2nd Trip for Half Price???

[Raycliff Manor]

We're tossing around an idea to offer a second trip through Raycliff Manor, or both attractions, for half price on the last Friday, or both Friday and Saturday night of the last weekend to generate additional sales. We're trying to determine a relatively easy way to manage this. We've never done this before, but it might be a great way do increase revenue. Has anyone ever done this and, if so, what were the arrangements? Our concern is that offering people to bring their stub back to the ticket window for a half price ticket could result in people giving their stubs to others. If we have them pay for the full deal up front, they can go through once and give a punched stub to someone else as well. We're thinking about arm bands, but then we'd have to physically put the bands on them at the ticket window and have the ticket taker cut the bands off on their second trip through. With two attractions, we'd have to have two armbands... one for each attraction. Any ideas or suggestions? Your insights and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Kel

[HauntedPaws]

Black light stamp custom pattern. Be sure you change it yearly or weekly too. Kids can be slick and buy the same stamp online themselves if you didn't get a custom one.

[Karl Fields]

Kelly,
First question that comes to mind is why the last weekend? You know these will be the biggest numbers of the season anyway.

Now on to not answering your question directly, but we have a small ticket booth in the middle of our compound. There customers who already have an entry ticket to get that far in, can buy tokens to get into all the upcharge events (7 or 8 of them) plus discounted corn maze tickets and lastly they can buy re-entry into any of the haunted houses at a discounted price. We change colors of the tokens regularly to prevent taking them home and giving them someone else.

We're tossing around an idea to offer a second trip through Raycliff Manor, or both attractions, for half price on the last Friday, or both Friday and Saturday night of the last weekend to generate additional sales. We're trying to determine a relatively easy way to manage this. We've never done this before, but it might be a great way do increase revenue. Has anyone ever done this and, if so, what were the arrangements? Our concern is that offering people to bring their stub back to the ticket window for a half price ticket could result in people giving their stubs to others. If we have them pay for the full deal up front, they can go through once and give a punched stub to someone else as well. We're thinking about arm bands, but then we'd have to physically put the bands on them at the ticket window and have the ticket taker cut the bands off on their second trip through. With two attractions, we'd have to have two armbands... one for each attraction. Any ideas or suggestions? Your insights and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Kel

[HauntedPaws]

Kids, teens, young adults, and adults save disposable income for entertainment. Being as your seasonal it's not something they can do whenever so don't discount to much. Some haunts in my area have a 5-6hr waiting line do going again the same night isn't an option. Might try a small group rate like 6 or 8 for 25% off. Or buy 4 get 2 50% off.

[HauntedMemphis]

I've seen a haunt do armbands for unlimited reentry for nights early in the season, but not sure about discounts for the last weekend of the month. (Not to mention the "one reentry" option being tougher logistically.

[MidnightEvil]

When I was with The Haunted Vineyard
The ticket taker would tear the ticket and
stamp your hand. At the ticket booth you
need your ticket stub and hand stamp
to get a half priced ticket. The ticket seller
would take a sharpie and write 1/2 on the back.

Now back in line when someone came up
with a half priced ticket they would need the
hand stamp to use it. So you just need a hand
stamp and a sharpie not a big cost.

Half priced tickets were only sold on slow nights
and no lines it was on the a hour by hour basis

[mikeq91]

From my experience, going through a second time for people is an impulse buy. They just made it through your haunt running and screaming, are still on the adrenaline high, and they exclaim to their friends- "Wanna do that again?!". It's the same reason people buy pictures of themselves after roller coasters. I think that catching people at this point is the key, and that very few people would be willing to buy two up front. I mean, unless they're loyal fans, for all they know your haunt could suck this year, and now they have to go through again. But once they make it through, have a good time and are still on that rush, they might be willing to give it another shot. As for logistics, when we did it we put a coupon on the ticket because we were a much smaller haunt and were encouraging people to give them to their friends, but this probably wouldn't be a good idea for a larger, more established haunt. Best of luck.

[HauntedOzarks]

Hey Kelly -- We're just west and south of you in Branson and in our second season. We use armbands as tickets and both last year and this year ran a deal where as long as the ticket buyer still had their armband on, they could go back through again at half price. It turned out to work very well as we had people going through 3 - 4 times, sometimes in one night! So I think it can really work for repeat business. We also had people come back a different night, still wearing their armbands and they brought friends that were new ticket buyers. So in our case, it worked!

[HauntedPaws]

You need to use wristbands like these then. A few may slip them off and give them out but not enough to matter.

http://www.wristco.com/?gclid=CKyEyf...FQJ-5Qod7y3IMA

[zombietoxin]

...or you could have your tickets printed (assuming you have printed tickets) with a punch-out spot marked 1/2 price or discount night. These used tickets, when presented at the ticket booth on the right night, are punched out and a new ticket is presented for 1/2 price. Then its just business as usual at the front door.

ZTTickFTGenFinal2011.jpg

[Raycliff Manor]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! We've been so busy with the attractions I'm just getting caught up again! We were thinking the last weekend because historically our last weekend actually isn't our busiest; the one before it is typically our busiest. With Halloween being on a Monday this year, that could change though. Our first year Halloween was on a Monday, but the first year is always a tough one to predict as far as attendance goes. Time has gotten away from us and we may not have time to try this out this year, but I really do appreciate the feedback and insights and I'm keeping it all in mind for next year if we don't act on it this season. I hope everyone is having a safe and hugely successful haunt season and thanks again!

Kel

[Jim Warfield]

Those Second-timers!

That I have had come right back through my house , often later became not only "Fans" but also employees!
Very few people do the return tour right away because it takes at least an hour to go through the house, and most have driven an hour or more to get here, so the "Math" is not condusive anyway you might figure it.
When they do make a return sometime later . it's always amusing to me to hear them tell me about all the "New" stuff here since their last visit.
They are mistaken about this most of the time. I just have so much odd stuff here that they can't notice or remember it all, and this is with the lights "On" and no chasing them through the house.
Then those totally wrong memories they tell me about that have Never been here or hapened here!?
"I remember coming out of your house through the yellow taxi cab, right next to the front door!"
Nope. Never, ever happened, no exit, no passageway, tunnel, nothing, never happened right there.
Then those stories about them laying in a coffin or bathtub and them the bottom dropped out? Never.
I guess I'm succeeding in putting them mentally into a whole diffrent reality and then those ideas come with that?

[RJ Productions]

Honestly I can not see the sense in offering a discounted a return ticket??? IF the customer really wants to experience the show again, they can buy another ticket. Once you start offering the discount return ticket you have everyone trying to find ways to beat the system. You spend additional time and money on a ticket that you are discounting!!

Also I find it will increase the chances of incidents with actors and prop damage. We had a guy go through, buys a second ticket to go through trying to "scare" the actors and disrupt the show because now he knows what to expect! A haunt I know had an all night pass. Every time he had incidents with prop damage it was by a person who had an all night pass!!!

If someone really likes the attraction and wants to legitimately see it again, they'll buy a ticket...at full price!

[spookhaven]

We have done it for 4 years now. We did it with a ticket stub presentation our normal ticket price is 10.00 and with previously purchased stub the last weekend you get admission for 7.00. We only get about 50 back. This is not our busiest weekend so it works well for us. And you really aren't loosing that much money.

[Chad Portenga]

When I was with The Haunted Vineyard
The ticket taker would tear the ticket and
stamp your hand. At the ticket booth you
need your ticket stub and hand stamp
to get a half priced ticket. The ticket seller
would take a sharpie and write 1/2 on the back.

Now back in line when someone came up
with a half priced ticket they would need the
hand stamp to use it. So you just need a hand
stamp and a sharpie not a big cost.

Half priced tickets were only sold on slow nights
and no lines it was on the a hour by hour basis

This is similar to how we used to do "repeats" at The Haunted Hall. For 2011, we tried something new. We offered a VIP pass for the early weekends. It allowed you to skip the lines (like a FastPass at an amusement park) and unlimited entry. You had to buy it to get the VIP wristband, so if you bought the standard "once only" ticket, you would have to buy the full VIP if you wanted the VIP later. The VIP was about 50% more than a standard ticket. We saw VIP ticket sales skyrocket compared to "repeats" from past years. (The final 2 weekends, the VIP ticket ONLY gave you the fast pass - NOT unlimited, and we noticed a marked drop in those ticket sales. We're looking at changes to this program for 2012 to increase profits).