Troubles with other haunts

[jason]

Has anyone had problems with or have heard of haunts having troubles with other local haunts?

[xxxdirk]

What kind of trouble are we talking?

[jason]

do they tour your haunt and cause trouble (smoke inside your haunt, steal, cause fights, etc.) or maybe they steal your signs so no one can find a competitors haunt, put nails in the parking lot so customers get flat tires.

sadly, i know of a haunt in middletown that has done about all of this...if not more!

[xxxdirk]

Wow, well, two things, 1st I would not allow them to go through the haunt. Secondly, if they are vandalizing I would get a security camera and tape them doing it and get the cops involved.

[Jim Warfield]

Buy a magnet on a a stick, sweep the lot. Call the Police let them know what is happening so they can be looking for such misbehavior.
Have a very flashy small card=poster printed on fairly weather-proof card stock, they can't mess with several thousands of smaller "posters" nearly as well.
Have squirt guns loaded and ready inside the haunt to extinguish those cigerettes. "Oops!, sorry, I didn't mean to wash your face for you, butt no smoking! Here, have a towel.... Oh sorry my cat did pee on that towel, sorry again."
Maybe the other haunts could be thankfull these evil-doers don't direct their energy toward making their own place better, more creative?
So much potentially excellant energy gets wasted and perverted in confrontational BS.

[bamasmith]

I have.Like trying to prevent other haunts from opening by manipulating inspecters.That's all I will say.

[Nicole]

I have.Like trying to prevent other haunts from opening by manipulating inspecters.

With all due respect...

Are you KIDDING ME?

That is LOW, DOWN and DIRTY. ...and perhaps illegal if bribery involving money or business favors are involved.

We've cross-promo'ed with other local haunts that would be considered competition but we feel if we can all help each other out we ALL do well - especially in our market most people will hit at least 2 haunts a night if they are close enough. Even if there was a haunt owner I "hated" I couldn't imagine doing something like that!?! Just wrong.

[bamasmith]

No. I am not kidding.

[BruiseMuse]

I've dealt with actor's from one other haunt coming through and insulting all the actors, and messing with props. Luckily, they all wore their haunt's shirts, so it was easy for security to spot them and deal with it.

That's only one haunt, luckily, most others are really friendly to each other and the actors will play at the different haunts. We're al in this industry together.

Nicole, I agree with your comment 100%. It's one thing to not like another haunt, but to try to have it shut down?! Wouldn't your time and energy be better spent trying to improve your own show and obliterate the competition tha tway, rather than sneakily destroying their business?

[shawnc]

Messing with another haunt only hurts yourself. I think many owners would be surprised at how little thought customers give to which one is which, who owns them, etc. So if one tries to hurt another or one puts on a bad show or something bad happens at one, potential patrons don't differentiate, get them mixed up, and decide not to go to any of them this year. Anyone having problems should point that out to their competitors.

And people aren't stupid. Anyone who has ever been in sales knows one of the cardinal rules is not to bad-mouth your competition. You can compare your product or service favorably to the other, but don't knock it. Customers aren't impressed, and are even less likely to buy yours than they were before you walked in.

Think about Coke and Pepsi. They each say theirs tastes better than the other, but they don't say the other tastes bad. That would hurt the whole soft drink industry. Besides turning off customers, that has another effect. If Coke says that Pepsi tastes like urine, buyers would have to wonder just how little a step up Coke is to taste better than that. In that case Coke isn't saying that they taste really, really good; just that it tastes better than that other crap. It's a dangerous road to start down.

No offense to either Coke or Pepsi.

[Jim Warfield]

Unfortunately...

I do know what urine does taste like. (not chicken)
It was three-day old, warm urine. No it was not a college frat prank.
Never the less my one time exposure did not hook me for life, no cravings, no habit.
Didn't resemble Coke or Pepsi, Peep-si, maybe?

I was very thirsty it was dark, enough said.

[UndeadProd]

We've been lucky enough to be free of any illegal or harmful activity from other haunted attractions, and lucky enough to work with great events such as 100 Acre Manor and Castle Blood on some informal cross-marketing ... but we have endured some obnoxious bevavior form other event owners whom shall remain nameless.

For example:

I know that representatives from one semi-local haunted attraction made an impression on our cast last year ... mostly by shinning flashlights in their faces, making rude comments, and disrupting the throughput of the entire attraction just so that they could spend some extra time stading still to study some of our props up close. (And yes, they got in for free since they made sure to hit us up before going inside)

We also had representatives from another semi-local event pass out flyers for their event in our lobby, loudly voice bogus safety concerns to customers, and also attempt to recruit our actors while they were actually performing in the house. Yes, that means that they were passing out flyers to actors while walking through our attraction. (Also comped tickets)

Then there was the haunt worker a few years ago who walked through the haunt while on his cell phone, giving a play-by-play to someone back at his attraction.

Or the guy in who requested VIP access since he was the editor of Hauntworld magainze.... and yet strangely looked nothing like Larry Kirchner.

By the way, if you do decide to visit another haunt and engage in such obnoxious behavior - you might want to:

a) Not wear a jacket with your logo all over it.

b) Not do it in an attraction with a video-surveillance security system capable of recording any and all obnoxious behavior to a permanent dvd archive.

[Killer Katie]

I have taken the actors I worked with to other haunts and INSISTED that they behave like respectable adults. No matter how bad they think something looks or how horrible the actors - keep it to yourself, then have a "debriefing".
Unfortunaltely there are what i call rogues who were raised by animals and ruin the actors moods, the atmosphere and in general make themsleves look like asses.
In my opinion - it all boils down to the TOTAL lack of respect that seems to be taking the country by storm.
What jerks...

[kpolley]

There is just something about a haunted house that makes people act in a way they normally wouldn't. Most people wouldn't do things like this in a mall or movie theatre, but they will in a haunted house. We've never had any trouble with other haunts at The Darkness that I know of...but we get plenty of trouble from the average customer. I mean, a short list of some of the stupid stuff I have seen and had to deal with would include:

A couple sneaking into the bathroom scene in the haunt to "fool around"

A couple who stepped right into the actor/staff entrance to the haunt and proceeded to "fool around" right there.

A man who decided to urinate in the corner of one of the rooms.

A man who chose to light up some pot while wlking through the haunt.

Several women who repeatedly exposed their breasts to our actors.

Customers who ahv tried to walk off with everything from foam skulls to enitre bodies.

A guy who slipped out of his group and hid in the house. We couldn't find him for 20 minutes.

And that doesn't include the daily garbage of people sneaking in booze or flashlights or cameras or causing fights... It's stupid.

[Jim Warfield]

"A Taste Of October"

Financially it was real nice this last weekend, but we did have the problems brought on by "THE STUPID", I don't mean people misfortunate who have diminished capacity I mean the normal people who seem to need attention for screwing up.
"You didn't have a sign on that little antique metal car that told me I shouldn't sit in/and on it!"
I guess I needed some signs for this person also saying "Do Not Chase the Cats in the parking lot"
"Do not pick up everything that is not bolted down, carry it around, then deposit it somewhere else "
"Do not use the "F" word in a room full of very young patrons"
"Do Not jabber like an idiot when I have warned you numerous times that you are disturbing the rest of the customers"
"Do Not Come Back"
We think this same group were the ones walkiong two blocks from here who may have been caught on the Sherriff's surveilance camera taking a shovel from a person's porch, then shoving it down a United States Post Office Mailbox on the corner, isn't that a Federal offense? Hope so.