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    I was wondering what precentage of people you get that start the haunted house but are unable to continue and have to take one of the exits to saftey?

    So if any of you pros out there keep statistics or at least an estimate of out of every 100 how many fail to make it to the end I would love to hear your results.

    You can look at it as a bragging right.
    www.walkthroughbedlam.com

  • #2
    We had over 460 people not make it all the way through the haunt. More than 400 never made it past the first hall. We also had 41 confirmed pissers, 6 poopers and 9 vomiters, and 67 line outs (Never even made it inside).

    Howie "Slobber" Erlich
    Deadly Intentions Haunted House
    www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com
    Chris Riehl
    Sales@spookyfinder.com
    (586)209-6935
    www.spookyfinder.com

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    • #3
      Oh my
      - - Luke - -

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      • #4
        I am the greeter in one of our houses. Last night I had like 5 people not get through my room and have to leave. In a way its good and bad. Good, you think "Wow, I scared them out of their minds." And bad, "Crud, now those people won't get to see the house."
        Creepers Haunted House- The creepiest haunted house in the Southeast.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Howie Slobber Erlich
          We had over 460 people not make it all the way through the haunt. More than 400 never made it past the first hall. We also had 41 confirmed pissers, 6 poopers and 9 vomiters, and 67 line outs (Never even made it inside).
          Those are pretty big numbers, how many total people came to the haunt though. So a precentage can be calculated
          www.walkthroughbedlam.com

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          • #6
            I had one little girl need to leave the first room even after we brought out the "puppy" and she semed calmed greatly. The happy ending is , she returned with her Grandma about ten minutes later and she was still somewhat upset but made it through.
            I just rescued a future patron.
            I also saved giving them or arguing about any refund.
            $

            I was 25 miles from here today buying some new shoes and the woman who has been seling me shoes for the last ten years told me she and her daughter were "lost" ended up driving passed my house as I stood next to the front door.
            Her 23 yr. old daughter took one look and said, "That's enough, Mom! Get me outa here!" and away they sped.
            "Mom" has been here a couple of times and loves the place.
            hauntedravensgrin.com

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            • #7
              OgeXam,

              I am not about to give our attendance numbers on a public forum such as this. We had a pretty good year. Not our best numbers but far from our worst. We we up 1100 people over last year. I will say that the number who did not make it through went down by about 70 this year over last.

              Howie
              Chris Riehl
              Sales@spookyfinder.com
              (586)209-6935
              www.spookyfinder.com

              Comment


              • #8
                My October was down this year. Down during world Series Friday (just like many others that night) and down, I think, because of a cold October and some cold rainey nights.
                The Spring and summer was feast or famine from month to month, highest month ever followed by worst month ever following the price of gasoline. Grr! Of course we all know getting 4 "F"s on your report card and one "A" doesnot an honor student make.
                The good month didnot overcome the loss of the bad month(s)
                hauntedravensgrin.com

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                • #9
                  This was my first year doing a pro haunt, I went for a high scare factor and ended up with about a 10% chicken out rate. To many people were chickening out so we started doing custom scares where people could request a low scare, no scare or escorted scare.
                  The Future is looking Scare E

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                  • #10
                    Potential "Chickens" are told to remain in the back of the group.
                    I encourage people bringing small children here to be here early in the night or on Sat. & Sun. afternoons.
                    Sometimes I have a couple of afternoon tours filled with parents, grandparents and little kids....they all paid the same admission, $10.oo
                    Usually a group like this is not drunk or abusive so I just made a small percentage more profit not needing to repair things.
                    It is more effort trying to be all things to all people but if I wasn't doing it this way I would have to figure on getting by with probably 20% less income.
                    hauntedravensgrin.com

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                    • #11
                      The haunting paradox, people pay us for entertainment in the form of scaring them, and if we are REALLY successful then we potentially lose them as a future customer.

                      For example, consider the numbers Howie posted. 56 confirmed "accidental discharges" and another 527 people who purchased tickets and failed to see the entire show. For the sake of easy math, instead of the 56 confirmed accidents, lets pretend that the staff missed a few (easy enough to imagine) and round that number up to 60. Let us further assume (for the sake of arguement) that all 60 will never return, and that 25% of the failures (or 132) were so traunamtized by their experience that they too are now ex-customers.

                      This gives us a grand total of 192 lost year 2 customers. Let's round that up to 200 to make the math easy. Assuming that the rates above hold, and that each customer spends $12 total, Howie will have lost the following customers and revenue:

                      Year: ONE
                      Lost Customers: 200
                      Total Lost Customers: 200
                      Revenue Lost: $0

                      Year: TWO
                      Existing Lost Customers: 200
                      New Lost Customers: 200
                      Total Lost Costumers: 400
                      Revenue Lost: $2400

                      Year: THREE
                      Existing Lost Customers: 400
                      New Lost Customers: 200
                      Total Lost Customers: 600
                      Year Revenue Lost: $4800
                      Total Revenue Lost: $7200

                      Year: FOUR
                      Existing Lost Customers: 600
                      New Lost Customers: 200
                      Total Lost Customers: 800
                      Year Revenue Lost: $7200
                      Total Revenue Lost: $14,400

                      Year: FIVE
                      Existing Lost Customers: 800
                      New Lost Customers: 200
                      Total Lost Customers: 1000
                      Year Revenue Lost: $9600
                      Total Revenue Lost: $24,000

                      This Haunt then enters year six knowing up front that they have sacrificed 1000 customers that they MIGHT have had (in a perfect world). Of course, the above generously assumes that these lost customers wont negatively influence anyone else into not attending, but in the real world they do.

                      This is obviously the big haunt delema. How do you provide an entertaining experience for the majority without overscaring the minority? If you tone it down to the point at which the terrified become calm, then the average person will be bored. But if you don't then you need to rely on a steady influx of new faces that exceeds the number you lose each year.
                      "To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful." Robert A. Heinlein

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Smacky, It sounds sort of like the tavern business. Sell booze to make money but you want them not to be aggressively drunk, sick or kill themselves driving home(This costs customers, perminently!), then you tell them to stop drinking and get out! Goodbye income.
                        Maybe having food in the tavern would spread the profit potential?

                        Smacky, you need to just add another dimension to your show, such as humor, maybe some history? Artifacts? More human interaction (this takes alot of time and energy, admittedly)
                        People coming here may get scared, thrilled, inspired, entertained. some people think they see a real ghost here, some do! Some laugh their butts off all the way through the 90 minute tour!?
                        The majority of people respond well to be treated as "people", versus numbers or shadows running passed you down a hallway.
                        I have the advantage of leading most customers all the way through the house so they know me, sort of, and respond "in-kind" to the way I relate to them.
                        hauntedravensgrin.com

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Smacky,

                          I understand your point but we have found that many who chicken out will still come back the next year to try again. If nothing else to prove that they can do it. Some even come back the same year, so now they have paid twice.

                          Also, it is great word of mouth for people who are looking for a very scary show. Just imagine the talk around the water cooler when the chicken tells everyone at the office that they were too scared to make it all the way through the haunt. Or even better when the friends the chicken came with tell their friends how the guy the went with last night could not even make it past the first room.

                          We have had a lot of people not make it through the entire haunt the last four years since we opened. Yet every year except one, our numbers have increased. So, our very intense type of show seems to attract more customers rather than lose them.

                          I look at it like this, there are several dozens haunts in the area that cater to a "family friendly" consumer. We are one of the only around that go for the old school, in your face approach. It sets us apart from the crowd and gives us our unique customer base who are looking for the thrill that comes from being terrorized.

                          The few that we lose to the "extreme" experience ultimately translates into more customers in the long run knowing they can't go anywhere else for our type of haunted house.

                          We hear all the time that we went to this haunt or that haunt and it was very pretty or well designed but it had no scare factor at all. When it comes down to it, I believe that most haunt visitors while wanting to be entertained also want the biggest scare for their buck as well.

                          Just my 2 cents,

                          Howie "Slobber" Erlich
                          Deadly Intentions Haunted House
                          www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com
                          Chris Riehl
                          Sales@spookyfinder.com
                          (586)209-6935
                          www.spookyfinder.com

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Howie Slobber Erlich
                            Smacky,

                            I understand your point but we have found that many who chicken out will still come back the next year to try again. If nothing else to prove that they can do it. Some even come back the same year, so now they have paid twice.

                            Also, it is great word of mouth for people who are looking for a very scary show. Just imagine the talk around the water cooler when the chicken tells everyone at the office that they were too scared to make it all the way through the haunt. Or even better when the friends the chicken came with tell their friends how the guy the went with last night could not even make it past the first room.

                            We have had a lot of people not make it through the entire haunt the last four years since we opened. Yet every year except one, our numbers have increased. So, our very intense type of show seems to attract more customers rather than lose them.

                            I look at it like this, there are several dozens haunts in the area that cater to a "family friendly" consumer. We are one of the only around that go for the old school, in your face approach. It sets us apart from the crowd and gives us our unique customer base who are looking for the thrill that comes from being terrorized.

                            The few that we lose to the "extreme" experience ultimately translates into more customers in the long run knowing they can't go anywhere else for our type of haunted house.

                            We hear all the time that we went to this haunt or that haunt and it was very pretty or well designed but it had no scare factor at all. When it comes down to it, I believe that most haunt visitors while wanting to be entertained also want the biggest scare for their buck as well.

                            Just my 2 cents,

                            Howie "Slobber" Erlich
                            Deadly Intentions Haunted House
                            www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com
                            I agree with you, I also believe that people will come to your event just to see what was so scary that people couldn't make it through. I also believe that some people that couldn't make it through the first time will try to challenge themselves to see if they can make it through the second or third time. I know most people don't enjoy soiling themselves but I have heard some people laugh at the fact that they soiled themselves at a haunt and considered it a good haunt because they were scared so much the soiled themselves. And besides for every person that says it was too scary for them to make it through you get probably get 2 or 3 that WILL now come out to your attraction to see if it really is that scary.
                            Jared Layman

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                            • #15
                              This live- haunt-entertainment field is a "nich" business at best compared to other businesses and finding your own customers within this nich is quite an accomplishment whether they are scared 9 yr. olds or college kids or whatever?.......
                              Whatever "works",...works.
                              hauntedravensgrin.com

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