Why Do House Locations Get HotYs?

[happy bunny rabbit]

House locations are a major factor in the success of a house, if the idea works well with the space, it thrives. I want to ask the question, why do some locations get HotY more than others? Let's look at the use of space, lighting available, facades, and other contributing factors. I've created an Excel sheet with the number of houses that have been in each location from 2001 onwards, which was the year the first HotY award was given, and the number of HotY awards awarded to each location. They've been sorted by number of houses, then number of awards, then alphabetically. A starter topic I seee when I look at this sheet is: how did the Disaster Queue not get ONE award in the 13 houses it housed. I know it is a queue, and that gives it a disadvantage compared to SSs and Warehouses, but not one out of all 13 broke that barrier? Surprises me. Let the discussion begin!

Excel sheet Google Drive link: house of the year to house location .xlsx - Google Drive

 

[Tobias]

I think this question is a little bit flawed, mainly due to...

House locations are a major factor in the success of a house.

...the location of a house is not as major of a factor as you think it is. There's one element that can come into play depending on a house's location, but that's it. One. Meanwhile, there's a bunch of factors that determine what get's HotY, such as...

- How many people stay on the cast and not drop out.
- How many injuries happen.
- How many times the house E-Stops.
- How many guests they push through an' hour.
- An' of course, reception from both guests, management etc.

The only time a house's location would come into play, is if the house was outdoors in a queue and the cast had to deal with the heat, leading to them dropping out. That's the one factor where a house's location can come into play. But ultimately, the HotY is heavily dependent on the cast properly executing what needs to be done.

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

- How many people quit from the cast.
- How many injuries happen.
- How many times the house E-Stops.
- How many guests they push through an' hour.
- An' of course, reception from both guests, management etc.

Wow, I was under the impression that HotY awards are based on the last factor only, thanks though!

 

[Legacy]

Wow, I was under the impression that HotY awards are based on the last factor only, thanks though!

Nope. And management opinion actually matters more than anything else.

 

[Nick]

A lot of it has to do with GSAT, but also the cast and how they embrace their roles. If there are a lot of call outs or other things like mentioned above, then it hurts the houses case for getting it.

 

[JawsVictim]

Last year a few houses got House of the Week out of pity. Scarecrow 100% deserved HOTY, but there’s a case to be made that HOTW is sometimes used as a morale booster.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Last year a few houses got House of the Week out of pity. Scarecrow 100% deserved HOTY, but there’s a case to be made that HOTW is sometimes used as a morale booster.

Didn't most of the Fallen cast get sick at one point?

I applaud A&D for taking bold risks, but that house very clearly blew up in their faces.

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

Didn't most of the Fallen cast get sick at one point?

I applaud A&D for taking bold risks, but that house very clearly blew up in their faces.

yeah, for me most of the time the problem was mistiming, also the scares weren't involded enough, just people standing about a foot or two away staring at you

 

[Legacy]

Didn't most of the Fallen cast get sick at one point?

I applaud A&D for taking bold risks, but that house very clearly blew up in their faces.

From what I saw, it wasn't even all that "bold." They've had flyers before. It's almost become a go-to "look at what we can do" because so few haunts in the world have the infrastructure to support them.

Universal, at the end of the day, is just really inconsistent in how they "chart" out scares. It can't all be startle scares but, because it's a conga line, the only "scenes" that work are ones where the scareactors remain visible (a doctor working on a patient, someone sitting at a desk, etc). With the way Universal cast the roles, however, there's a high risk of poor performers falling into those "featured" positions when they'd be better suited to an assembly line scare (press the button, appear, disappear, repeat). The more of those "open" scares a house has, the greater the likelihood you'll end up with bad performers in important spots.

HotY means little. It's the people who made the houses determining which house they like the most. It's essentially determined after week 2. Location means little. All the spaces are now climate controlled and budgets are much better dispersed. Universal's focus is making houses pretty and with a high throughput. They make houses "scarier" by making them louder.

The most important thing to determining the success of any haunt is the performers. A good cast can make a garbage house incredible (Havoc). A mediocre cast can send an expected favorite tumbling (Hades). Unfortunately, it boils down to luck since Universal doesn't base any scareactor assignments on talent.

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

From what I saw, it wasn't even all that "bold." They've had flyers before. It's almost become a go-to "look at what we can do" because so few haunts in the world have the infrastructure to support them.

Yeah, and honestly Busch Gardens does flyers WAY better

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

From what I saw, it wasn't even all that "bold." They've had flyers before. It's almost become a go-to "look at what we can do" because so few haunts in the world have the infrastructure to support them.

I didn't mean flyers, I meant the original "angels vs. demons" theme that got largely scrapped.

Oh, and something random that I've wondered: can they do bungee effects in the parade building?