website City Blood-Ohio Haunt Reviews and created that association about a year and a half ago. It lets people know which review sites they can trust.

That's not true at all. I see on the list an example of how that isn't true and shows how you can buy anything to make you look better then you are. I was hoping that they weren't there, but alas, hmmm they are. You might be one that is trustworthy, but you are with company that is not and is buying their way into it.

[WelchWitch]

I think it was Ronald Reagan who said "Given the choice betwen the critics and the box-office, I'll take the box office every time."

If you're doing well via word of mouth, advertising, and actually having a quality haunt, then it doesn't matter what a reviewer says. The public ultimately decides if a haunt is successful or not.

I would bet that there are reporters told to go review a huant that hate being scared and therefore would write a poor review because they were terrified and/or embarassed by going through.

That would be a new way to promote your own haunt. "PROUDLY SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF THE MEDIA FOR YEARS!!"

[HauntedMemphis]

That's not true at all. I see on the list an example of how that isn't true and shows how you can buy anything to make you look better then you are. I was hoping that they weren't there, but alas, hmmm they are. You might be one that is trustworthy, but you are with company that is not and is buying their way into it.

Actually, the Haunt Reviewer's association isn't a company, and reviewers don't buy their way into it. However, I agree, there is no real guarantee or standards to ensure that a member reviewer is unbiased or honest. As stated right on the HRA site, these are the requirements:
*Is your review site unbiased in reviewing haunts?
* Is the information on your site accurate to the best of your knowledge?
* Are you courteous to haunts and visitors of your site who may email you?
* Do you try to help haunts and review sites in your community?
* Do you try to update your site frequently?
* Do you review at least 10 haunts a year?

Since all of the information is self volunteered, if you are willing to lie on your application, you can get in. If you are willing to lie and cheat on reviews, I'm sure you are willing to lie and cheat on the application.

And Jolly Pumpkin doesn't just belong to the HRA, he started it. He has the right intentions trying to bring some standards and respectibility to haunt reviewing, but it is more easily said than done. When even the website for the HRA espouses the perks you might get out of haunts, I think it's a doomed venture.

I went the other way when reviewing and made sure to tell readers that I buy a ticket and see the show just like everyone else, so I get the same show they do.