Bates Motel Escape Rooms — Attraction in West Chester

After a poor experience with the Bates Manor room in June of last year we were not planning to return for the other rooms at Bates Escape. We decided to give the location another try since they were offering a coupon for the Countdown room, and hoped this experience would make us want to return for the other rooms. I wish we had stuck to our gut and not gone back at all. Countdown was even worse than Bates Manor, and it honestly was the worst “escape room” I’ve seen in my 2 ½ years and 25+ rooms. I use quotes because I don’t believe this can even be considered an escape room. If it was my first experience with an escape room I never would’ve done another.

The experience starts off with an abrasive and, frankly, sexist “admiral” yelling instructions at you about North Korean missiles. The premise is both too real and too ridiculous in a way that majorly detracts from any immersion that the set provides. The admiral continues to yell at you and use offensive idioms throughout the adventure under the premise of updating your orders and helping the mission. It’s 2018; there is no excuse for the use of “off like a prom dress in May” in any context. In addition to being loud and uncomfortable, the admiral eats up time while you wait for him to finish the same instructions that eventually appear on screen. On the subject of time, there is NO REASON for the timer to be counting down in only seconds. No one, not even the military, refers to an hour as 3600 seconds and only counts down in seconds. If Bates wanted a clock that would raise the stakes for players and manufacture a sense of urgency then one should be programmed to rapidly count down the milliseconds as well as displaying the minutes and seconds.

I will say that the decor is very immersive. Bates Escape never seems to skimp on the set decorations that make their rooms transport you to wherever you’re supposed to be. In most cases that is a great thing, but in this room it seems to actually hinder game play. Poorly lit rooms are burdened with a multitude of superfluous props that just wastes time instead of actually adding a difficulty level to the game. Fifteen minutes into the game I already no longer cared about even finishing and just wanted out.

If you are interested in a submarine simulation that involves repeatedly following the same set of instructions while being yelled at and having extremely loud alarms sound in your ear, then this is the room for you. If you’re interested in an actual escape room that involves solving clever puzzles then I would steer clear. We counted a total of 2 puzzles that actually needed to be solved. Everything else was just guessing or following step by step instructions. If I wanted to follow written instructions to the letter I would’ve put together an Ikea bookshelf. It probably would’ve been more mentally challenging. The real tragedy is the ease with which the rooms at Bates could be some of the best around. Marrying technology into an escape room should make a fun experience with a sense of accomplishment. This was an entire room of “ok fine, what’s next…”. There were no “a-ha” moments and no pride at figuring anything out. We will not return to...

It was an ok experience for the escape room. Definitely seems like an entertainment place that also does escape rooms, rather than strictly an escape room venue. The room we did was designed well, was interesting, was physically a little small and definitely not in depth enough for 10 people to adequately have a good time. Our group was 6 people, and the room may have been well enough for just our group. Adding the extra 4 people in from the other group.. at least 3 to 5 people were generally just standing around at any given time.

We did the "Bates Motel" room. Story wise, I didn't get it. The constructed story was more about a Mr. Bates character as opposed to being related to the Bates Motel, as you may be led to believe from the imagery and advertising for the room, that was mildly disappointing. The room itself was very linear. Once you found the few things in the first room and got in to the next, you were done with the first room and the entire group was ready to move on, or just sitting around waiting behind for others to progress because there wasn't enough to do for that many people or the space too small. Some of the clues were intuitive and entertaining, not just a "find the key and open the lock" type room, which I appreciated. Overall, I'd rate the room a grade of B-

Pros: decent puzzle content, visually appealing, automation of puzzles

Cons: lack of content for number of people (profit over content), our "game master(s) (yes, multiples) seemingly were not often paying attention. Multiple times we asked for a clue, clarification on a code, or for help with the multiple puzzles that weren't reset correctly. We had a key jammed in a puzzle, a word lock that had letters completely erased from th dials so you have no clue what you're trying to spell and leaves you guessing, a lot of unused "junk" documents that had nothing to do with any puzzles, and the worst was an instruction sheet with the 4th number to open a safe was locked inside the safe itself.. and the game master, well, employee was quick to shift that blame on to someone else who was careless in resetting the room. I would really refer to them as employees and not game masters for this location. Other places I've gone, you have a dedicated GM, watching your game and paying attention to help with any clues or direction if needed, or able to help with any issues that arise with the room. When 10 people have to wave and yell to get their attention because they're too busy talking to each other.. it was easy to tell that our room was not being "actively monitored" at all.

Would probably visit to try other room, but would definitely lower my...

Let me start off by saying the rooms are gorgeous. The puzzles are very thematic and are what I would consider to be more Escape Room 2.0 (Less Traditional Locks, more mechanics/magnetic/sensors). Overall they are some of the most polished experiences that I have played outside of Orlando.

Now for the 2 stars... On two separate occasions we had game guides/assistance who were hands down the worst customer service we have had for any escape room. When interacting with them for assistance on a particular clue they were condescending in their suggestions, with apparent frustration and arrogance that their direction did not result in instantaneous solutions. For someone who has done nearly 45 room it was a very odd experience to witness. Assuming that it was a one-time thing or that the individual was having a bad day, we did a different room on a different date with yet another interesting customer service incident. Towards the end of the challenge we had a game representative randomly enter the room without prompt and proceed to take the initiative to show a pair of players how to solve something they were stuck on, again with an odd attitude. It was at this point that we agreed despite high production value that they did not merit anymore of our business and we have not been back since (Which is a shame, because their other two rooms are probably fantastic).

Outside of this, the rooms and atmosphere are great, but their employees make them feel like the Comcast of Escape Rooms, decent product but terrible customer service, except there are plenty of competitors...