Wednesday, December 30, 2015

What it takes to start a haunted house attraction

When a person finds a need to visit a haunted attraction, there are several reasons for it. For some people they enjoy being scared, some enjoy it for the entertainment value of it, some enjoy the art and design of it. It is often used as a way for family and friends gather to have a good time and to be together. Whatever brings you to a haunt is always a good reason. The next time you find yourself visiting a haunt look around at what it takes to start one. I am going to list a few.
1.       Capital
You need to start with capital, lots of money. You will need to have a few thousand in the bank before planning can start.

2.       Location
Once you have found the capital whether you borrowed from the bank, family, friends, or investors, you are going to need a place to set it up. When you are in the search for a location, you need to keep in mind that you could be a successful haunt and you need room to grow. Find that area where you can grow and add new attractions plus you have to make sure that you plenty of parking spaces for your actors and staff members. This location also needs to an easy access to main roads and highways so your customers can find you fast.

3.       Management Team
These are the people that are just as excited about being a part of a haunt as you are about being an owner. Once again you should look at growth and break down the areas of your haunt and delegate areas of responsibility so that you as the owner can concentrate on meeting your customers and the PR work.

4.       Creative Team
With location laid out, you meet with your design staff and bounce around ideas and ways to carry out these ideas. This includes an overall theme of your haunt and then the break down theme to each room or scare zone to the haunt that draws people to want to see what you have to offer. These people are the ones that dream up the scares that brings you the money.

5.       Actors
With everyone and everything in place you need to make sure that you have the best people for the right roll. When you placed these people in their place they will shine like the sun on a rainy day. You also need to take care of your actors and make sure they are safe and happy.

6.       Advertisement
Here you will need to start early as soon as you find your location. Start with word of mouth, flyers, posters, social media, and other “free” methods that you can find and use.


These are areas that you should investigate before starting your haunt. There are several smaller details that you will run in to. I suggest that you partner with a small scale successful haunt that you can get your question answered. As long as they don’t see you as direct competition, they will be more then welcome to help you in any way. The haunt community is growing and extremely friendly and enjoy sharing stories and ideas that they have done and seen results either positive or otherwise.  

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