Today we’d like to introduce you to James Barcz.
Thanks for sharing your story with us James. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My wife, Jan, and I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On our first road trip to visit the grandkids after taking an early retirement in April 2015, we visited a live escape room in Nashville. Neither of us knew what an escape room was but we read the reviews and it sounded interesting and fun. We escaped the room that day and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We couldn’t stop telling others how much fun it was.
My business mind began to ’churn’. I thought this would be a very interesting business to get involved with. And so, I started to do my research on what was possible. I discovered Escape Hunt, a leading global franchisor of escape room businesses that had many locations in Europe, Asia and Australia and was very interested in bringing their concept to the United States. Since at that time there were no locations in the U.S. for us to visit, Jan and I hopped on a plane for a six-day, whirlwind trip to Europe to get familiar with the Escape Hunt brand and talk to franchisees there. We visited Escape Hunt locations in Brussels, Paris and Barcelona. It was a remarkable trip and after experiencing the games that Escape Hunt creates and talking to the franchisees about the brand, I began serious discussions with Paul Bart, the CEO of Escape Hunt, about bringing their brand to the United States.
Discussions led to us agreeing to purchase an exclusive Master Franchise covering 10 states in South-Central U.S. which includes Texas. We decided to open our first location in Houston since one of my sons, his wife and two of my grandchildren lived there. We also decided that our second location would be Dallas, since another one of my sons, his wife and 3 grandchildren lived there.
In August 2015, we found great locations in both cities for our first Escape Hunt businesses. We secured our home in Cedar Rapids and left for Houston with just the essentials of what we would need to live down here while we opened these businesses. While in Texas, we have lived either with good friends in NW Houston, in hotels, or Airbnb rentals. Talk about essentialism!
We opened the Houston location in August 2016 and the Dallas location in December 2016. We have several other locations, mostly in Texas, in the pipeline. Business has been consistently growing as word-of-mouth spreads and people become familiar with the concept of an escape room. In Houston, we have quickly risen to #3 of fun things to do in Houston as rated by TripAdvisor, the global leader in review sites for travelers. It is very satisfying to see people excited and having fun working together as a team.
We opened in Houston, offering two very fun and challenging games; ‘Theft of the Texas Lone Star’ and ‘Murder in Marylebone’. We are just finishing the build of our third game, ‘Houston, We’ve Had a Problem’ which is scheduled to open in early June and will likely become our ‘flagship game’ since Houston is the home of NASA and destination for many visitors wanting to visit the Space Center. Our game is loaded with a high degree of realism, immersion and technology.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We were surprised by how long it took us to begin construction of these first two locations. The building permitting process, especially in Houston, is not quick even though we had engaged the help of local architects and engineers. Part of the delay was due to the City being unfamiliar with how to categorize escape rooms, since the concept is new in the United States.
We were also a bit surprised by constructions costs. Our locations are comfortable and spacious (we are the largest escape room in Houston), friendly to guests with disabilities and located in great neighborhoods with restaurants, bars and parks.
Please tell us about The Escape Hunt Experience – Houston.
Escape Hunt offers a family friendly, five-star entertainment experience for our guests to be “locked” (not really locked…) in a room with others for 60 minutes. During that time, the team works together to find clues, decipher codes and solve challenges to “escape the room” within the hour. Our rooms are highly immersive as our guests are transported back to another time or place. We take a great deal of time and expense period decorating and building our rooms.
Our guests’ experience starts immediately when they walk in our front door as they step into a replica of Sherlock Holmes’ 221B Baker Street study, they are just delighted to be transported out of their routine for an enjoyable experience.
After the 60 minute escape room adventure is complete, our guests are welcomed into our comfortable lounge for complementary refreshments and the opportunity to take photos in front of our photo wall using a variety of fun props and clothing. It’s always fun to see how creative people can get as they ‘ham-it-up’.
We offer our escape room experience to the public as well as corporations and businesses who us our escape rooms for team building, celebrations, team training and employee assessments. We host parties and events of all sorts including holidays, birthdays, retirements, bachelor/bachelorette parties and graduations. We have a program for middle and high school students where they learn about teamwork and communication.
We find that our escape room appeals to a wide range of people, including Millennials, Generation Xers, co-workers, families of all ages, travelers and, of course, businesses. You must be at least 10 years old to play our games. However, there is no upper age limit.
We stand out in this entertainment venue by the quality and sophistication of our games, the friendliness of our staff, our comfortable lounge and the serving of refreshments. We offer a total quality, 5-Star experience….start to finish. We have many repeat customers.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Plan for it taking longer and costing more than originally expected.
Pricing:
- Normal ticket price: $30 per person includes free parking and post game refreshments
- Exclusive Corporate rates on request
- We offer a 15% military discount
- Gift certificates available
Contact Info:
- Address: 125 West Gray Street
Suite 100
Houston, TX 77019 - Website: houston.escapehunt.com
- Phone: 346-240-9111
- Email: houston.manager@escapehunt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapehunthou/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EscapeHuntHou/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EscapeHuntHOU
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-escape-hunt-experience-houston-3?osq=esape+hunt+houston
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g56003-d10182506-Reviews-The_Escape_Hunt_Experience-Houston_Texas.html
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