Money only matters in Franchise and Career mode, but there it decides everything. Once a zoo has a few appealing animals and decent shops, it tends to snowball into profit.
Where money comes from
- Tickets: adult and child prices, set in management.
- Shops: food, drink and gift shops; trained vendors increase takings.
- Donations: guests donate in donation bins, especially after learning from education boards next to the habitat.
- Quick trades: selling surplus animals back for a little cash.
- Paid toilets.
Where it goes
- Staff salaries: the biggest ongoing cost. Higher-star staff cost more.
- Habitat running costs: large aquariums can run to several thousand per season.
- Construction: paths, terrain changes and every scenery piece. Terrain editing costs money in franchise.
- Animals: cash purchases on the market.
- Marketing campaigns and conservation projects.
Costs land at the start of each quarter, so the balance dips hard and then recovers. Don't panic-sell animals when the season starts.
Ticket prices
Guests tell you directly whether prices are right. Look for "zoo tickets are underpriced" or "tickets overpriced" in guest thoughts and on alerts.
- Early zoos sat comfortably around $8–9 adult / $5–7 child.
- A larger zoo with good attractions handled $20 adult / $12–15 child without losing visitors.
- Raise prices a little at a time after adding headline animals, and check thoughts afterwards.
Loans
When you're low on cash you can take a loan with different sizes and terms. In one zoo the low loan was repaid over 25 seasons, with other options over 19 or 34 seasons and yearly repayments of around 5,000. A small loan to build shops early is usually worth it.
Marketing campaigns
Marketing campaigns advertise a specific animal or habitat to raise appeal and guest numbers.
- Run campaigns on headline animals (tigers, elephants, sharks) right after they arrive.
- Each campaign has a seasonal cost. Stop campaigns once they've done their job, or they keep draining the budget.
- Accreditation rewards can include extra (bronze) marketing slots.
Donations
Donation bins are cheap and pay steadily. Place them:
- Right beside education boards and viewing windows.
- At the exit of walk-through tunnels and indoor houses.
- Themed and recoloured to match the habitat (shark-shaped bins by the shark tank, for example).
Education raises donations: guests who've just learned something are more generous.
Profit checklist
- At least one food, one drink and one gift shop per area
- An ATM near every shopping cluster
- Donation bins at every education point
- Ticket prices checked against guest thoughts
- Unused vendors fired, everyone else trained
- Marketing only on new headline animals
- Surplus animals turned into release groups (credits) rather than sitting in storage
A starting budget plan for Franchise
Your first season's money goes fast. Roughly in this order:
- Entrance basics: a toilet block, a food stall, a drink stall and an information centre.
- Staff buildings: keeper hut, staff room, vet surgery, quarantine, research centre and trade centre.
- Two or three cheap habitats with fast-breeding starter animals.
- Bins, benches and a few donation boxes.
- Then your first bigger animal, once money is coming in steadily.
If you run short, take a small loan rather than skipping shops. Shops are what pay the loan back.
Real numbers to give you a feel
- A small zoo was earning about 38 per period against 35 in costs, which is only just breaking even, so it needed more shops and donation bins.
- A mid-sized zoo earned 53 against 26 in costs, which is comfortable.
- A big zoo was taking in about 10,000 a season while spending 2,900.
- A large aquarium habitat cost close to 5,000 a season to run, which is why donation boxes next to it mattered.
- Hippos cost about $12,000 for four, a leopard enclosure blueprint about $14,000, a semi-aquatic habitat blueprint about $10,000, and a scorpion exhibit about $3,500.
Where the money leaks
- Idle staff: vendors without shops, extra vets after research is finished.
- Over-trained staff: higher star levels mean higher wages. Train who you need, not everyone at once.
- Habitats nobody visits: an expensive habitat at the far end of the zoo earns nothing if guests never get there. Add a viewpoint, food or a train stop to pull them over.
- Marketing left running: campaigns keep costing money every season until you stop them.