Double, double, toil and trouble. Something spooky this way comes…

…No it’s not a group who says “we brought our own lockpicks”, it’s Halloween!

For many escape rooms, Halloween is the biggest revenue earner of the year. Second occasionally only to Christmas, depending on your business model. People who might not usually book an escape room suddenly find themselves wanting some seasonal scares, and escape rooms with their (often misleading) reputation for being scary are a great choice. Whether your rooms are all horror anyway, or you offer more family friendly escapes, October is the month players will be actively looking to book in.

So, ahead of then, here’s a checklist of things to work through, covering marketing, operations, and Games Master training.

Marketing Halloween Checklist

□ Decide on your Halloween plan early

Before anything else, decide what you’ll actually do for Halloween this year. You could offer a pop-up spooky escape room. Another option is to reskin one of your existing rooms to be Halloween-themed, and offer a live actor for bonus scares. Maybe late night slots for the brave of heart.

□ Build your marketing campaign timeline

Once you’ve decided what you’re doing, work backwards from that. An early “Save the Date” teaser, followed by full details and how players can get involved. Then, in the last few weeks before the big day (or big month), urgency-driven pushes can help book up those last slots. If you’re using Buzzshot’s email automation, this is a great opportunity to trickle in date-based emails that ramp up over time.

□ Segment your mailing list by audience

Not every player on your mailing list will want the same thing for Halloween. Your horror fans want the scariest experience, and your family audience wants something spooky but that they can all enjoy. This is also the perfect time to entice back your players who have 100% completed all rooms with something new and exciting like a pop-up.

□ Promote it all on social media! (with great photos!)

Halloween slots fill fast, and scarcity is a great selling point. In the lead-up, promote the event on social media, and once players start coming in to play, with Buzzshot you can automatically share their spooky photos with custom overlays to your social media platforms. Nothing sells tickets like FOMO.

Operations Halloween Checklist

□ Lock in all your staffing needs early

Halloween is one of those times that demand could outstrip your staffing level. Work out staffing needs on your busiest booked days, and confirm it with the team early. If you're using shared resources to manage staff allocation in Buzzshot, this is also a good time to double check your rules are correctly reflecting any temporary changes to your usual schedule.

□ Review your pricing for peak demand

Similarly, with a higher demand season now’s a great time to review your pricing. A temporary pricing alteration can be set-up easily, or Buzzshot’s dynamic pricing rules can take care of it for you, and help you capture demand properly.

□ Setup custom and one-off slots for seasonal experiences

If your Halloween offering is a pop-up, this might operate outside of your existing schedule - but you don’t want it to disrupt regular bookings. Custom and one-off slots are incredibly easy to set up in Buzzshot, and shared resources ensure your regular rooms are still bookable, with the capacity managed automatically.

□ Update your booking widget with custom fields

Spookier rooms have different requirements, such as a minimum age to play, intensity warnings, or a separate checkbox to consent to scares or physical content. Make sure your custom booking widget reflects that, with conditional logic so players only see the questions relevant to them.

Pier Pressure's Booking Widget

Games Master / Reception Checklist

□ Brief team on Halloween specific intros or common questions

Halloween means players' fears will be heightened - even if they’re only booking for your Alice in Wonderland themed room! Actors and Games Masters will need training on their new briefings, and safety training. Not forgetting all the new FAQs your players may have: How scary is it really? Are there any jump scares? Is there strobe lighting? Having a consistent, well-rehearsed intro will make it a smooth experience for everyone.

□ Have a clear policy on players leaving the room halfway

This time more than ever, have a clear policy on what happens if a player needs to leave halfway. Does the experience continue for the other players? Where can they go to decompress safely? Make sure every member of the team knows the answer for a smooth experience on the day.

□ Decorate the reception

This one goes without saying! Who doesn’t love a spooky reception area, complete with cobwebs and a well placed witches hat? The atmosphere starts before players have even entered the room. So have some fun with it!

□ Add some seasonal photo props

If you’re getting in extra items for decoration, it’s a great time to upgrade your photo props with a Halloween flavour. Players are much more likely to share a photo that best matches the vibe of the game they just played. Buzzshot makes it easy to add seasonal branding or photo frames automatically.

LOST Team photo at Dream Labs

□ Plan turnaround time between rooms carefully

If your Halloween experience requires extra reset time, such as for fog clearing, prop reset, or costume changes, plan that time carefully before you open bookings, not after you’ve already promised back-to-back slots.

Health and Safety Checklist

□ Review risk assessments for new seasonal elements

Any new effects, temporary builds, or modifications to your existing rooms or site needs a proper risk assessment before it goes live. If in doubt, review everything and document it carefully.

□ Check fire exists and emergency procedures still works with Halloween decor

It’s surprisingly easy for Halloween set dressing to accidentally obscure a fire exit or block an emergency route. Be sure to walk through your emergency procedures before opening.

□ Update your waiver and consent forms

As above, if your Halloween experience or marketing campaign introduces elements not covered by a standard waiver, make sure you update your waiver form before a single player books. With Buzzshot, waivers are built-in, so everything is automatically linked to the right player.

Nail Down Halloween, Before Things Get Hairy

Above everything, Halloween is meant to be fun! Not just for your players, but for you and your staff as well. The escape rooms that have their best Halloween every year are the ones who start planning back in August or September. A little planning now, no nightmares later… And whilst the hot months are still here, why not use this time to look ahead to make this year’s spooky season the best it possibly can be?

If you’re a Buzzshot user, most of what's on this checklist is already available to you. Check out segmentation, automation, broadcast emails, dynamic pricing, shared resources, waivers, and more from your Buzzshot platform now.

If you’re not yet using Buzzshot, you can start a free trial today and get your Halloween season set up with time to spare.