Who's Open This weekend (NOV 2, 3)?

[drfrightner]

We're open and we've promoted this ALL SEASON so we'll see how it goes. Our web hits DROPPED OFF LIKE A ROCK! We've had about 600 hits to Scarefest so far today (3pm). Normally we would have over 3 or 4k by this time.

I'm sure its a sign of things to come...

We'll see!

Larry

[TheKeeper]

We're also open this year on Nov. 2nd and 3rd. We've had all new commercials on the radio since midnight on Nov 1st promoting that even though Halloween might be over, they're still not safe from the terror, etc etc.

Our site hits are down as well, but there is still talk about the haunt. Just yesterday we hit all the major malls and movie theaters with our hearse and zombies in costume. Everyone either had already gone, heard, or were planning on going this weekend. Most were coming to US asking for coupons.

For the first year being in a new city, I think we've really made it know!

[Midnight13]

We are open this weekend doing a new promotion: Flashlight Fright Nights. All the lights at The 13th Gate are off and customers have to go through with 1 or 2 LED fingerlights per group. We have been promoting it for the last 2 weeks.

We started it last night and it may be something that we continue every year after Halloween. I think it is a great way to extend your season out past Halloween for a weekend or two. I have never seen so many people so genuinely terrorified in 13 years of scaring people.

Here is a commerical we made to promote the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYDQYYOujko


Dwayne Sanburn
13th Gate

[drfrightner]

Sounds like a great idea Dwayne! Special promotions for this weekend might actually be the trick! I wish I had thought of something cool to do but didn't.

Our web hits are up some we're up to something like a 1000 since I last posted. But at this time on any other night we'd have atleast 4,000.

I'm only expecting 600 or so people... I will report later tonight.

Next year Halloween is on a Friday so I'm sure everyone will be open on Saturday. I'm sure that Saturday will be normal and very busy.

Next year you get almost FIVE weekends in October!

Larry

[Barry]

Given the overhead of our attraction it is not worth it for us to open after Halloween.

As far as website hits here are a few from ScaryOhio.com to give you an idea of the dropoff:

Last Friday 38,440 hits and 1377 unique visitors.
Today 5,229 hits and 181 unique visitors.

It does not seem that many people are looking for places to go today...

[Smiley]

By popular demand, we've opened our doors for the 2nd & 3rd. However, that demand hasn't been as popular as previously thought. Since we had a long run this October, some of us at Pain's are glad that things are slowing down to a more comfortable speed.

[screamshow]

We decided to extend as well.

Tonight (Friday) was horrifically slow but it was fun if nothing else. Hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better.

[drfrightner]

Friday night we had a pretty good night... about 900 to each of our two haunts. Hoping to do better tonight. Doing 1,800 is worth opening to me any day of the week or year! LOL

Larry

[Rick]

We should have ....

We were going to open this weekend and decided against it, turned out to be a bad move. There were tons of people who assumed we would be open and made the drive out anyway. Our city hall and police dept. were fielding phone calls and inquiries about our hours of operation. Seems like we lost alot revenue.

By the way, thanks Dwayne for the special treatment the 13th Gate showed the Terror Test crew when we came to visit. I meant to drop you an email, but I got lost in the season. I really appreciate what you guys did. You are a first class operation and an inspiration to us.

The Terror Test

[Jim Warfield]

This October was the year of us picking up business because we were open and some others were not with some of those people driving many hours just to get here.
I don't ever remember this happening nearly as much before???

[Midnight13]

We had almost 5000 people after Halloween (Thursday, Friday, Sat) for Flashlight Fright Nights. I can't believe how many people wanted to do this. Not only was it exciting and new for our customers, but our actors had a blast also. This is something that we will definitely do every year after Halloween from now on.

Throughput was slow (people were afraid to move) but they didn't break a single thing in the haunted house (no security calls either) because they were too afraid to touch anything and basically stayed huddled in their group.

Dwayne
13th Gate

p.s. Thanks Rick. See you at Transworld.

[s.fc90]

So I guess this weekend was the official last weekend of haunting season. After tonight it's all over?

[drfrightner]

We did not open on Thursday however between Friday and Saturday we did about 3,600 people so well worth it.

Larry