With over 8,000 escape rooms across the world, there’s a clear business opportunity for creative owners who can wow their audience with an immersive and smart room design. Aside from being imaginative, the escape room business is highly lucrative with up to 800% revenue growth in only one year for the best companies. As people are looking for a new type of experience during their spare time, they rely on escape room businesses to throw them inside a lost Inca temple, a secret scientific lab or even a jail cell from which you have to escape. With as many possible themes as you can think of, the industry has still plenty of growth potential left. However, with each new room you set, you need to understand the responsibilities that fall onto the business owner and the game master.
At the beginning of the year, the escape room world was shaken with the shocking news of the tragic death of 5 teenage girls in a room in Poland. Caught in a fire, they were not able to escape. The incident has encouraged the Polish authorities to implement fire safety inspections and individual evacuation plans in all escape rooms in the country. Nevertheless, for business owners, the news highlights the challenges they need to tackle.
At the heart of the event and experience business
An escape room business joins the event industry in the sense that the venue is set to welcome guests and encourage them to enjoy their experience. Contrary to a tourist attraction, the site doesn’t need to deal with crowds as each room has a maximum number of players. Consequently, the focus should be on creating a space that brings people together and helps to build human connections. The experience of the room reflects on the cooperation between players, their togetherness, and the ability to develop interactive activities that challenge without frustrating. For business owners, it’s about mastering the perfect event experience strategy, several times a day for each single room.
You’re responsible for your guests
Building a memorable experience is crucial to maximizing guest engagement. But it is pointless if you don’t add business insurance cover to protect yourself from unforeseen injuries and accidents. Indeed, business owners are responsible for the health of the players in the room. If someone gets hurt as the result of malfunctioning devices, the business is liable to pay for damages. However, business owners need to educate their guests as well; indeed players are unable to complain if the accident happened as a consequence of intentional misuse on their part, such as someone climbing on furniture and falling, for instance.
You are part of the game too
Game masters and moderators are in charge of the room. Their role is to keep players entertained and communicate when required. Unfortunately, small businesses try to cut costs by assigned one game master to multiple rooms at the same time, which can affect the players’ experience. Inattentive moderators can inadvertently lead to damages and frustration, which reflect on the business reputation.
Escape room players have high expectations from the rooms. They want to be entertained; they want to be safe; they want to be supported. Your decisions will affect the experience of your players, their safety and the image of your brand. It’s more than a room with a few padlocks. It’s a promise of regulated escapism that business owners need to keep.
