It was while surveying locations to ascertain just how haunted the UK is that a peripheral thought occurred to me; namely about the multitude of commercial ghost hunting groups that had proliferated in recent times. Were they value for money or were they hiking charges and if so, could this be quantified? They would book slots at haunted locations and then (in a crude sense) "re-sell" these tickets, with a mark-up.

These are the companies that issue forth tedious and tired old epithets exhorting us to pay to sit in the dark, with occasional punctuations by flashing, beeping gadgets or the unverified word of psychics. We are asked, "are you brave enough?" ... "dare you join us?" etc.

My comments on why I disregard the vast majority of findings of ghost-hunting groups can be found on another page. But there is another reason why commercial groups in particular won't deliver any believable evidence; they whip the participants up into such a frenzy of expectation that the smallest noise, coldest draught, muscular spasm or anything trivial is magnified into "definite proof" of ghostly behaviour. The immense power of suggestion (perhaps coupled with a tour of the building beforehand in which the hotspots are pointed out?) is enough to adjust the believer's perceptions and expectations. During the daytime, with no spook chasers around, such experiences would be dismissed as unimportant. At night they leap several orders of magnitude into the "significant" category.

So, how much do the ghost laden locations really cost? There was no way to find out ... unless you asked them, which I resolved to do fairly late in my Ghost Survey Project. Posing as a prospective hirer, I contacted all the venues of which I knew that had been offered by commercial ghost hunt companies for the their (expensive?) spectral shenanigans; unlike the results of my survey, I received an impressive number of responses. You can find my results in the table below.

I had already contacted a number of these places as part of my survey, and their comments are included; a number gave surprising results. But quite a few places were new to me. Why did I not contact them as part of my survey once I knew about them? There are a few reasons; the first was, after collecting data on haunted locations for 7 years I was suffering from "ghost fatigue." I felt that I had enough locations. The second reason is that most of these places were 'new', having only just appeared on the paranormal spectrum in the last couple of years. This was suspicious. Had they heard of the large revenue that paranormal tourism could generate and simply wanted to jump on the bandwagon? A few places did fit this bit. There were also a couple of locations that I contacted as a bogus hirer but not as a ghost researcher. Why? As I have said in my survey results, I didn't see the need to contact the very famous places because, naturally they'd say that "of course" strange things are still happening there. To admit otherwise would be tantamount to commercial suicide... maybe.

Contacting the places was straightfoward and obtaining costings was easy. A few of them said that a deposit would reduce with future bookings (a "loyalty" scheme); and a few asked for references from previous hosts. A few were suspicious however. Leeds City Museum told me, "I would be happy to speak with you further and go through our checking policy, this is due to the existence of a relatively small number of groups who we would rather not associate ourselves with, unfortunately we have also been made aware by West Yorkshire Police of a number of scams also involving paranormal groups." Preston Manor in Brighton no longer hired out because, "many of the paranormal groups where not abiding by our conservations directives and guidelines therefore putting our collections and the venue at risk." A few of the places just shrugged their shoulders; an instance of this is Stanley Palace in Chester, who had told me (as a researcher) that they had had groups in who had damaged their property - but despite this they still allowed groups to hire them (the description of this and other venues by the hirers would also seem to be grossly exagerrated and bears no relation to current reports either, almost certainly in an attempt to entice people to part with their money.)

The results of this small survey to elicit the mark-up costs was shocking. To give one example; a museum close to me was charging £200 for a 30 person group, plus team members of the company. This amounts to £6.67 person. So it was abhorrent to find that one commercial group was selling tickets at £35 per head - or over five times their original value! The organisers would no doubt bleat about their own overheads but one must seriously question any group that amplifies ticket prices so disgracefully. I won't point the finger at any specific companies for legal reasons; if you are interested, you can find their price lists with a quick internet search.

A few notes about the table: for clarity I have omitted the mention of a deposit (usually non refundable), any extras for tea, coffee, food etc., and VAT (which nearly all locations mentioned even if it was something like "the fee is £xx + VAT). Likewise, most locations insisted on Public Liability insurance (the maximum amount being asked was £10 million). Also note that as a researcher, contact with the venues was in nearly all occasions attempted twice, usually by email and then via Facebook. While I can't guarantee that my email didn't end up in spam, Facebook provides a notification if a message had been read, and they had been. I was usually guaranteed a fast, first time response as a potential customer. Money talks, apparently.

Note: The second column is hiring fees obtained by myself etc. posing as a potential hirer or commercialist (pale green); while the third (light cyan) is info gained personally by me for my ghost mapping project on whether locations had had any recent spectral events.
NB: Prices were obtained from April-August 2022; they may have changed in the meantime (as of October 24th 2022)

In nearly 100% of the cases, locations were faster to respond to my query where money was involved (most of them were within a day, and some within a few hours); in my other guise as a researcher, I had to wait a lot longer, the record being some 7 or 8 months. It was a slightly unpleasant feeling to note that they seemingly had no time for a research inquiry but acted in a very expeditious manner where the mere whiff of money was detected.

A point to bear in mind is that some locations had more than one email. It is a valid criticism that I may have used a general email address that wasn't conducive to paranormal inquiries, but a "hire venue" address would be more likely to reply. This is true, but I have tried to maintain consistency in using email addresses between my researcher and commercialist guises. In all but half a dozen or so locations in my inquiries were the emails different, due to con-contactability issues and so on.

While the above are all the venues for which I had managed to obtain hiring costs, there were a few other locations that, again, reacted speedily at the hint of remuneration, but didn't bother at all when I asked about recent spectral activity. It gives the distateful impression of Fagin-like characters, their hands greedily outstretched for a palmful of pennies. The following places, who didn't provide costings, should also be noted. The locations that I had tried to contact as a researcher but was ignored are indicated by *:

• In early 2022, the owners of the Theatre Royal, Margate* (who also run the nearby Winter Gardens) inform me that they will be closing imminently.
• Ford Green Hall* inform me that they use only one paranormal company.
• The North East Land Sea and Air Museum* advised me to recontact them when I had set up my company, and that a public liability insurance would have to be in place before their paranormal team would engage with me. They wouldn't even answer questions on costings, capacities etc.
• Rochford Hall* informs me that they no longer permit ghost hunter groups.
• The Darlington Head of Steam* railway museum inform me that they were closing until the summer of 2024.
• Tatton Old Hall* told me that they have an exclusive agreement with one company for the hire for paranormal events but would send me documentation if the tender became available again. Incidentally, the National Trust informs me that, "Tatton Park is managed on a day-to-day basis by Cheshire East Council though, and so differs from the other places in our care."
• Michelham Priory* responded to my hire query; "We work with two teams who we are very happy with at present, if anything changes we will let you know." The Priory also left a less than impressionable feeling in other ways too: see here
• Hintlesham Hall Hotel* were said to be trialing their own event in September.
• Leith Hall* told me that "ghost hunts" "are not the kind of events we want to advocate going forwards." (They had previously been listed by ghost companies)
• Portchester Castle told me (as a researcher), "This is a fascinating subject but I unfortunately have not witnessed anything whilst I have been working at the castle." My query as to whether anything had been seen by anyone else was ignored. They told me later (as a commercialist) that they "currently has two firms that we use for Paranormal Investigations on site and therefore aren't currently looking to expand our offering in this area at this moment in time."
• The Morpeth Arms in London also hire themselves out to ghost hunters, but told me a few years back that nothing had been reported in recent history.
• Jarrow Hall had an exclusivity arrangement with a ghost hunt group - but the owners and occupants told me in August 2020 that they knew of nothing being experienced there.
• The Sharnbrook Mill Theatre recommended that I contact ghost groups for any information on recent sightings. They ignored my query about staff or guest sightings. They later told me that they do not hire to commercial enterprises and welcome small groups known to them.
• Towneley Hall are contracted to another company and could not allow any others on site and did not consequently provide hiring information. However, with my researcher's hat on, they told me in March 2022, "On a paranormal level nothing ever really happens to be honest."

A few points to ponder: why do so many places admit to genuine researchers that nothing has occurred but still open themselves to a legion of ghost hunters, who readily report all kinds of inexplicable happenings? How can it be that these places are quiet during the day but at night become veritable Amityvilles? Could it be that ghost hunters are deluded, for reasons given on this and other pages, and anything slightly odd is attributable to spectres? Is the maxim, "Why settle for a rational explanation when a paranormal one will suffice?" the only adopted credo? I would posit that this is the case in many ventures.

It is to be seen that the cost charged by most venues themselves are quite reasonable, and this was a very welcome surprise (though as stated in the preamble, this would be magnified many times by greedy companies); with a little business acumen, some of these venue's prices could be increased slightly and still be at an acceptable level. With places being hit by covid enforced lockdowns, one can perhaps argue that such ghost hunts are a necessity to bring in extra funds, vital for an organisation's survival. For what it is worth, for those badly hit locations (museums, theatres etc.) this is an acceptable policy to this author - assuming the pricing does not stray into extortionate levels. It is certainly a far cry from the halcyon days of the early 2000s before shows like "Most Haunted" opened custodian's eyes that they could be sitting on a potenial gold mine for ghost groups. I remember the Newcastle Castle Keep charging £100 per group in 2004/5. How times have changed, when one simply paid a token small amount for staff overheads and extra insurance costs! Now, some of the huge fees act as a deterent to the genuine enthusiasts; though it should be borne in mind that a few locations have a two tier system. That is, a cheap price for ghost groups and a larger one for commercial entities. But these are very much the exception.

Two further matters should be considered:
Those places that charge for access having admitted that they know of no paranormal activity in their premises (and by this, I include "alleged activity detected by paranormal groups" since their evidence is usually diabolically poor). Surely this is reprehensible and morally repugnant? To charge under false pretences?
The second point is that, before the recent announcement of the two year energy price cap, I wondered on the possible impact of the longevity of the commercial ghost hunting groups with the collosal cost of living price hike to be enforced upon us. Would they reduce their prices accordingly, and thus show us how much of a discount they could tolerate - and proving that they have artificially expanded the original price by a significant margin? Indeed, there were hints that this started to happen in August and September, judging by the adverts on Facebook, with prices being excised by £10 per head, then £15, and finally £20. No one else seemed to notice this, and tickets were readily acquired by the masses at bargain prices. Now we know that the difference between the original price and the ones offered by companies was considerable.

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