Do we want to be Exeter’s best escape room?
People have asked us if it was our intention to try and be Exeter’s best Escape room. The answer has surprised many. For us, the goal is to grow the industry as a whole. At our heart, each escape room business is there to tell stories and create experiences. We estimate that only a small percentage of the general public has tried an escape room before which is a shame. For us, an escape room helps teams to come together by placing them in unique stories and sharing the journey of overcoming obstacles. Promoting teamwork and providing experiences that otherwise would not have been possible.
Good company
We are lucky in Exeter to have so many quality Escape rooms available. If it wasn’t for these experiences we would have not ignited our own passion. Our first escape room experience was at Mission escape. We visited for my daughter’s birthday. They went the extra mile by including a birthday message which was great. Sadly this venue has since closed. A constant reminder that independent escape rooms are vulnerable and need the support of their visitors. Red House Mysteries have some amazing escape rooms available and their Danziger Experiment is great fun. Locked in a room I attended with some work friends and you can really see the passion that they have for what they’re doing. Escape Hunt always has really high production values and whilst they are a bit more expensive they do have a prime position for a night out!
Further afield Devon Escapes in Newton Abbot has some really cool storylines. Excape Exmouth have a real gem with their “E=MC Scared” that shouldn’t be missed! Trapped Okehampton has some of the best-set designs we’ve ever seen in an escape room. The attention to detail really makes you feel like you’re transported into a movie set! Reynards in Taunton is a hidden gem with some incredible set design and beautiful mechanical puzzles throughout. You only need to look at the sheer scale of good reviews on Tripadvisor to see that these operators are doing a great job. These are the companies that we aspire to be like and respect massively.
What we want to achieve
Nothing excites us more than sharing war stories with visitors regarding their experiences at other escape rooms. It takes seeing something exciting to push the boundaries in what is possible. It is our intention to work with other escape room operators to jointly promote the concept of escape rooms and work together. We want escape room operators to be able to share their creations or reach out if we can support them. If we work together the general public are the ones that benefit.
Are they really competition?
In our eyes, an escape room is a story that you experience. I liken the situation to a movie. If you have a movie there can be some degree of competition in the short term like if you were going to go to a cinema. But in the wider view of higher quality experiences, it’s more important that people are enthused by films in general. Nobody checks to see if a film is Disney or Warner Bros before selecting a movie to watch and we think it should be the same for escape rooms. Pick the experience that appeals the most.
Knock-offs are not cool
We think that much like films, knock-offs or imitations are also frowned upon. It is for this reason we have tried our best to develop original storylines that don’t attempt to replicate other attractions. It is our hope that we can have open communication with other operators. This should hopefully avoid crossover occurring in the future leading to a better customer experience overall.