Houdini's Escape Room Experience - Greenwich — Attraction in London

Awful experience! They have missold a product/service to us and then on arrival they have just referred to their policies that were never there at the time of the purchase. Staff at the place is not trained at all and staff who I spoke to instead of trying to resolve the situation that they have created have told me to basically pay more and then they will continue or leave without a refund which was very unprofessional to say the least and very very rude. When we have arrived to the venue that I have booked for my son's birthday to go to with his friends a week ahead of this I was told that I had to go inside with them because they needed an adult to be with them. I did not want to go as I was going to be sitting inside and doing nothing as I did not want to play it. And in any case my plan was to leave them to the period of this game and come back to pick them up later as i was setting the birthday party at home. But they insisted and then asked my details and filled in the consent form. On the completion of this process I was asked to pay for an extra player as I had to go in now. I have refused as I have never intended to do so and this was never asked on their website while making the booking or paying for it. They knew the age of the players and still allowed me to purchase it. We went to another Escape room in Eltham prior to this but they would not sell you a booking unless there is an over 18 with the players who can be with them. The Houdini in Greenwich did not require it and therefore I have chosen them instead this time as I then I did not have to go in and could do smth else with my time. They have missold this to us completely and instead of apologising and asking me if I could be present there for this time around so that the kids could continue with their booking they have decided to tell me either pay or leave without any refund. Leave because if I did not agree to the extra charge and being with them inside the room they were not going to let them play and no refund because it was to late to refund me as we were already there. They create these situations and do not have any professional ethic to deal with it in a professional manner. Very very stupid attitude! It will cost them a lot of...

(I initially shared this feedback privately with the team at Houdini’s but didn’t get any response from them)

I live in the Greenwich area and had friends visiting London for the weekend, so was keen to show off the neighbourhood. Having hugely enjoyed the two other venues on the same site (Davy’s Wine Vaults and Vintners Lanes, both excellent), we had high hopes for the Titanic Escape Room.

On the plus side, our host - Sam, I think? - was great! He was really welcoming and did a brilliant job throughout. We also enjoyed the challenges, and found them to be just the right level of frustrating.

However, we were really surprised by how shabby so much of the content was. I appreciate that the nature of an escape room means some wear and tear is to be expected, but not to the extent we experienced.

So many of the props were soiled, tatty and damaged; this was especially true of the chaise lounge in the cabin and the chair in the bridge area. The heating covers hadn’t been secured properly in either room, which made both spaces feel neglected. And the wooden doors in the hallway area were so grubby that it became unpleasant, given that there’s a need to put your face against two of them while solving the puzzles.

The life jackets contained in the storage chest were so obviously dirty that we decided not to wear them; also, the passenger names had been written on them in capitals with a pen so they looked really downmarket (and jarringly unauthentic, when compared to the printed cursive versions in the promotional photos).

The bridge area in particular was a huge disappointment, especially when compared to the official images online. The ship’s wheel was covered in modern hazard tape (which I’m sure was done for a good reason, but it completely destroyed any illusion). There was no view of the front of the boat from the “windows” in the room, and there was no ladder going to an upper area – both feature on the Houdini’s website.

I’m genuinely keen to support local initiatives wherever possible so had planned a return visit later in the year to give the other two rooms a go, but don’t feel as inclined to do so unless they’re currently of a higher standard than the Titanic one (or there’s a bit of a refresh in...

Completed the Titanic room today. It was a room with such potential but unfortunately for me was let down by several things.

1. The host let down the experience for us. He seemed really unanimated and it felt like he just let us win in the end with putting us onto the next bit without us even properly completing puzzles. There was one puzzle which we left a part in another room and it still worked! I apprechiate we had kids in the party and he might of wanted them to escape but this is our 15th escape room so they are used to not always completing them. I might be wrong he either seemed very tired or under the influence of something and didnt really want to be there. It felt at times we were trying to make him laugh and it was all a bit awkward which we have never experienced with an escape room.
2. There were too many red herrings. We wasted alot of time at the beginning trying to work out things that didnt lead anywhere or were needed.
3. The system of the clues being given in person interupts the immersive experience. Every other room I have used has given clues on a speaker.
4. I am not even convinced we did everything to complete it. In the advertising pictures its shows people steering the ship and there being something on display on the screen in front. This was not the case when when we did it so either this was broken or highly misleading making the room seem higher tech then it was.

All in all it was a good concept for an escape room and we were happy to have got it at half price however I probably would have been quite disappointed if we had paid full price considering it is the same cost as some other really top notch...