Search Lights in the sky

[Motograter]

So this year I am thinking about calling up a local search light company and renting one out a couple times for the season. Doe's anyone here use them at your haunt? Do you find your attendance to grow on the nights that you use them? Is it worth it?

[oakhillshaunterTHEFEAR]

I don't know how much it is to rent one and if it increases attendance but i can tell you this that every time people see one of those search lights go up they can't wait to figure out what it is for. Think about it. Vincent This Time!

[Allen H]

It depends on your location, lots of folks swear by them. I have also seen haunts that put "look for the search lights" on their brochures and flyers and it makes getting there easier.
Hmmm......shouldnt they be called found lights for this purpose?
Allen H

[Raycliff Manor]

We used them last year and it's really hard to quantify. It's hard to know without surveying the customers on this how many would not have come if it hadn't been for the search lights. I will tell you this, like Allen mentioned, we did have a lot of people tell us it made it much easier for them to find us! Maybe we need to add the search lights to our "How did you find us?" survey. I guess I haven't helped much. I do know that the search lights in this area rent for approximately $500 per night on average. At this cost, if your average ticket price is $10, if they bring in 50 additional patrons, they pay for themselves, but only make the search light company money. If they bring in more, they start to make you money.

Kel

[Motograter]

We used them last year and it's really hard to quantify. It's hard to know without surveying the customers on this how many would not have come if it hadn't been for the search lights. I will tell you this, like Allen mentioned, we did have a lot of people tell us it made it much easier for them to find us! Maybe we need to add the search lights to our "How did you find us?" survey. I guess I haven't helped much. I do know that the search lights in this area rent for approximately $500 per night on average. At this cost, if your average ticket price is $10, if they bring in 50 additional patrons, they pay for themselves, but only make the search light company money. If they bring in more, they start to make you money.

Kel

Yeah you have good point Kelly I think it's worth a shot at it. I think they do help out some. I remember a couple years back. I got lost trying to find a haunted house. I took a wrong turn some place and ended up in a total different city then what the haunt was in. But then I saw the search lights and found the place after a half hour later lol.

[The Parker House]

I also find it to be a necessity. Remember, people only think about Haunts for less then 1 month out of 12. So your location is not so much imbedded into the little brains. (Just as an advertising 101 statement, "People are stupid!") Always remember this when your doing any type of advertising. Also your targeting people from other towns that prob don’t know there way around the town your in. Just think of it this way. If you when 2 towns away, could you find there Wal-Mart? Much less a business that is only open about 20 days out of the year. So anything that will help them get to your location if worth its cost in the long run.
Also call around in your area. You can find a vendor that will rent there light for a "Haunted House" special. In our area you can get one for the whole season for $1800.
Good luck this year.
Marc

[Howie Slobber Erlich]

Bill,

I have the searchlights out every Friday and Saturday. For us, it's worth it. It will help your customers find you. The cost for our area is about $300.00 a night.

Howie

[Brandon_K]

I installed a USA Searchlights 3kw unit at our haunt last year.

As Kel mentioned, it's hard to quanitfy. We bought ours, certainly more expensive than renting. I built a carriage and roller coaster tracks for it so we don't have to move it in and out by hand, it's a permanent install for September and October. We have/had plans on renting it out locally throughout the rest of the year.

Yes - We definately got people telling us "We would have never found it without the light" or "We were looking for something to do and followed the light" IE, they didn't have plans to come to the haunt, the light attracted them like moths to.. well.. a light

Yes - It has cool factor. We fired it up in April or May when we first got it and seriously within the hour of "testing", well over 30 cars pulled into our parking lot. Now mind you, our haunt isn't on any type of main road, you have to go at minumum 3/4 mile out of your way to get to us. We're in a county park, not exactly the highest traffic in our dark little corner of the park.

Would I do anything different? Yes, at minimum I would have gone 4000w, possibly 7000. It's fantastic in the spring and summer when there isn't any fog (natural, not machine produced ) in the air, haze, etc. The range definately goes down in October. Hind site is always 20/20.

Don't expect to go plugging one (a Xenon-arc at least) into a 15A outlet. A 15A circuit will just barely hold the light by itself on 2000w. Turn on the motor for rotate and it pops, that requires 20A and even then, that better be the only thing on the circuit. At 3000w with the rotator going, it pulls a solid 30A. IE, #10 wire gets warm.

The 4000w and 7000w units are 120/240. They're technically not 240, they still require a neutral, regardless of how you interpret their ad's. All of the interior components, power supplies, motor, indicator lights, etc are all 120v. They simply break it out to a 3W plug. This can create issues with choosing a genset. IE, my 4000w Coleman can't power my 3000W light unless I made some mods to the light, breaking the power supplies out to two seperate 120v legs.

Moto - Are you considering the old carbon-arc, 60" reflector WWII lights or a smaller 3-8k watt unit?

[Jim Warfield]

"If It Works, It Works"

But don't so many people today have GPS type units in their cars?
Even getting customers here , to withion 4 blocks of my house is a good deal.
(Some of those units lie, we have never ever been 4 blocks from where we are now!!)
The city hall a block from me has a tornado siren on it's roof that sounds just like a WW2 air raid siren, if I had the complimentary search light to go with it, I could renact the London Blitz!
All I would have to do is herd customers into the wine cellar and have them wait til the raid is over....."You are now free to leave."

[Motograter]

But don't so many people today have GPS type units in their cars?
Even getting customers here , to withion 4 blocks of my house is a good deal.
(Some of those units lie, we have never ever been 4 blocks from where we are now!!)
The city hall a block from me has a tornado siren on it's roof that sounds just like a WW2 air raid siren, if I had the complimentary search light to go with it, I could renact the London Blitz!
All I would have to do is herd customers into the wine cellar and have them wait til the raid is over....."You are now free to leave."

HAHAHAHA Jim your too funny!

[Brandon_K]

But don't so many people today have GPS type units in their cars?

Don't forget though, some of us are off of the beaten path. We're inside the confines of a county park and don't have an actual street address. The nearest intersection to us is 1/2 mile but the main problem seem to be the way different cartography suppliers to Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, etc name our road. Some name it "Hundred Acres Dr", "100 Acres Dr", "One Hundred Acres Dr", etc. I put a Google map up on our site for directions, thankfully they allow custom placement markers.

The city hall a block from me has a tornado siren on it's roof that sounds just like a WW2 air raid siren, if I had the complimentary search light to go with it, I could renact the London Blitz!
All I would have to do is herd customers into the wine cellar and have them wait til the raid is over....."You are now free to leave."

YES!