HI Courtneyjenkins13.
You are correct. My original statement that all escape rooms operate a certain way was incorrect. In fact, any statement that says all escape rooms do a certain thing is likely incorrect. Since... More
HI Courtneyjenkins13.
You are correct. My original statement that all escape rooms operate a certain way was incorrect. In fact, any statement that says all escape rooms do a certain thing is likely incorrect. Since escape rooms are still largely owned an operated as small businesses and by families (like ours), there is no single way that every business operates. I am unaware of any in Minnesota that operate that way.
At Escape Challenge, all rooms are open to the public for up to ten people. If you buy 6 tickets, it is possible for someone else to buy the other 4 for the same challenge. If you buy tickets on Saturday at 7pm, it is more likely to have someone else buy some of the remaining tickets. We do not push groups together. If we have 2 groups of 4 signed up for separate challenges, we do not push them to the same room. They would compete as a group of 4. If you are buying tickets and it says ten available, that means you are the only people that have booked that time slot. If you buy all ten, then it would definitely be a private group. If you buy all ten and only have 6 people arrive, we would offer you 4 vouchers toward any of our other challenges.
Some additional background on why we leave it open to the public. We began with the policy to have all groups open to the public, because it was the industry standard. We have looked at ways to allow for private groups, but then we run into other problems. Rochester, MN has a population of a little over 100k, double that if you take the surrounding towns. Rochester brings in about 3 million people per year. Those people don't generally travel as groups. They largely travel as pairs. Since we have a minimum of 4 (because of room difficulty), people traveling as couples would never get the chance to participate in a challenge if we let every group of 4 or 6 be a private group. So, for that reason, we have decided to make all rooms open to the public. We get lots of groups of two and four that really want to join with another group.
As mentioned above, we are very accommodating to groups looking to change their booking in advance of the mission. If you book on Monday for a Saturday afternoon for 4 people, and then on Wednesday you see that someone booked in to that same room, you can call us up and change to a different mission, or a different time. Or you can buy all the tickets for a time slot and we will give you back vouchers toward another mission for the difference.
I apologize if my original comments came off as belittling toward a customer. That was not my intent. I should not have overgeneralized that every escape room operates in this manner. It is the industry standard, but I'm sure others have found clever ways to allow for private groups. We do appreciate feedback from everyone. It allows us to revisit our policies to determine if there is a better way of doing things.
If anyone has any questions on our policies for groups, I encourage you to call me at 507-272-3041.
Nathan Schroeder
Escape Challenge
