Escape Room Safety: How to Keep the Players Safe
As an escape room owner, you know that safety is a top priority. You want to ensure your players are safe and not put in dangerous situations while playing your game.
With the proper safety equipment, your games are fun for everyone involved. Escape rooms without fire alarms or emergency exits have lower player satisfaction scores. In contrast, those that provide these essential features enjoy customer retention.
The best way to keep customers happy is to provide them with a great experience and safety at all times. Investing in essential safety equipment like fire alarms and emergency exits is highly relevant. It will be easier to maintain high customer satisfaction ratings. Thus, people will return for more and recommend your service, too!
Are Escape Rooms an Amusement Building or Something Else?
An escape room is an amusement building and also a recreation center. As an amusement building, it provides games that need physical exertion to escape the room for fun or a hobby. Also, it tests the mental capability of teams playing inside. The puzzles and riddles serve as their mental exercise.
As a form of escape entertainment and recreation center, the escape room urges players to solve puzzles, find hidden objects, and break codes to escape. Using clues and hints provided, completing the escape game is always possible.
Do Escape rooms undergo safety accreditation checks?
Escape room safety is a priority for escape game owners and operators. Local escape rooms should undergo inspection before opening. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established standards that regulate the quality of construction, design, maintenance, operation, and personnel qualification of establishments.
Escape room operators should show escape plans while a game is in progress and enforce them if needed—likewise, visible marked emergency exits of the escape room with prominent signage. Game masters must have safety training before playing any role-playing. This is to ensure they know how to escape the game in case of an emergency.
Escape room operators should have documentation. It includes safety plans and emergency procedures. It should be available for inspection or customers at any time when their escape rooms are open to the public.
How do escape room business owners keep players safe in their facilities?
Owners should include safety guidelines in their introductory video and escape room design. Escape rooms have props, puzzles, and clues that can be hazardous when not used properly. So players should be well oriented about the escape room and materials used.
Here are some examples of what you’ll find inside an escape room:
- Escape room props, which may contain hazardous materials
- Escape room puzzles can cause injuries if not handled correctly or according to the escape game’s instructions.
- Escape rooms also keep players safe by providing a clear escape plan and exit strategy for all participants in an emergency.
Whether you’re first designing an escape room or looking to renovate an escape room, you must consider escape room safety for the following reasons:
- Escape rooms are highly complex and demand constant attention from players. The escape game experience is immersive and can result in injury if not played with proper care.
- Creators design escape games to be as realistic as possible. It often includes escape room puzzles that can cause injuries if not handled correctly or according to the escape game’s instructions.
- Escape games require players to solve problems and find clues to escape before time runs out. Players are also responsible for maintaining their safety during these activities by following all safety guidelines at the start of gameplay.
Ways to Keep Players Safe
There are many ways escape rooms keep players safe, but some of the most popular include:
- Keep your escape room clean and tidy.
- Keep the lighting in your escape room uniform.
- Provide a sign outside that clearly states “Escape Room” with an arrow pointing to your building
- Make sure you have enough staff on hand for opening and closing time as well as during gameplay hours
- Have a safety word or phrase that players can use if they need assistance from staff without interrupting the gameplay.
- Consider adding a panic button inside the room so players can alert staff at any point in their experience.
- Create rules for yourself about who you will allow into your escape room. Do not let anyone under 18 years old enter. Make sure people understand how intense it is before they start playing, etcetera.
- Check all locks and bolts on windows and doors before opening up shop each day to ensure no defects or malfunctions present that could create an unsafe environment for customers coming in to play games with your escape game.
- Use two-way mirrors instead of glass when possible – this way, people cannot see what’s happening behind them while still getting natural light into space (glass reflects too much light, which causes glare). It also helps with escape room design because it allows you to observe players and the games played to improve your services further.
- If you have a video game or escape room with more than one team playing simultaneously, it’s essential to keep an eye on what is happening in both chambers – make sure there are no physical obstructions that could cause injury.
Red Flags of Unsafe Escape Rooms to Observe
Since the safety of the players in your escape room is your utmost priority. As a business owner, you should identify firsthand the red flags that can make your escape room unsafe to players. Escape room design flaws that are potential safety hazards in the event of an escape game malfunction or injury are:
- Escape rooms without a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, emergency exit, etc.
- Having too many players at one time for your space (too many people crammed into a small area can result in injuries).
- Small moving space of the escape room.
- Poorly lit escape rooms
- Inadequate escape game design, such as requiring players to carry a heavy object or being in an escape room without access to the outside world.
In Conclusion
Safety is a big concern for escape room players. Your priority should be to provide an environment free of hazards and dangers, making your escape games more appealing to customers who want their safety ensured before they get started on the game. Contact our Cluetivity experts about how we can help you design safe rooms with all types of puzzles in them!
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