Dozens of escape game rooms are reopening this week in Quebec. They are weakened by months of closures and by the reluctance of some customers to venture into closed places. Despite everything, their operators still believe in the future of the industry, whose expansion was meteoric before the pandemic.
© Jacques Nadeau Le Devoir
Between 20% and 40% of Échappe-toi’s sales come from business activities, but with the pandemic, they almost don’t come anymore, according to its owner, Emmanuel de Gouvello.
“You must find proof of diamond trafficking,” an inspector orders Émile Ducharme, Maïté Sierra and their friend, in an obscure bar in Montreal in the 1920s.
The inspector is actually Guillaume Piché, master of the game at Échappe-toi Montréal, and the beer kegs are part of the decor. On this Tuesday, 4 p.m., the small group of friends is the first, since December 21, 2021, to try to solve an enigma in the premises of this former factory in the Sainte-Marie district.
In the company lobby, the next group are co-workers finally indulging in their canceled Christmas social. “It feels good to chat, to create friendly ties, to take your mind off things,” rejoices Jean-François Marceau. For their part, they will meet in a hockey locker room to develop a game plan allowing them to catch up with the two-goal deficit of their team.
Échappe-toi is one of the first escape game companies to have emerged in Quebec. There are currently seven game rooms there, and two more are in the process of being finalized. Its owner, Emmanuel de Gouvello, has seen the number of companies in this sector increase from three in 2014 to more than 80 today in the province.
Several of them are however in a precarious situation, estimates Mr. de Gouvello, who is at the head of the Association des jeux d’aventure du Québec, founded in the spring of 2020. During the last two years, they have been among the last activities to be allowed to reopen. They thus lost a lot of manpower. “When we reopened at the end of June 2021, we had no one left,” reports the director of operations, Mathilde Lucet.
Discouraging government message
When the game rooms were reopened, the traffic was not always there. In less than six months of opening in 2021, Mr. de Gouvello estimates that his business has only welcomed around a third of its usual annual clientele. “Even when you have the right to be open, the government tells people to limit their social contacts. However, in essence, we are a social activity,” explains Mr. de Gouvello.
The entrepreneur claims that the escape games are safe, the rooms being disinfected between each group and the ventilation being adequate. Despite everything, people are reluctant to leave their homes. “Between 20% and 40% of our sales depend on the activities of corporate teams,” he continues. However, there are almost no more customers who come from the companies. »
The owner of the Montreal chain A/Maze says he is afraid for the future of his business. “Before, we had large groups. Now people come more as a couple or in small groups. When you have two people instead of six, you make three times less money,” emphasizes Alexander Karpov.
He adds that, unlike other lines of business, their services cannot be offered online or for take-out. The pandemic, however, pushed him to develop an outdoor game offer, as well as to improve his indoor games.
A lot of escape game companies are heavily indebted. A small center located in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Vizium, opened its doors in March 2020. The company therefore did not have time to build its clientele and is not eligible for the federal financial assistance program. “We have $90,000 in debt,” says co-owner Jonathan Hamel. He says he was able to survive thanks to his other business, in the field of construction.
Despite everything, there is no question of giving up at the very beginning of this adventure. He already has reservations for the reopening of Vizium on Friday and feels motivated for what’s next.
Innovate to move forward
Échappe-toi had to close its location in Laval fairly quickly following the start of the pandemic due to rent-related issues. In the spring of 2021, the owners of Vortex Montreal and Find the Key Montreal were so discouraged that they intended to cease operations.
“I wanted to sell everything, drop everything,” says Daniel Preda, founder of Find the Key.
Mr. de Gouvello then suggested that they pool their resources. By merging, they saved overhead, reduced paperwork, and took advantage of each other’s strengths.
Escape room owners are now looking to the future with more hope. They are convinced that customers want to return to games and that it will always be possible to attract them with a more innovative offer. The games developed today include technologies, sometimes even virtual reality components, to create more and more surprises and wonder, underlines Mr. de Gouvello.
The owner of Escaparium in Dorval and Laval, Jonathan Driscoll, says he invested more than $500,000 for a single game. He employs 15 full-time people to create the story, sets and special effects for his rooms.
“Our dream is to be the Disney of escape rooms,” says Driscoll.
He notes that players are more and more demanding and that it is therefore more difficult today to enter this market with modest investments. Contrary to what it has been in recent years, this industry is therefore no longer an El Dorado for small entrepreneurs, but is being transformed to offer new experiences to lovers of puzzles and thrills.