Several haunted houses now have had shooting at their haunted houses apparently over line cutting. At least one person is dead! So far I've tracked three different haunted houses who's had shootings.
I've never heard of shootings in haunted houses now all of a sudden there are several. Why? Apparently one of the biggest issues is cutting line. This is a problem at any amusement park or facility people trying to cut in line. I've had this problem at my haunted houses as well.
What do I do? Well for one line cutting can lead to fights, and well in these cases shootings. You have to watch your lines especially the back of these lines like a HAWK! If I get two groups fighting about line cutting, I always take one of the two groups out of line and put them into the haunted house PRONTO! I've had people scream at me afterwards saying 'oh you're rewarding line cutting' but the alternative is what exactly? Leave those groups together and I walk away and boom a fight breaks out... no thanks.
You must watch your que lines this year and you need to make sure there is no line cutting and if it leads to people getting into arguments put one of the two groups INTO the haunted house immediately.
Secondly, you really might want to consider metal detectors this year, they're actually sold by our friends at Headless Horseman. Furthermore and probably most importantly you can't let this covid thing cripple your haunted house. If you start putting in groups in so slow you will get fights ... people don't want to wait forever. One fight that broke out as I read anyway in Detroit occured at 12:30 am ... don't be open that late. Put those people into the haunt don't play around with these people, set your haunted house up to handle the crowd and get them into the haunt. You put people in way to slow you're there until 5 am. You can't do that... you're committing haunted suicide.
If you're worried about covid situation I can honestly say I'd rather have SHORTER que lines out front than longer ones because you're going way to slow. Furthermore if you're concerned then maybe you better open earlier to get these people in the door.
NO HAUNTED HOUSE SHOULD BE OPEN PAST MIDNIGHT ... you need to make it a priority to have all guests into the door by MIDNIGHT and the DOORS LOCKED!
At The Darkness and Creepyworld our goal is to put people in the door as fast when we open as we would when the place gets swamped at 9pm.
Follow these simple rules:
1) On your busiest nights open at 6:45 even if its still slightly lit outside.
2) Put people in as fast at 7 pm as you would at any other time of the night don't let he line pile up on you then all of a sudden you go faster.
3) Make your goal to have no line or virtually no line at 8:30 pm.
4) Make sure your actors are on the same page SCARE and reset
Remember one thing... you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. In other words if you put them in way to slow they hate you for it, if you put them in too fast they say its not scary. You lose no matter what so find that happy medium so you can close those doors prior to Midnight.
I use to listen to a rap group called Whodini and they had a song called 'Freaks Come out At Night' and its true. HAVE NO LINE and EVERYONE in the DOOR before MIDNIGHT! PERIOD
I'm afraid what is going on here is simple... you're putting the guests in so slow you're causing frustration for wait times. You can either follow my tips OR you can sell fewer tickets one or the other. But lets not have a forth haunt experience a shooting.
Link to a Story about the Kansas City shooting.
https://fox4kc.com/news/new-cell-pho...haunted-house/
I've never heard of shootings in haunted houses now all of a sudden there are several. Why? Apparently one of the biggest issues is cutting line. This is a problem at any amusement park or facility people trying to cut in line. I've had this problem at my haunted houses as well.
What do I do? Well for one line cutting can lead to fights, and well in these cases shootings. You have to watch your lines especially the back of these lines like a HAWK! If I get two groups fighting about line cutting, I always take one of the two groups out of line and put them into the haunted house PRONTO! I've had people scream at me afterwards saying 'oh you're rewarding line cutting' but the alternative is what exactly? Leave those groups together and I walk away and boom a fight breaks out... no thanks.
You must watch your que lines this year and you need to make sure there is no line cutting and if it leads to people getting into arguments put one of the two groups INTO the haunted house immediately.
Secondly, you really might want to consider metal detectors this year, they're actually sold by our friends at Headless Horseman. Furthermore and probably most importantly you can't let this covid thing cripple your haunted house. If you start putting in groups in so slow you will get fights ... people don't want to wait forever. One fight that broke out as I read anyway in Detroit occured at 12:30 am ... don't be open that late. Put those people into the haunt don't play around with these people, set your haunted house up to handle the crowd and get them into the haunt. You put people in way to slow you're there until 5 am. You can't do that... you're committing haunted suicide.
If you're worried about covid situation I can honestly say I'd rather have SHORTER que lines out front than longer ones because you're going way to slow. Furthermore if you're concerned then maybe you better open earlier to get these people in the door.
NO HAUNTED HOUSE SHOULD BE OPEN PAST MIDNIGHT ... you need to make it a priority to have all guests into the door by MIDNIGHT and the DOORS LOCKED!
At The Darkness and Creepyworld our goal is to put people in the door as fast when we open as we would when the place gets swamped at 9pm.
Follow these simple rules:
1) On your busiest nights open at 6:45 even if its still slightly lit outside.
2) Put people in as fast at 7 pm as you would at any other time of the night don't let he line pile up on you then all of a sudden you go faster.
3) Make your goal to have no line or virtually no line at 8:30 pm.
4) Make sure your actors are on the same page SCARE and reset
Remember one thing... you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. In other words if you put them in way to slow they hate you for it, if you put them in too fast they say its not scary. You lose no matter what so find that happy medium so you can close those doors prior to Midnight.
I use to listen to a rap group called Whodini and they had a song called 'Freaks Come out At Night' and its true. HAVE NO LINE and EVERYONE in the DOOR before MIDNIGHT! PERIOD
I'm afraid what is going on here is simple... you're putting the guests in so slow you're causing frustration for wait times. You can either follow my tips OR you can sell fewer tickets one or the other. But lets not have a forth haunt experience a shooting.
Link to a Story about the Kansas City shooting.
https://fox4kc.com/news/new-cell-pho...haunted-house/
Comment