Finances and guests problems

[noreply]

I have a zoo which contained around 7000 guests and made a profit of 135.000 $ a year with 49 animal species. After this point, I added 10 more species over the time and increased the park size and built a train ride, so that the guest could get easier from point A to B.(The guests don't use the train :( )
Nevertheless, my guest numbers declined and my profit sunk to only 50.000 $.
The problem is now after changing my African elephant exhibit to a better-looking place and easier for the guests to see the elephants, my profit went to -32.000 $. The elephants were the last species that I added to the zoo but I had them for around 30 ingame years and even after removing them my zoo makes no profit. Also, my guest numbers are still declining for no reason.
Had anyone else these problems or an idea why I don't make any more profit with my zoo?

Thx for every answer.

[MrHappy]

I think it is just a part of the challenge. Also, we started the zoo's being slow and patient and letting them grow. At 7000 guests we play a bit faster and know more of what we're doing. Some of the profit loss might be to do with cramming more into the zoo in a much quicker time. I don't know this for sure though!

You do have auto-saves there which you can reload.

[Moving Target]

Remove the train if guests aren't using it as it costs a lot to upkeep annually and even if they did use it you would probably still have to run it at a loss, check the food costs of your animals as some cost a hell of a lot per feed (check the cost per animal in the habitat tab) and remove the most expensive ones. This should be enough to start making a profit again, try running an advertising campaign to increase guest numbers.
Sometimes it might be better to open a new zoo rather than increase the size of the current one as the more your zoo grows the more guests you will need to keep making a profit, more guests equal more lag and eventually the game will become unplayable.
A screenshot of your finances showing your expenditures might help pinpoint the problem if you can post one (I am assuming this is in Franchise mode)

[noreply]

I forgot to mention that my zoo is in franchise mode and the last auto-save that i have is already during the time with the negative profit.

[Big Boss]

Best thing I can of is just a mixture of large cut backs in staff and habitats (you get charged a tax for the amount of land used by the habitats) and possibly a new but cheap attraction to draw people back.

[noreply]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1981381984
This is a screenshot of the finances after removing the afr. elephants (the year ago) and with the elephants two years ago. At the moment the finance show a profit but over the year it gets negative. Sorry that the text is in german.

[Kajsa_Kavat]

30k refunds is quite a lot, there might be a problem, check out the guest tab in zoo overview for every yellow and red thought.

Also from what's on the screenshot I think your train just isn't very attractive. Your guests need to have a real need to use and it should have an all around nice view.

[noreply]

The problem is the guests want more to drink and to eat near the entrance, but i already put as much stores as I could there. Also the guests complain about the rain and some staff facilities . I can't move these specific staff facilities because they are integrated in a tropical house and the surrounding area is completly used. 30k refunds is standard for this zoo, in the past i had 50k refunds and made a profit of 135k. Sometimes I still have refund spikes with 60k refunds for no obvious reason.
Something i noticed is that feeding costs cost in some years 30-60k more (standard feeding cost 120k and increase to 150-170k) and animal numbers stay the same.

[kgkong]

If you're only putting drinks/food options near the entrance, that might be a big problem. You're over congesting where folks can get that stuff and they don't wanna wander throughout the whole place just to get a drink, and when they end up back at the entrance, they're likely going to be too unhappy to bother to turn back around.

Every one of my zoos I ran that I got into multiple thousands, I've never had an issue with staff facilities impacting happiness, or end up with a refund (unless I accidentally caused an animal escape), and I always have drink/food options available throughout the zoo, so I never had guest refunds as an issue.

[Moving Target]

What might help with your stores at the entrance is to reduce the choice of food and drink, guests who can't buy a Soda at the first shop they visit will then look for the next nearest soda vendor (they won't look for any other drink type), if that is halfway across the zoo that is where they will go, if it is next door to the busy one they will go there. I don't know how many shops you have at the entrance but try making all the drink shops of only one type and the same with the food choice.
Complaining about rain or cold is a 'yellow' problem and can be ignored just look for the 'red' problems guests have as they are the only ones that affect the guests mood. Also try and use picnic tables rather than benches near food stores as these raise guests happiness more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQNPCEP68Q&list=LLHKQRGpOGl_vQX3-RpItAug&index=14&t=220s
This video is VERY informative and if you can increase your guest happiness and keep it there than the occasional negative moodlet from staff facilities shouldn't have a huge impact overall
Food costs vary according to the number of animals in a habitat, a lot of babies can cause costs to peak so maybe look at reducing the number of offspring with contraceptives
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1981454636
As you can see from the ride information on the right my train is being used and is making money but if yours isn't being used it is just costing you 4k per year, delete that and you are almost making a profit again. Also I don't know what marketing you are using but that is costing you another 9k per year, try just having one at 5k per year and see if that works as it would save another 4k per year putting you back into profit based on your 5k loss overall in the previous year

[noreply]

Originally posted by Moving Target:

What might help with your stores at the entrance is to reduce the choice of food and drink, guests who can't buy a Soda at the first shop they visit will then look for the next nearest soda vendor (they won't look for any other drink type), if that is halfway across the zoo that is where they will go, if it is next door to the busy one they will go there. I don't know how many shops you have at the entrance but try making all the drink shops of only one type and the same with the food choice.
Complaining about rain or cold is a 'yellow' problem and can be ignored just look for the 'red' problems guests have as they are the only ones that affect the guests mood. Also try and use picnic tables rather than benches near food stores as these raise guests happiness more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQNPCEP68Q&list=LLHKQRGpOGl_vQX3-RpItAug&index=14&t=220s
This video is VERY informative and if you can increase your guest happiness and keep it there than the occasional negative moodlet from staff facilities shouldn't have a huge impact overall
Food costs vary according to the number of animals in a habitat, a lot of babies can cause costs to peak so maybe look at reducing the number of offspring with contraceptives
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1981454636
As you can see from the ride information on the right my train is being used and is making money but if yours isn't being used it is just costing you 4k per year, delete that and you are almost making a profit again. Also I don't know what marketing you are using but that is costing you another 9k per year, try just having one at 5k per year and see if that works as it would save another 4k per year putting you back into profit based on your 5k loss overall in the previous year

For the start my zoo makes again profit with around 30k. I have still 20-40k refunds. I simplified the drink and food shops all over the park each to one type. It made the guests want more food and drink shops and more places to rest (no idea why). I closed the shops at the entrance for testing if my guest would spread more in my park,it changed nothing.I fired some staff members as well. I didn't remove another animal species from the park besides the afr. elephants. Only maturing animals were removed, the only expensive ones were my grizzly cubs. I don't think that three grizzly cups make a differance of 40k in a zoo for an ingame year.
Funfact: My rides made a profit some days ago, but after changing the route for the ship and putting in a second station, the estimated profits for train and boat went to zero.
Also weather effect rain is red for my guests, with 27 % they don't like the rain and want an umbrella.

[noreply]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1982963888
Put in some screenshots of my guests thoughts.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1982963927

[Kajsa_Kavat]

Just a few hints:

Rain has almost no impact on happiness so don't worry about that, you can provide more umbrellas through information stands if you want.

Are your vendors all trained to 5 stars? It speeds them up quite a bit, is relatively cheap and they can sell faster. And don't forget about condiments, they provide a nice bonus and I'd say they're worth it but that's not too easy to tell.

Staff facilities are a problem, if possible try to move them out of range from your guests.

[noreply]

My vendors are all 5 stars. I have on every place one vendor more than shops. Condiments are already on maximum.
I could move my staff facilities. Thank god that i built a useluss quarantine into my tropical house, after removing it , I had enough space to move the other facilities out of the way.

[noreply]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1983057050
I placed a new shop place in the south of the tropical house (Buildings without scenery between the trees). Nevertheless 10 % of my guests stay on the placa in the west of the tropical house (Both buildings at the plaza have stores) , and at the entrance (this is the builing in the north). They complain that the stores are full and they want more to drink.

[kgkong]

You can make a tower or underground area for your staff buildings to get them out of the way of the guests.
Make sure you got donation bins at every possible viewing location.
Do you have food courts stationed throughout the zoo, particularly high traffic intersections?