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“Escape room pandemic” are words that have been heard often associated in this recent period. Some people may have used them to search for a particular escape room, while today we want to bring you the testimony of Paul, one of the owners of FugaceMente Monza. We interviewed him last week to assess the impact the coronavirus has had on his business and just to understand more about “escape room Pandemic.”
With Paul we also talked about possible solutions in the digital world and beyond, future plans and good intentions, as well as about the escape room pandemic, with a wish for the whole world of work regarding the pandemic.
Following the measures taken in March, with the closure of all activities, except those basic necessities, how did you experience those months firsthand and as an escape room owner?
I, like the other two partners, fortunately have a primary job in a company.
As for the escape room, we are renting both locations and the owners fortunately understood the exhibition situation by coming to us with facilities. So despite the closure, we have not suffered a serious loss. The guys who work with us-about a dozen-are on call contracts, while the two managers have a permanent contract and as a result they were able to have layoffs; so they, too, did not suffer harm.
So the closure has not drastically affected your business?
The first one no, now we will see how this second closure imposed on us by the government will carry over once we can reopen to our clients.
During the lockdown did you decide to explore other avenues?
We are always looking for innovations and do not want to stop at just the physical location. Now time does not allow us to do that, but if we were in spring we could have thought of a variant of outdoor escape room we could have thought of something outdoors. One example that comes to mind is that being near Monza Park, we could have made an itinerary within the park. One could have started with the backpack on one’s shoulders from one location and arrived thanks to clues to our second location. Obviously all this without time limit but to bring families and friends together after this difficult time.
During the lockdown, however, another possibility was offered by MysterU.
Did you reopen once the lockdown ended? If yes, how did you do so, in compliance with normative regulations?
As soon as it was possible, we decided to open, not so much to make money because let’s face it, it’s not like an escape room gives you big profits and the ones you make you put back into renovating the room, but to allow our guys to work above all. Also, by reopening we thought we would give a chance to all the people who have been cooped up at home these past few months to have some fun and breathe an air of normalcy.
All of course following the protocols of the various dpcm, then sanitizing the rooms each time. We also bought a tool that allows us to sanitize everything in 5 minutes, plus the time to air (before we did it with the sprayer losing approximately half an hour per room). We have also decreased the sessions so as not to bring clients together; we started with 4 participants at a time, then in August/September we went as far as having 6 people play, all with the well-known forms of personal self-certification.
We had a 60/70% turnout compared to pre-covid levels, which we did not see for the Milan escape, which were almost always at zero. In short, we considered ourselves a happy island.
So during the reopening there was not that drop that might have been expected?
Absolutely not. We were so satisfied that we said to ourselves, “If we go like this we will quickly go back to 100%.”
However I guess with the new dpcm you had to close everything again?
Yes, we were able to go on a couple of weeks because it was still not clear whether we we had to close: our category is strange, it does not fall under either “cinema/theater “or “gambling halls.” We always ask the municipality anyway. So now we are closed.
And since you are closed, how are you doing, both in terms of closure and possible reopening? Do you already have something in mind?
We will definitely reopen using the arrangements from the first reopening. We saw that they worked; people trusted them. Right now we are focusing on fixing up the rooms; since we have few moments during the year to do a full checkup, consequently this is the time! We have been reviewing the games and fixing and improving them. In addition, we are continuing the collaboration with the MysterU project.
Given your collaboration with this project, what do you think about the implementation of online escape room projects? Are they seen as unfair competition or ally?
In my opinion, coming to play physically is priceless, and people who like escapes will continue to do the physical rooms. However, for those who have physical difficulties or whatever, the digital escape room goes quite well to replace the physical escape room. I don’t see them as competitors, but as allies, because they can help us out.
So, in addition to being a valuable substitute am I also an ally? In your opinion, can something be accomplished that straddles the two?
In my opinion yes also because then, in the case of MysterU they are moving to augmented reality which gives the possibility of having many more rooms in one location (and many more themes). The whole package can only help, I see no conflict.
About MysterU, what do you think?Â
I played one of their cases with my masters, it was complicated and we had a good night, we had fun!
In conclusion, a wish you want to make to you and all those who run escape rooms and recreational activities for 2021?
I know what it is like not to work so I wish everyone at least the chance to make a decent living, also because those who have a business also have a family behind them. So, the wish is definitely to go back to work. Us first and foremost, I’m not saying at 100% but maybe even just at the levels we were at this summer, especially to get our kids working.
It is clear from this interview how the escape room pandemic has affected the personal and working lives of many owners, fortunately we never let go and try to reinvent ourselves.
