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Opening A Haunted House Articles

The below articles cover various aspects of opening and operating a successful Halloween event.

 

Haunting Profitability
I frequently get phone calls from people interested in starting a Haunted House. Sometimes they are Home Haunters who have been told by their friends and neighbors that “Their Yard Haunt is 10 times better than the professional ones in town.” Some of them are kids, (as I surpass 50 years of age, anyone under say 30 is a kid to me), with great enthusiasm, brimming over with ideas on how to scare people, but no clue how to find the money to get their mega-haunt into production or how to push enough people through an attraction to make it profitable. Or in some cases they are business people who happened to drive past a local Haunted Attraction at 9 pm on the Saturday before Halloween, counted the number of people in line, multiplied that by the ticket price and the number of days in October and get the brilliant idea that “Haunted Houses are a gold mine!” READ MORE!

Dreams of Haunting First Published in Haunt Rater Magazine
Throughout the year I am contacted by people asking how they can get open a Halloween event. Passionate dreamers these people have long lists of things the “pro haunters” are doing wrong and loads of ideas on how to make a truly scary fright experience. All they need to make their haunting dreams come true is money and they want me to tell them where to get it. So I thought I would write this article describing what I tell these haunt dreamers, just in case there are many more of you out there who are afraid to ask or don’t know my email address. READ MORE!

So, You Want To Open A Haunted House? First Published at Themed Attraction.com
Imagine driving past a Haunted House on the last Saturday before Halloween. You might think that the haunt owner is getting rich when you see the long lines of people each paying $20 or more to get scared! But the truth is that a Haunted Event is a business like any other. It will fail if you don’t treat it like a business. However, a properly advertised, properly configured Halloween Event can be very successful and very fulfilling as a business. READ MORE!

Timed Ticketing: The Future Of Haunting
When I first starting haunting, (1987 if you were wondering), the schedule for Haunts in Dallas, TX was to open on the 15th of October and then run every night through Halloween. That was what everyone did, even though Mondays and Tuesdays were dead, that was the model. Then D’Ann Dagen came into my market and opened Hangman’s House of Horrors. Her advertising announced that she was opening the first weekend in October and would be open Friday and Saturday only for five weekends in October. We in the Dallas Haunt community thought she was crazy; that she would lose those people who wanted to go haunting on Monday through Thursday, and that no one would go to a haunt that early in October. READ MORE!

How To Make Money With A Haunted House First published in Haunt Nation Magazine 06-2013
Contrary to popular belief, the single goal of any company is to make money! The more money it makes the better its chance of survival. A haunted house IS a business, and like any other business it has to be profitable to survive. Sixty percent of all business fail in the first 3 years of operation, and that number is higher for haunted attractions. READ MORE!

13 Steps To Operating A Successful Halloween Event
A haunted attraction is a business, and like any other business it much make money to survive. But what does it take to excel in the haunt business? What steps must be taken to insure your haunted business is a money maker for the long haul? READ MORE!

10 Secrets About Room Escape Businesses Nobody Will Tell You By Héctor Muñoz García
Escape Rooms are still young and nobody knows where exactly are they going to perform in a few years. These are our 10 secrets about Room Escapes Businesses. You are about to start a new Room Escape Business. You may know that starting with a good quality and tested game will save you time and a lot of money to startup. READ MORE!

NEW Hiring Haunted House Actors
Creating a successful and immersive haunted house experience requires more than just spooky decorations and sound effects. Well-trained actors can bring your haunted house to life, creating an engaging and unforgettable experience for guests. However, hiring the right people requires careful planning and consideration. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the steps you need to take to hire haunted house actors and create an immersive experience that will keep guests coming back year after year. READ MORE!

Haunting on a Budget 
There are other ways to build a haunt that are cheaper than building from scratch with new plywood and 2×4’s. For one thing there are Used Attractions listed on this website, and if these are still too expensive then you have to go with a found object style haunt. Pick a theme like apocalyptic zombie refuge or a mad max thing. Then start collecting pallets, barrels, dilapidated storage sheds, furniture, anything you can use to make people walk around. Facebook MarketPlace is perfect for this. There is free stuff listed there every day. Buy a pickup if you don’t have one to haul your treasures and dumpster dive everywhere you go. This approach takes time and a place to store your stuff if you can’t put it on the haunt property before set up. 

1) Design – READ MORE!

The Very First Things to do When Starting a Haunted Event
Location and funding are the two hardest pieces of the haunting puzzle to lock in, and you need both before you can go very far. So those are your main focus until both are secured but there are quite a few steps that need to be taken as soon as you decide you will someday start a Haunted Event, even before you are fully funded. They aren’t free, but they are necessary, and you might as well get started on them now.

1) Pick a name for the event. Before you can even discuss your project with someone you need to call it something. Choosing the name for your event is a huge step and should be started as soon as you decide you are going forward with the event. Hauntrepreneurs.com helps you with this effort as part of Phase I of our project proposal. We have years of experience creating branding for Haunted events and steering you away from problem names, but you can do it yourself. READ MORE!

 
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