Escape Room Industry Craze

Escape Rooms, Exit Games, Locked Room Games and the like mainly follow a simple business model; a group of people are shut (not locked) into a room. With a back story they solve clues in order to complete the ‘game’ and escape within an allotted time.  

Research from November 2018 shows the overall industry grew by circa 5% by March 2019 with 326 escape room companies in the UK, spanning 474 venues, with 1,340 bookable games. The latest figures show another circa 3-5% growth in the last 3 months.  

This is a rapidly growing industry – the BBC stating that there were just 7 bookable games within the UK in 2013 and less than half the current total back in 2015.  

Do insurers understand? 

Although globally Escape Rooms have been around for many years, UK insurers still consider this to be an ‘emerging market’ despite existing since around 2013. With any new industry, insurers will approach with caution.  

Insurers can be quick to decline to provide terms, without an in-depth understanding of the risks/business. They prefer a knowledge and experience of industry sectors to assess the risks they could be facing to provide appropriate pricing. A lack of historical claims data can also cause the dreaded “no-quote”. 

There are many common misconceptions of escape rooms, for example; you are not actually locked in a room, in the main games are not (too) scary, they are not particularly physical more so requiring logical thinking and puzzle solving.  

This is where the help of a broker comes in, to obtain a full understanding of your business activities and risk management procedures to source the best insurance cover and terms with insurers.  

Inappropriate cover? 

Understandably, with costs in mind, many new or smaller businesses go online for their insurance, providing seemingly cheaper premiums. Ticking boxes and trying to find the ‘best fit’ for questions being asked is a dangerous practice, one that can ultimately leave you with inappropriate cover or uninsured when you need to claim.   

Does the industry require cover specific covers? 

Placing insurance for Escape Rooms requires extra care so insurers can fully understand the different activities for the correct cover to be arranged. 

There are the more standard insurance covers such as; Public Liability, Employers’ Liability, Money, Contents, Loss of Revenue etc… but other types of cover can also be considered.  

You can purchase Contract Works to insure game builds or re-builds; Personal Accident or Key Person for those members of staff who would have a financial impact on the business if they were to be injured or become ill; Engineering breakdown/business interruption insurance if a key piece of equipment were to breakdown and effect turnover; Cancellation cover – the list goes on…  

At Preston insurance Brokers, we work exclusively with a select number of insurance providers, developing their understanding of the industry, negotiating preferential rates and useful optional industry specific covers not normally included as standard.  

What can be done? USE A BROKER! 

Discuss your business in full with a broker. Ensure the business description on your policy documents is reflective of your activities and you have disclosed everything. Take on board advice regarding all the risks your business can face and how you can insure against them.  

For more information on how Aaron can help your Escape Room business, contact him on 0333 222 1191, 07540 314 891 or aaron@prestonib.co.uk