Alright, this is right up my alley.
Haunted Houses are a make or break venture. I know handfuls of people who drive by a haunted house, see a line of people waiting outside and quickly do the following math equation...
If 500 people go through each night, and admission is $10, that's $5000.00 a night. And if it's open the month of October, that's 31 days which equals $155,000!!!
Yup, sounds great. Easy money, right? Lots of people think that, but in reality, there's a whole can of worms to consider.
Luckiest, I'm not trying to discourage you, in fact, I hope you do open one. I love haunted houses, but here are some things to consider when putting it together.
Employees (known in the haunt industry as Scareactors). You'll need to pay them, most likely. Most Scareactors love to scare people, but they love getting paid just as much.
Insurance, both for your employees and for the property. This can get pretty hefty as far as costs go.
Props: A good haunted house has a nice mix of live actors and animatronics. While you may not need to pay an animated prop a salary, the initial investment to buy it will be fair to considerable. Price range can be a few hundred dollars to thousands. You mentioned you're a home haunter, so you're probably aware of making your own props. There are quite a few websites to goto for DIY prop building, including www.hauntforum.com and the granddaddy www.halloweenmonsterlist.info. Building your own will help cut corners, so long as they're durable enough to work for 6+ hours a night for a month straight.
Many haunted houses open in September and run through Halloween, but most are only open select nights each week, such as Thur. to Sunday, so the 500 patrons a night x 31 days is misleading. And to expect 500 on weeknights may be a reach depending on where the haunted house is located, which leads me to the next point...
The golden rule of real estate: location, Location, LOCATION!!! Good parking is a big plus. People don't want to walk 5 blocks through a bad neighborhood to reach the haunted house. Have parking close.
Pick a theme and stick with it. Home haunts may get away with having pirates and serial killers side by side, but most accomplished haunts have a theme, either an insane asylum, evil carnival with killer clowns or something else, and the theme is throughout the haunt. If the theme is "Dracula's Curse", than vampires, coffins and graveyards will be the general expectation. Don't throw aliens in there somewhere just because you like aliens. It won't go with the theme and it'll leave your patrons scratching their heads.
Cross promote for extra cash: Have a special where the customer saves X-amount of money if they buy an admission ticket and a t-shirt together. Sure, they feel good about saving a buck or two, but you're making bucks too.
OH, and don't underestimate on-line ticketing. Getting people to buy their tickets on-line is great, because you get the money up front and it makes it convenient for the as well.
Check out
http://www.hauntedattraction.com, it's geared to the dark amusement industry.
Man, I could go on and on, but I'll stop here. Like I said, I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just know there's a lot involved. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
