selling tickets to drunks

[Jim Warfield]

I Have Always Wondered?

Compare a haunted house to a stadium filled with people seeing a game or race, I wonder what percentage of those customers are flying alcohol-powered?
Years ago a local smarty-mouth got his jaw severely broken at the end of a Cubs game by a stranger's fist, of course both of them were probably drunky.
It probably wasn't even a close game!

[The Doctor]

We had two idiots last night pull their beers out and take a drink inside the general waiting area. Our police tried to let them leave but one wanted to be a total @ss and so it was trip to jail time instead.

[Damon_M]

No smoking, no swearing, no alcohol, no weapons of any kind.
Anyone, sober or drunk, breaks any of our house rules, security escorts them out. We have a no refund policy as well.

We do have a high volume of customers who are under the influence of something when they come visit. But as long as they dont cause a problem or break any of the rules, we let them enjoy the show just like everyone else.

Granted, just like any other service industry, if a person cant function, ie walk or talk, we deny them entry.

[MMManiac]

Since we are located in Green Bay, which in itself is a bug drinking town, and 1/2 block away from the bar district we get lots of drunks. Just because they are drunk doesn't mean we dont let them in. If they start acting unrulely we have security follow them throughout the house. If they get out of hand they get escorted. Our police do not carry breathalizers (they are not admissiable in court so why waste the money) so we can't go that option. we only had one problem with a guy getting bad so we had the cops take him. First a trip to the local ER for some blood work and then a trip to the Jail.... What a fun night for him!

[BrainDonor13]

Sounds like the kid was on the autism spectrum.

[screamline studios]

I am throwing this WAY out there???? but if you smell booze on there breaths why not pull out a form that says you know they have been drinking, and all security will be focused in on them, make them sign the form and let them go in, in the end they agnoliged they were drinking and any repercusion was because of there actions......

P.S I know this sound wacky but no one wants to lose a sale

Jason Blaszczak

http://screamlinestudios.com

[condemned 12]

yeah there was a guy behind our group eric that went in your haunt.he was cussing the whole way through but he was harmless.he was scared of everything in there.but if they are rowdy before going in dont let in.

[Dr. Haunt Chamber of Fear]

As long as the group has someone with them that appears to be responsible, i.e. not drunk - then we let them go through. We do have a police officer at the ticket booth and this will scare some; we go over the rules as the first part; and then if our actors at the door identify a potential bad customer (drunk, harraser, etc) then we have our inhouse security follow them through to ensure they do not get out of line.

We also teach actors that if they have a rough customer to keep their distance and do a pop-out scare and return to there safe area.

For the last 6 years this has worked for our haunted house.

But as others have said if we turned away our drunks then we loose our customer base because must haunts are intended for high school age and older which means majority of our patrons are of age to drink.

[Jim Warfield]

Examine Those "Voters"!

Democracy can have it's pitfalls.
I asked a group to vote on who they would rather have giving them their tour of my house? The 16 yr. old mouthy idiot who couldn't shut up or me? (No alcohol involved)
There were a bunch of little kids in the group who voted for the 16 yr. old because he was first on the ballot, I lost.
I handed my little flashlite to the 16 yr. old and I procedded to say nothing as he pointed the light toward various items in thwe rom and said:"Wuts diss?, Wuts diss?...Wuts dis?"
After maybe 30 secondes his sister took the tour back for me saying, "Give him back the flashlite, Idiot, you don't know anything!"
He was also the kid who could not stop touching everything! GRR!
As I looked him in the eye, told him to please not touch everything , he slowly removed his left hand from what he was touching as his right hand moved forward and grasped another item! Like swinging across monkey bars! He could not not be touching something all the time!

[HauntedPhantom]

Number one has to be the loss of other customers who if they wanted to be in the company, or earshot of drunks would have simply went to a roudy tavern.
I have had parents quickly almost clap their hands over their kid's ears when suddenly profanity fills the room for usually very little or no reason.
Nobody was startled, no scares just drunk.
I often return smart-ass comments back at "Drunky", make them look as stupid as they really are before they are kicked out, sort of a lesson for the younger people, maybe. I try to limit any innuendos in my reply to being no worse than I was given.
Maybe my personal favorite is to pretend you are a little hard of hearing and ask the drunk why he would want to "Lick my ass?"
"I said, Kick your ass!", Drunky says.
Goodby!
Sometimes we hold a quick vote from the others on the tour and vote Drunky out the door.
The longer I allow drunky to be in the house the much more likely others in that group will be wanting another tour free or refund, along with the wasted time it takes trying to be logical with an infected, alcohol poisoned mind, a no win situation.
If I was building a haunt just for drunkys , it would be a thickly padded hallway that could be hydralically tipped to slide them out with nothing for them to grip on to slow the process.
That's it, just one hallway, nothing else.

Out of all of the responses so far, this was my favorite. I particularly like the idea of letting the other patrons vote to determine whether the drunk gets to stay or go. I think that would help them feel more empowered by the process and less likely to ask for a refund. Good idea, Jim!

[Ken Spriggs]

Bad way to handle but its fun

Ok so I will agree that we may handle this situation a little different than the normal folks but I know this way is funner!

Our line is usually pretty long and outside.
We run 10 actors or so outside to entertain.
As some of our guest actors will confirm....some people in chicago are real aholes.
Sooooo let the drunk ones drink......if they are drinking inline....they get bumped
If they are unable to stand they get bumped

BUT if they can walk we taunt them to the point of snapping........but we usually let them buy a ticket first....we have a no refund policy.
Then........just wait and they will do something stupid and you escort them out.
The crowd usually likes it when we send the gorillas after people in the lobby.
If they hit someone....they get a ride to the jail for a few hours and $250

See it can be fun!!!

[monsterwax]

I tell them I smell Alcohol, but don't know how much they've been drinking. But if they ACT drunk at ANY TIME, they will be ejected. That means if they touch anyone, cuss, push or shove, or are rude, they are thrown out with no refund. Agreed?" (If they act tipsy and can't keep their balance, I don't let them in. I don't want them fall and blame us.)

[mindtumor]

50% of your clientele are drunk? Wholly cow! Fortunately, I haven't had that problem. The drunks don't show up til near the end of the night...around 12-12:30am, so the majority of the night is pretty clean. I actually have more stoners than drunks. Sometimes I think I'm gonna get high myself just from smelling them. LOL. I think we have more problems with rude people or the occasional jerk trying to cut lines, moreso than drunks.

We hire off duty officers to keep the peace at our haunts. It's worked out through their precinct so they arrive in uniform. It's great. It works better than hiring "security" staff. No one wants to cross an officer, cuz the result is jail.

On Fridays and Saturdays I would say half. Our attendance is a lot smaller than yours so really it is like 10 drunk people, LOL!

[mindtumor]

LOL so you have ladies grabbing you? are they hot? I had no clue this was going on. I think I still have you topped. Like 5 years back a drunk dude took out his unit at me.

That was just Charles going through and you asked to see it is what I heard.

[Patti Ludwinski]

50% of your clientele are drunk? Wholly cow! Fortunately, I haven't had that problem. The drunks don't show up til near the end of the night...around 12-12:30am, so the majority of the night is pretty clean. I actually have more stoners than drunks. Sometimes I think I'm gonna get high myself just from smelling them. LOL. I think we have more problems with rude people or the occasional jerk trying to cut lines, moreso than drunks.

We hire off duty officers to keep the peace at our haunts. It's worked out through their precinct so they arrive in uniform. It's great. It works better than hiring "security" staff. No one wants to cross an officer, cuz the result is jail.