TROPIC ESCAPE ROOMS – BONITA SPRINGS, FLORIDA

Using The Unique to Bring Customers back at Tropic Escape Room

When Tropic Escape Room adds a new room to their business, they ask themselves, “What’s going to be unique? What haven’t we seen done before?”

Manager Maddox explains. In Almost Famous, the players are a band who have to quickly finish their album while their lead singer attempts to betray them. In Sugar Rush, you have to spruce up an old candy factory and produce a legendary piece of candy. So when they were left with a spare room that wasn’t big enough to host its own escape room, they knew they needed something — but that something had to fit their approach of pushing for uniqueness.

“I felt that we needed something. Something new, something different. When we were approached by vrCAVE and we looked into it, we really thought it would be the next cool thing.”

With vrCAVE’s VR escape rooms, they’re able to run 9 full length escape room experiences, for up to 5 players walking freely around the same space, in a small 17’ x 20’ footprint. With the click of a button, they can launch their customers into space to save the world, take them on an adventure through time, or challenge them to prove their worth as full-fledged ninjas.

Positioning Escape Rooms, Traditional and VR

VR escape rooms aren’t out to replace traditional escape rooms, but complement them by providing a thrilling customer experience that slots in right along them and providing you, the owner, with eight more chances to win return business.

Escape room enthusiasts are often happy to work through all the available rooms in their area, and more casual fans are likely to come back at least once if the quality’s there. Tropic has found that the crossover interest in VR escape rooms is very much there.

“Our VR rooms go really well together with our regular rooms. We see people kind of doing the same methods they do in our regular escape rooms.

“They go around, they look around the walls, they look around on tables, you know, same thing with the VR rooms. We see people using the same methods across both rooms, it definitely feels like an escape room inside. I’ve had people tell me it feels like a real life escape room.”

Common clientele include the same people they’d see for the physical escape rooms. Lots of date nights, friends, and family groups. But being in Bonita Springs, Florida, there’s much more: tourists. And with that comes one tough competitor: the beach.

But they work with this, theming their location around it (particularly their Castaway escape room). And the flipside of it is that in Florida, it’s not sunny all the time. In a typical year, they’re going to see more than 100 rainy days. And when you’ve got tourists, bad weather, and you’re running an indoor entertainment business, you’ve got an opportunity.

“We get a lot of customers when it starts to rain. You know, when it starts raining at the beach, you don’t want to be there anymore. They find something inside to do. Escape rooms are typically people’s number one or top five choices to go to for indoor activities. and VR escape rooms as well.”

Whatever brings them to Tropic, one thing’s certain: the reaction.

“The customers are usually ecstatic. They’re very excited. They’re very happy. And I see people give each other hugs. I see some jumping in excitement, high fives. People are always asking what’s the next one that I can do?”

Repeat Business with VR Escape Rooms, Again and Again

The good news with VR escape rooms of course, is that because you can fit 8 experiences in a single space, there’s plenty waiting for anyone who wants to do “the next one”.

Even better than that, if they’re really ready to go, you can get a group in immediately. There are no room resets with VR escape rooms. No prop inspections and repairs. No need to relock padlocks and put things back where they’re supposed to go, fiddle with electronics, or reset mechanics. You just bring them back to the virtual lobby with one click, and start them on their next game with another.

“I had this group, it was a little date night for them. They came in and did one of the VR rooms. They finished it, loved it. They actually did better than the average for our location. and did end up rebooking for another one. And, you know, it was pretty exciting. They were going to try it again, and it’s still newer for us. So it was nice to see them try it again.

“And then after the second one, they decided to book for a third one, same night. And it was a pretty memorable experience. I remember I stayed about 30 minutes late just to let them do that extra one because I wanted to see them do it again.”

And with experiences that compelling, you bet that along with repeat business, you’re going to get some good reviews.

“We had an amazing experience,” Maddox shared from one. “We absolutely recommend VR. After we did the first one, we had to try another one and another one.”

Not much is better for a business owner than a customer talking about how they had to keep coming back!

Installing and Operating vrCAVE VR Escape Rooms

vrCAVE allows for a streamlined hardware implementation allowing business owners to flexibly install the system according to what works for them. All you need to do is decide on your headsets and accessories, purchase a computer and router, and prepare your room with basic tracking essentials. And VR is always available to help.

“So setting up vrCAVE was actually pretty easy. We followed the instructions like shown and it worked really easily. We were offered a video meeting to help us out, but we really didn’t need it.

“Everything worked as expected. When we had questions, we emailed vrCAVE, and they emailed us back the same day.”

In Tropic Escape Room’s case, they chose an empty room with their own wall decorations and a cart they can move in and out of the playspace housing the headsets. Their operator computer is in a separate room, but they’re able to monitor the action and ensure things are working smoothly.

Of course, actually operating the games is a breeze, thanks in part to a built-in system of automated hints.

“I love the automated hint system. It is one of my favorite things. It’s something we want to try to do with our real rooms, some kind of automation, but having it in VR was an absolute yes for us. Being able to let them get clues on their own when they want them is very convenient.”

Rather than having to constantly monitor and be available to give an appropriate clue to a group based on their progress, vrCAVE’s system already knows that. This eases the demand on the game master, freeing them up to keep tabs on groups in the physical rooms, customers at the front desk, or any other tasks.

“The fact that the clues are pre-created, we don’t have to worry about managing where they’re at in the game, but the system takes over and lets them get clues when they want it. It does help the game master a little bit as well, keeping them from doing so much at one time.”

Get Started In One Week

How would you like to get vrCAVE VR escape rooms in your own escape room business? Whether you’ve got a storage room you’re looking to monetize or physical room that’s not performing well enough, you could be welcoming your first VR customers in as little as a week. Just get in contact with us below now, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know so you can attract and retain customers just like Tropic Escape Room did. We can even send you a full demo of the games so you can test them out in your space and be fully assured they’ll work for you. Don’t wait — there’s no larger selection of free-roam VR escape rooms available anywhere!