During pre-pandemic times, Javi Kalback, owner of Portsmouth Escape Room, would welcome 400-500 participants through the business’ four rooms each weekend. During the week, she’d host occasional events, focused on corporate team-building or youth groups.
Today, all of the group activities are suspended and individual bookings for escape room games are limited. Because of the pandemic, the rooms can only be used by one group at a time.
“It’s just your social bubble that would be attending the experience,” Kalback said.
While that’s good for safety, it’s challenging for business. Rooms that are designed to hold 10-12 people during a game — usually filled with 2-4 smaller groups of strangers — are now sometimes only booked with a couple, forcing Portsmouth Escape Rooms to take a big revenue hit.
“Even if all the slots are booked, it’s only 20-30% of [pre-pandemic] business,” Kalback said.
Despite the challenges, Kalback is confident in her business, and she’s doubling down to help it get through the pandemic. She’s currently investing in building a fifth, smaller room, designed for a maximum of four people. With that option available, she hopes to encourage couples to leave the larger rooms open for bigger groups — perhaps by setting a minimum player requirement for those rooms.
“We’re hoping that people would leave large rooms to larger groups so we can recoup a little bit,” she said.
In addition, she’s trained her staff to be able to work at least part-time from home. Normally, Kalback has one game master working for each room, “but having 4 to 5 people on site at all times when you’re slow isn’t worth it,” she said.
Game masters are important for escape rooms. They follow along and give players clues so that no one gets too frustrated and everyone has an enjoyable experience. But paying close attention to more than one game is impossible.
Now, rather than having multiple staff on site just waiting, Kalback has invested in technology to allow staff to work remotely if there’s a last minute booking. Although Kalback is still paying staff the same amount, the option for remote work allows her to streamline how many employees are on a shift, and give workers some flexibility with scheduling.
Adding to her workforce challenges, many of Kalback’s employees were college students who returned home to other areas of the state during the pandemic. Although she’s been advertising, she’s had a hard time attracting applicants, she said.
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t have enough people to be fully staffed like before,” she said.
Portsmouth Escape Rooms operates with fixed expenses between $10-15,000 a month. Kalback explored negotiating on expenses like rent and utilities, but had no luck. Although she’s breaking even — just — she hopes that by opening a new room she’ll be able to generate a bit more revenue while still honoring social distancing.
“As long as we're not losing money, I’m ok,” Kalback said. “I hope that by adding another room we’ll be making a little money.
Winter is typically the busy season for Portsmouth Escape Rooms, so Kalback is hopeful about the coming months. On social media and on her website she’s making sure that people know the precautions that the business is taking, like only allowing one group in a room at a time.
“I’m hoping that people will see escape rooms as relatively safe activity compared to other things,” she said. “We take a lot of care in trying to make it as safe as possible for everyone.
This story is part of the 50 Businesses, 50 Solutions series shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. It has now grown beyond 50, as NH businesses continue step up to face the challenges posed by the pandemic and the Collaborative continues to highlight how business leaders across the state, from mom and pop shops, to large corporations have adapted in the hope others may be able to replicate these ideas and innovations. Tell us your story here. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
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