Combo tickets

[SCfearfarm]

Just about everyone has combo tickets of some sort.....and they work.....however more and more people are starting to sell ONLY combo tickets. Does that not just make it general admission again?! Anyway....I realize that most people buy the combo ticket at most haunts, but as a customer I really didn't like the idea of not being able to "opt out" of one of the attractions if I wanted to. For the haunt owner it works well because the "weakest" of the haunts or attractions on the property still gets its cut of the pie even though the attraction was not as good. But in line at a major haunt last night (we dont open until next weekend) I heard quite a few complaints that "well i only want to do one attraction, but I'm having to pay to do all 3" HOWEVER......they did not leave and bought the tickets, so I guess the haunt accomplished its "up-sell". I just wanted to know what you guys thought about this and if anyone else offers a "combo ticket" as the ONLY option?

[wickedfarmer]

Yes...thats just general admission in my book.

We do a true combo. A non haunted corn maze and then the Trail of Terror. "Laugh in the maze OR scream on the Trail of Terror" Do both for $15.

[SCfearfarm]

I just wanted to bump this thread back up because everyone was really busy when I first posted it. We are debating on adding a second attraction for next year and looking for input. How many of you offer a true combo ticket like wickedfarmer where you can do Example...the house for $12 or the trail for $12 but the combo ticket is only $18 or something of that sort. A lot of "combo tickets" in my area as I mentioned are "4 attractions for $22-$30" But you have to do all 4.....so someone with only 15 dollars to spend can not even come to yours, they have to go somewhere else. Also, what percentage of your customer buys the combo ticket? I would figure at least 80%? We want to keep our haunt affordable in the bad economy as our area is still at around 14-15% unemployment but people really want us to add a 2nd attraction. Any advice/pros and cons/ etc. would really be appreciated as we are starting to plan this thing out for next year. Thanks.

[Mike Goff]

These are things that we spend a great deal of time thinking about. All haunters probably do. Something to consider, we haunters don't always have an over abundance of parking, if you are taking up a space in our parking lot, we want to provide as much incentive as possible to get you to buy the combo ticket. We still give the option for buying just one attraction, but we would love to take that option away, when the time is right, we probably will.

[RobfromErie]

My thoughts, not as a haunt owner, but as an actor who is often consulted by the owner.

Stick with the general admission or combo only.

You want to be able to make as much as possible, but if you have separate prices for separate haunts, you might get people from last year who only buy a ticket to the new haunt. "I saw that other one last year, let's just buy a ticket to the new part".

[HauntedMemphis]

My thoughts, not as a haunt owner, but as an actor who is often consulted by the owner.

Stick with the general admission or combo only.

You want to be able to make as much as possible, but if you have separate prices for separate haunts, you might get people from last year who only buy a ticket to the new haunt. "I saw that other one last year, let's just buy a ticket to the new part".

We did see some of that. However, we saw even more of the opposite. Single tickets to the oldest, most established event outsold combo tickets by far.

Our pricing structure was as follows:
Event 1 (oldest event): $10
Event 2: $8
Event 3 (new event): $8
Combo of all 3: $20

Event 1 outsold combos.
Combos were the second most common purhcase.
Event 3 was the least purchased for single tickets.

Added Note: The ticket booth was a fairly good walk away from the 3 events. (It was at the parking lot and all three events were a walk down a trail.) A number of people bought a ticket to one events, wanted to know about buying a ticket for a second event at the event, but didn't want to walk back to the ticket booth and back. I don't know it caused a lot of lost sales, but it definately caused some, so if you are hoping to get follow on sales from one event to another, make sure additional ticketing is convenient for customers.

[Bradenton Haunted Trail]

Combo

Hello and we are adding a second haunt for next year and maybe a 3rd but we will always sell single haunt tickets for this reason alone. We had several people go through once and then come and buy a season pass after they went through. So if they buy 1 haunt at first and go "man that was awesome lets go to the other one too now" you have just made more money off that one customer. And if they can not afford the price of a combo ticket you have kept your price point low enough for them to go to a Haunted Attraction.

Shawn
http://www.twistedwoods.com

[Raycliff Manor]

I'd recommend that you offer the individual haunt ticket option and the discounted combo option. Last year we removed the option to purchase tickets to the haunts individually and we took a hit because of it. I had posed the question on this forum before making a decision and the advice I received was hands down in favor of only offering the combo. I followed this advice and, again, it turned out to be a very bad decision for our area. Of course the economy worsened since I posed the question and it may have been good advice based on haunt experiences and history at that time. This year we went back to offering a ticket to Raycliff Manor for $13, a ticket to the Carriage House for $7 and a combo ticket to both attractions for $17 (a $3 savings). It's surprising how many people will buy a ticket to one haunt, go through it and love it, and then come back to the ticket window and purchase a ticket to the other. They end up spending more in the long run. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is this; unless you do so much business that you're trying to shorten your lines and save space in your parking lot, I would recommend you give people the option to purchase individual or combo tickets. I hope this helps!

Kel