Smart Escape — Attraction in Towson

Wish it was possible to give 0 or negative stars. My wife and I came in as walk-ins yesterday to try and book a room and we received by far the worst customer experience to date. No one was out or available to help us immediately. We probably waited a full two minutes until someone spoke to us. And then after finally getting to speak with someone our ENTIRE conversation felt like we were bothering the hosts and were being a burden by being there. We came in to inquire about the rooms at this escape room, considering we LOVE escape rooms and were potentially willing to do MULTIPLE rooms with our friends. But every question we asked came with a fast and almost smart or snarky remark. We asked which rooms are the most difficult and the host, who refused to give her name, said that they are ALL equally hard. We then asked which are more popular so that we could make the best decision for our first game and she again stated that they were all fun. We felt like a burden to this place that we were genuinely excited about potentially going to spend our money on this business. It does not help that we are African-American and felt like from the first moment we entered, we were being racially profiled. We asked about available rooms and were immedaietly brushed off and told nothing was avaialble until later while ACTIVELY seeing multiple rooms availble on their website on our phones. After showing the female host who would not tell us her name, she said without referencing any database that the rooms we saw were in the process of being booked. The host tried to "explain" her apprehension towards us on the fact that they had "recently been robbed", but honestly if that was true and she was so uncomfortable dealing with guests after this occurence, then maybe Smart Escape should either hire security or the host should not work there anymore. As an African-American who has to deal with potentially being racially profiled for no good reason, it was a slap in the face to come to this establishment wanting to pay and support it and to then be immediately profiled and written off as potetially harmful people when all we wanted to do was do a fun escape room and get some information on the available rooms. I don't advise anyone who wants to have even a remotely good time to even look in the direction of...

UPDATE: Review from July 31,2021 Did the Ring Room

All and all the Ring Room is incredibly awesome room with cool effects, interesting twists and tech.

Smart Escape did make up for the poor experience our team had earlier in the month. Our experience this time was a billion times better than that we had with the Robbery Room.

The interactions with the staff was a completely different. They were attentive and helpful. The room was functional. And my team and I were happy we gave Smart Escape another try.

My feedback from is there were a few things that could be tweaked to make the over all flow of the room better. I suggest that in the future when opening new rooms, offer a few seasoned escape room enthusiast (not from your venue) to play test your rooms. This will give you insight on things users will encounter so that you can create even better experiences for your clients.

Review from July 6th Did the Bank Robbery Room Cool gadgets horrible follow through. At the beginning we were asked over and over if we wanted a clue. We had to repeatedly say no. It was like being on a date with a collage dude- “Smart Escape, no means no”. When we did ask for a clue, we waited 4 minutes (the person who was supposed to be watching our room said “sorry was on a snack run”). Your on a snack run when we spent 90 dollars on your room? Yikes! When we asked about if we had entered a code correct it took another 3 minutes for some one to respond. Speaking of codes. Some of the codes required # or B after numbers but there was NO indication. You had to figure it out. For example we entered the phone currently 7-8 times and nothing happened. When the person finally answered us minutes later told us “oh you have the code correct you have to do a # after the number”. About 12 minutes of our time was wasted on waiting for responses, that is inexcusable. If nothing else Smart Escape should have added time the clock or offered a refund. Neither happened. Basically this room was what you would expect for an escape room that was in testing, not for a room $30 a head. P.S This review is from someone who has done over 60 escape rooms and has play tested...

We have done 30+ escape rooms so I'd like to think we are seasoned pros who know what makes a good room. This was a disappointment on most levels. The set design was good, but that's about all I can say. Several puzzles didn't make sense and the tech was not very intuitive. Often times the puzzle was solved by guessing and checking than having a logical solution or something in the room pointing you in the right direction.

The bigger problem was the staff. A few times it was evident that the game master was not watching at all. We waited several minutes for a clue and had to wave multiple times. We asked for clues and didn't get them at times. And then when the game was over, we were not by the door as this was a multi room experience and the staff member just opened the door in the other room and waited for us to come out rather than come in, answer questions, debrief, etc. In literally every other of the 30+ games we've done, the game master comes in and gives a debrief, explains tough puzzles, etc whether we win or lose. This staff member basically opened the door and then got angry at us when we didn't leave immediately. No asking if we had questions, no thanking us, no nothing. Most places come and take a picture or at least say thank you. She didn't say a word as we left, and there was nobody in the lobby to see us off. We felt as if we had inconvenienced the staff by being there, and this was after we already felt like they weren't even watching the game while we were playing.

This was disappointing on...