If you run an escape room, there’s a good chance you’ve got at least one slot in your calendar marked as “Call to Book”. Maybe it’s last minute, same-day availability? Or maybe it’s certain timeslots where you’ll need to confirm staffing before committing to them? Or maybe some of your bookings require extra setup and coordination before you can say yes?

In theory, it makes sense. You need to confirm with your team that everything is in place before you can commit to that booking. So you ask your customers to call. Simple!

Except it isn’t, really. Put your hand up if you actually enjoy making phone calls. Nobody? I thought as much. The fact is, “Call to Book” has several issues, and if you’ve been running this system for a while, you might have felt some of them. Phone calls can go unanswered if you don’t have someone on-site at all times. There’s often some back and forth when you need to chase a payment, or a customer promises they’ll call back and then never do. Bookings you might never know you lost because someone went somewhere else instead.

At Buzzshot, we’ve come up with a better way, designed and built specifically for escape rooms, by our team with more than 10 years experience in this industry. It’s called Booking Requests, and it’s one of the most quietly powerful features in Buzzshot Bookings.

What Are Booking Requests?

Booking Requests are a middle ground between having your customers call to book, and letting them book in directly via the website. How it works is that players put in all of their information, Buzzshot’s system pre-authorises the payment, and then you, the owner, review that booking request to decide if you can accommodate it or not.

Same-day bookings are the most obvious use case, but it’s far from the only one. There are a few other situations where Booking Requests can work brilliantly for escape room owners and operators, including:

Staffing-depending slots

Certain games might require a certain game master. For example if the room can be played in multiple languages, you’ll need to make sure you have that specific Game Master on-site that day to run it for those players. Alternatively, some Game Masters are trained on specific games but not others. Or maybe the game needs multiple Game Masters to run it.

A new or limited experience

If you’re launching a special, limited, or one-off experience, Booking Requests might be just the ticket! Setting up a “request to book” system could let you gauge interest and demand and manage capacity accordingly before opening up automated bookings.

Corporate or Group Enquiries

Large groups? No problem! Some groups of players may need more coordination than others. With Booking Requests you can make sure you’ve got the capacity to book out special spaces for them or order in extra snacks, drinks, coffees and so on. Booking Requests give corporate, birthday, or large groups a way to register interest whilst you confirm the logistics on your end.

Experiences that need a check

And let's not forget many escape rooms have specific requirements that could benefit from a human review before confirming. Maybe it’s an 18+ room, or has special access requirements such as group limits or physical barriers. Request to book lets your team review everything is in order, without making the customer jump through hoops.

At the end of the day, you’re in full control over whether you accept a request or not. Think of it as a reservation with a handshake built in. The customer does everything on their end, then you do everything on yours, and when you’re ready to confirm it the booking thing goes through in seconds.

Request to Book at Pier Pressure

How do Booking Requests work in Buzzshot?

From the player’s perspective, it’s simple. They find the slot they want, they select it, and fill in their details - including their card details. It’s important to note no payment is taken at this point, but the card is preauthorised. What this means is the funds are reserved, but it won’t go through until the booking is confirmed.

From the owner’s perspective, it’s just as simple. You’ll receive a notification that someone has requested to book. You can review it, check the slot, confirm everything on your end, and when you’re ready simply “accept” or “reject” the booking. If accepted, the payment will be taken and the booking will be secured. If rejected, the customer will get a notification, and nothing is charged.

And to get it set up in the Buzzshot back-end, you’ll have three available options in “Booking Mode”:

• Instant Booking
• Call to Book
• Request to Book

Either toggle on “Request to Book”, which you can do so for specific slots, specific rooms, or specific times. Or, have it apply dynamically following rules and conditions you can set up to automatically apply in advance. Rules can be anything from peak pricing based on weekends and evenings, a special pricing system for different weather conditions, or even based on which staff members you have available on those dates. One of the use cases we recommend is setting up a rule so that those last-minute slots automatically switch to “Request to Book” within a certain amount of time before the session.

Booking Requests vs Call to Book

Let's be real for a second. It’s a new feature - quite literally! Many escape rooms requested it, but your players might be surprised to see it yet. And we know change is difficult. But in the meantime, what might “Call to Book” be costing you?

Firstly, there’s the drop off. A meaningful number of players probably won’t call to book. That might be a general reluctance to pick up the phone (speaking from personal experience!), maybe there’s a genuine language barrier, or maybe they did call and the phone rang out.

Secondly, there’s the problem of payment. When customers do call, you still have to take payment. Most players will turn up and pay - but some of them won’t, and that could be a hit to staff costs and missed revenue. When they do, their specific card may not be supported, or you have to hope you have the right change for cash. Taking payment over the phone isn’t a great option either.

Thirdly, there’s time! Every “call to book” is a potential phone call to handle, message to respond to, follow-ups to send. Across a busy week that could add up to a lot.

We hope that Booking Requests will solve all three. A clean notification in an easy-to-use platform, rather than a voicemail.

Pier Pressure & Booking Requests

Since releasing this new feature as part of Buzzshot Bookings, Pier Pressure - the TERPECA award-winning escape room based in Brighton - was one of the first adopters of Booking Requests when they made the switch to Buzzshot Bookings. You can read more about their experience so far in our latest blog post.

They handle over 200 bookings a week, and on-the-day bookings make up a significant portion of revenue. Players who wake up in the morning, or travel in for the day and decide they want to play an escape room.

Booking Requests changed that. "We have definitely picked up more on-the-day bookings thanks to the Booking Requests feature," says Phil Harris, co-owner of Pier Pressure. "So yes, revenue has increased."

Get Started with Booking Requests with Buzzshot Bookings

Booking Requests is now available as a part of Buzzshot Bookings. Whether you’re an existing Buzzshot user, or want to try the platform for yourself, schedule a call with Tom to see Buzzshot Bookings in action. We’ll walk you through everything.