Thursday's vs Sundays

[bhays]

I have noticed that most of the other haunts in our area are doing Thu/Fri/Sat this season whereas we have always done Fri/Sat/Sun. This is cool as we will get a chance to go to a couple other haunts this year.

However, what led you to choose Thu nights to be open over Sun, or vice versa. I am considering going from Sun to Thur next season and wanted to hear what others have to say.

[Joedog]

If we were not just slap exausted from the 5 1/2 day full build we would do thursdays BUT 90% of our crew has real jobs we could possibly do a thursday and use sunday as meant to be (a day of rest) puling 3 nights in a row then facing a week of work will make you OLD quicker than you would want,

We have always been open both Thursdays and Sundays. Thursdays have traditionally been slower for us, but Sundays are usually pretty good nights. We are considering not opening on Thursdays next year except for the last week of the month.

Howie "Slobber" Erlich
Deadly Intentions Haunted House
www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com

[Barry]

Sundays have never been good for us so we dropped them a number of years ago. Thursdays are OK but only the last few of the month so we dropped the first couple of them as well.

[SpFXChic]

We do both. At the beginning of the month, both are fairly slow...they get busier toward the end of them month. They are both pretty much equal for us in attendance, but if I had to pick one, I'd vote for dropping Sundays, simply because we're tired by the end of the weekend and we still have to get up and go to our day jobs on Monday morning.

[Greg Chrise]

I would compare overall attendance numbers of the other haunts doing Thursday and yours. One theory posed to me has been that the fewer nights run the better so the cast is not worn out. They can only be at the top of their game so many hours and somehow this equates to better word of mouth and more over all customers?

This year we dropped Thursdays. Like it is better to go directly into a busy night and have a better show rather than have to readjust to one from a boring night. If their is a slow night it would be after when the actors are slumping. Or on Sundays their are fewer actors as some might need the day of rest to go to work.

[Raycliff Manor]

This year we dropped one Thursday and we'll be open this coming Thursday and next Thursday. The only Sunday we'll be open is on the Sunday before Halloween, but we are taking Monday before Halloween and calling Halloween our Encore Performance. Our Thursday's in the past have typically been much slower than Friday and Saturday.

Kel

[Jim Warfield]

The difference in customers from Sat. night to Sunday afternoon is astounding!
From aggressive drunks to scared little kids with grandpa.
I like the rest I usually get on a Sunday like that, little kids seeing their first haunted house.
If I impress them and treat them nice, who knows how much future income just a handfull of happy growing customers could financially add up to?
Closed Sundays? Opportunity missed.

[Midnight13]

Because we have our biggest night on Saturday, this is also when we have the most damages. Because of this we don't open Sundays. This gives us Sunday-Wed to fix everything. Thursday is light so we have a light maintenance schedule Friday morning. It would be hell on us to try to get everything ready after a busy Saturday night to get open for the next night (plus everyone is exhausted).

[John Coen]

We are open on Sundays but close an hour earlier. That gets the actors home at a decent hour for work the next day and we found that after 10 p.m. the attendance really decreases.