Resources

Opening and running a leisure venue

Direct answers to the questions project owners ask, written from the sites we have run.

Written from building sites, not from a blog.

Unit and floor area

What fits into a given area, and what to check before you sign.

What can you do with a commercial unit?
Floor area decides what fits inside, rent decides the floor area, and access decides the rest. How to read a unit before projecting a concept onto it.
What can you do with a 150 sqm unit?
At this size you are not opening a leisure venue, you are installing one attraction. Two models work, and the second one is poorly understood.
What can you do with a 300 sqm unit?
This is the size where two opposite models both work: a single activity, or five overlapping activities around a bar. We have delivered both.
What can you do with a 500 sqm unit?
At 500 sqm you have to choose between depth and breadth: one activity run at high throughput, or a complete venue around a games bar. Two delivered projects bracket this size.
What can you do with an 800 sqm unit?
At 800 sqm the real question is no longer how many activities, it is whether you open a kitchen. Otopia Le Havre chose a bar without one, and that is instructive.
What can you do with a 1,500 sqm unit?
Beyond a thousand square metres the project stops being a fit-out and becomes a construction operation. The largest venue we have designed is 1,400 sqm.
Checking a unit before you sign: the ten points
When someone sends us the drawings of a unit, twenty minutes is usually enough to know whether the project is viable. Here is what we look at, in order.
What ceiling height does a leisure venue need?
The height that matters is not the ceiling, it is what is left under the lowest point once the sets and the services are in.
How much floor area does an escape room need?
Play area is not the area you lease. What has to be added around a room, and why the calculation runs the opposite way to what people assume.

Opening a venue

The steps of an opening, in the order they arrive.

Budget

Where the money goes, item by item.

How much does it cost to build an escape room?
What actually makes up an escape room budget, line by line, and why the ranges you find online are of no use to you.

Opening and running a leisure venue

Unit and floor area

What can you do with a commercial unit?

What can you do with a 150 sqm unit?

What can you do with a 300 sqm unit?

What can you do with a 500 sqm unit?

What can you do with an 800 sqm unit?

What can you do with a 1,500 sqm unit?

Checking a unit before you sign: the ten points

What ceiling height does a leisure venue need?

How much floor area does an escape room need?

Opening a venue

How to open an escape room

How to open an indoor entertainment centre

Refreshing an escape room

Budget

How much does it cost to build an escape room?