All year round...

[Frightener]

So I'm new to the site. I'm going to do my first HH in 2012. I've been doing yard haunts and haunted parties for years. I've helped out at a local HH years ago and now I'm breaking into it next year full stream. However, I was wondering...

How many of you fellas run a year round attraction? I live in a town of 22k and 10 min's from a 60k town. EVERYONE at the local shops say they wish there was a year round event. I don't think I want to do one year round, but hey, if the demand is there and everything else spells ok, I may be interested in it.


Just raise your hand if you have / had one and if you have opinions, they'd be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

Frightener

[DarkTikiEntertainment]

http://www.hauntworld.com/haunted_ho...ght=year+round

[Jim Warfield]

Ravens Grin-Mount Carroll, Ill.

you will have to re-think some basic things to make this happen in my opinion, mostly about keeping the door open without having employees...
Read what I have already said or send me a message with questions.

[screamforadream]

If you wanted to do that, just do like a May-November thing. But advertise for parties/events. Have people make reservations ahead of time if they want "off season" dates.

[Badger]

There's a place near here that advertises being open year-round but if it's off season (November-August)you need to call at least 24 hours in advance to make reservations for your group so they can get enough actors who are sort of 'on call'. They also have an indoor mini golf and laser tag facility on site so they actually do other business during the year...

[Allen H]

How many of you fellas run a year round attraction?
I have worked (long term 2yrs and 5+years) at Terror on Church st and Skull Kingdom- both year round attractions in Orlando FL. Both of those were traditional haunted houses with a large number of actors. That equals high overhead. Fatal end haunted attraction I have worked with in the past in downtown Dallas T and they have the same structure. off season tour groups and tourists in town for conventions are the bread and butter of these attractions.
I think a shifted format into a museum of some kind might do better during most of the year and perhaps open a full haunt once a month for a holiday weekend.
Id be glad to speak with you further if you would like,
Allen Hopps
stiltbeast@gmail.com
469-337-4929



I live in a town of 22k and 10 min's from a 60k town. EVERYONE at the local shops say they wish there was a year round event. I don't think I want to do one year round, but hey, if the demand is there and everything else spells ok, I may be interested in it.

[jmullens1]

[QUOTE=Allen H;127779]How many of you fellas run a year round attraction?
I have worked (long term 2yrs and 5+years) at Terror on Church st and Skull Kingdom- both year round attractions in Orlando FL. Both of those were traditional haunted houses with a large number of actors. That equals high overhead. Fatal end haunted attraction I have worked with in the past in downtown Dallas T and they have the same structure. off season tour groups and tourists in town for conventions are the bread and butter of these attractions.
I think a shifted format into a museum of some kind might do better during most of the year and perhaps open a full haunt once a month for a holiday weekend.
Id be glad to speak with you further if you would like,
Allen Hopps
stiltbeast@gmail.com
469-337-4929

Hey Allen, My wife and I went to Skull Kingdom in Orlando on our honeymoon in July 2001. I thought that was the most awesome thing ever, a haunted house in July. I saw some videos of it recently on youtube. Very sad to see it all gone. Did you work there at that time?

[Allen H]

Yes, I worked at SkullKingdom for 97 on, they had some management and direction issues, but most nights they gave a really good show.
Allen H

[Tom]

Welcome Frightener,

I operated a pretty much year round attraction for 8 years.
Opened March (during springbreak) as a low scare family friendly haunt. Ran all spring/summer. Closed after Labor Day to get ready for the Halloween season. Opened in October for the searious haunt stuff. Closed after Halloween and converted to a Christmas theme. Opened from Thanksgiving black friday thru New Years Eve. Closed it up to change the theme back to a haunt and started again in March.
Of course I had a dark ride so it is a little different than a walk-thru but it worked out pretty well. Lots of animatronics with no actors in the spring/summer/Christmas. Then lots of actors added in at Halloween.
It's a lot of hard work. I mean "alot" of hard work.
Good luck.
Tom

[monsterwax]

Allen, I went to Skull Kingdom before they closed. Great sets, but I was there during off season and I got the impression it was only one or two actors for the entire thing (running around and playing multiple roles). Was that your memory of the off season operation set-up?

I feel really lucky I saw it, especially now that it's closed. I just wish I knew when it was shutting down so I could have bought some of the props-- just to continue to carry the torch, as it were.

[Allen H]

The later it was open, the worse it got. MAnagement did not care about the show much at all- and when Zia bought it Im pretty sure he drove it into the ground on purpose.
"Allen, I went to Skull Kingdom before they closed. Great sets, but I was there during off season and I got the impression it was only one or two actors for the entire thing (running around and playing multiple roles). Was that your memory of the off season operation set-up?"
The two man show started by accident, the majority of the cast did not show up from lunch break. Dan Carro and myself were the only ones who did- the a 400 person brazilian tour group showed up at the front door. Dan and I knew all the roles and we did a quick set up and then stared running the groups. there was no other way. We actually gave a really good show leapfrogging each other to hit the groups and clearing the que- Lots of scare forward so we could shorten the time spent on each group we had the 12min show down to 8- because they were hauling butt- and so were we to keep up.
We were unaware that the lunch crew showed up and were all fired (we were hoping for some relief). We ended up working from 12 to 6 non stop covering a 14,000 sqft haunt by ourselves. A four man show became the dayshift standard and that eventually went to a two man show as management continued to cut back on staff.
I never made the auction either as I was in Texas already,
Allen H

[monsterwax]

So you had a 400 group tour bus stick around for six hours waiting for everyone to go through? (They probably did other things on the strip while others were inside.) I remember the manager was very cagy about saying how many actors were there at the time... it because obvious why as we went through! Still, it had a lot of eye candy and I bet it was quite thrilling with a full cast!

[Allen H]

No, takes about two and a half hours to move them through- groups of 15-20 every 8min or so. Six hours is rediculous for a wait time.

[Jim Warfield]

Wait Time?, "Once Upon a Wait time..."

I had a parking lot full, most waited 3 hours to get in The Ravens Grin Inn. Many of them had driven 3 hours to get here from Chicago. Some couldn't stick it out, drove back to Chicago, drove back the next night, waited maybe another hour til they got in.
Back then my exit was only 20 feet from my entrance. As the exiting customers came of of the big skull mouth those who had been waiting in the line to get in would holler to them and ask, "Is it worth it? "
The exiting new customers would each smile and enthusiastically say , "YES!"
Which would then have those still waiting frown, look down at the pavement and mildly curse that they were just basically forced to hold their spot, bide their time because they MUST see what was inside that could have inspired such enthusiasm and a positive response.
I never turned ticket holders away no matter how late it got.
I discovered that it was much harder to entertain those who entered the house at daybreak after drivng, and waiting so long.

[Frightener]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's very helpful in deciding which direction we may take this. I think I'm just going to wait till 2012 season to kick off, and just take it from there.


Jim, I've been blabbering a lot about your place. I think I got my family interested in going. Especially my brother, he'll be my partner in my haunt next year. When would be a good time to come by?


Dewayne