Lock & Key Escape Rooms founder hopes for breakout from pandemic downturn
PAWTUCKET — This certainly isn’t how Jason Siner wanted to spend the eve of the fifth anniversary of the opening of Lock & Clue Escape Rooms, located on the second and third floors of Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main St.
On this Wednesday, the afternoon before that coveted hallmark date, Siner sat in the lobby of Suite 1202 by himself, no customers, no nothing, except for an intrigued newsman and photographer interested in learning how the business had fared through the coronavirus pandemic.
Siner – co-owner of the business with his father John, and one both call “the largest escape room site in all of New England at about 8,800 square feet – admitted the crisis hasn’t been kind to them, but really, who could say it has?
Jason, however, did say he and his dad had seen some renewed interest in folks partaking in their sometimes-terrifying, sometimes-mystifying, jigsaw puzzle-like adventures since the state and federal governments loosened their year-plus-long mandate on lockdowns/safety precautions.
Jason expects the operation to come back stronger than ever, though there’s one problem: It’s happening at the wrong time of year.
“Yes, I feel like we’re getting back into the fold, but, unfortunately, by the time everyone is fully vaccinated and we’re starting to get back to normal, we’ll be back into the slow summer months again; it won’t be until next fall that we’ll actually begin to get back to normal speed,” stated Jason, a 51-year-old
Hopkinton, R.I. native, but officially still a California resident.
He returned from Hollywood about six years ago to get involved with a family business proposal he couldn’t resist.
“Obviously, when it starts to get cool again, that’s when people want to get back inside again,” he said. “Most New Englanders, in the summer, go to the beach; they want to get outdoors because they’ve been locked up in the house all winter. With COVID, it makes it even worse for (the public).
“We were allowed to reopen in September at about half-capacity; the reason we couldn’t in May or June was because we were considered in (the) theatre (category). We (other escape room business owners) all got together and joined forces; we decided to write letters to the governor and other officials to get them to clear us.
“(We wrote that) we have very small groups, that each group is isolated in its own room (where) they’re not exposed to anybody, and we can clean all the rooms and the surfaces (in between sessions),” he added. “We have to keep them clean between groups anyway, and obviously everyone was wearing masks. There are a lot of ways we shouldn’t have been classified as theatre, but we were.
“When we reopened in September, it was horrible; every once in a while, we’d have somebody coming in,” he continued. “In January and February, we started doing more business and I was able to bring back some employees. Normally this time of year, we’d be sold out. The good news is that now? On Saturdays, we’re pretty busy, surprisingly busy, for our half-schedule.”
When Lock & Clue opened five years ago, escape rooms were brand new, Siner said.
“It was something completely different to do. There were some built-in fans who had been here, but there was nothing here; they had to drive up to Boston because there were only or two.
“There was an escape room, Escape RI, which is still over on Main Street in Providence, and they were the first in the area. We were here two months later.”
As for how the younger Siner became involved in such a thing, he claimed it dates back to his youth.
Always interested in theatre, acting and the like, he landed his first professional acting gig at 13, went to some acting schools upon graduating from Chariho Regional High in 1988, and found himself in southern California approximately five years later.
I’ve always been interested in creative stuff; I went out to pursue film work and acting,” he said. “It was a natural progression. I always liked entertaining people.”
He spent decades in the Hollywood area, not only acting but writing screenplays, doing voiceovers, stunt work, commercials, theatre productions, etc., then ended up working as a scout for talent management agencies.
That all changed one day around Thanksgiving 2015; that’s when a family member called him in North Hollywood to ask if he was interested in becoming involved in what was to become “Lock & Clue.”
“I came back because I hadn’t been doing anything creative in years,” he confessed. “I had been doing the talent scouting, but what lured me to escape rooms was not only was I a big fan, but I also thought I had the skill sets necessary to be good at designing them. The reasons: My work in theatre, my creative background and my writing, but I’ve also always been in love with puzzles.
“At the time, Rhode Island was just being introduced to escape rooms; they really weren’t around here at the time, so we thought it could take off.”
He and his cohorts were right. Thanks to his ideas and creative abilities, he fashioned two rooms within 2,800-square feet, and it didn’t take long for word to spread. When it opened March 18, 2016, they sold out the first four months.
Less than a year later, because of that crazy popularity, Siner expanded the operation to include four more rooms on almost 6,000 more square feet.
“Business was booming, then COVID hit,” he said. “We had to close around March 20 (last year); by the end, we weren’t accepting any reservations, just finishing up what was left. One of the great things about being so large is that, during the busy season, which is now, we’d sell out; we’d be cranking. We’d have 1,500 people or more coming in every month.
“But having such a large space, (the downside is) we have a lot of overhead, so – when we’re closed – we still have to pay the rent, insurance, utilities, etc. So the money is still going out the door but it’s not coming back in. A lot of businesses went through that, but a lot of escape rooms around are smaller, so they don’t have quite the overhead. That part was tough.”
He also mentioned Lock & Clue no longer could book larger “team-building” endeavors for businesses, some of which drew 40 or more people.
On the more positive side, he said, people have fallen in love with his escape rooms, especially the one with a horror theme.
But first, for those “clueless” about what an escape room is or does, it’s the opposite: It’s all about using clues to escape. It’s an immersive, 60-minute, real-life adventure game in which participants are “locked” inside a themed room with a team (usually three-10 strong), and they together try to solve riddles, puzzles or clues to find their way out before “time expires.”
Siner said “Lock & Clue” has six rooms in all (and there’s one on the way), but perhaps the most popular is “Cellar II: Saul’s Revenge.
“It’s the sequel to ‘The Cellar, where (the curious) are going back to the scene to see if what police said about Saul … that ‘they took care of him’ is true,’” Siner grinned. “People are going back to investigate.”
Other “rooms/sections” include “Sorcerer’s Curse” (medieval/fantasy theme); “The Vault” (robbery/ thieves); “The Inheritance” (mystery, or an old, unknown uncle dies, but you inherit his fortune); “The Green Room” (suspense, or a lucky winners gets the chance to star in his/ her own Web series entitled, “Natural Selection”); and “The Zany Zoo” (for kids 7-11, and they can do it on their own).
“They’re all a lot of fun for the entire family,” Siner said. “Of course, horror is my genre, so if all of these rooms could have that theme, I’d do it, but you just can’t. Some people would refuse to come in for the same reason they don’t watch horror films.
“Still, it’s always fun to see people get scared in ‘Cellar II” because some get so terrified; they’re falling all over themselves. No one’s passed out, but people have bailed out, run out of the room. You this ‘Keep Out’ door here? This is where there used to be an entrance, but now it’s just for (staff use).
“I actually had somebody get so scared, they ran past the ‘serial killer’ and knock that door across the room! They were that frightened. I’ll also say that once it’s all over, people laugh after they’ve screamed their brains out because they’re laughing at themselves.”
Turns out, those petrified folks aren’t alone – that’s the same reason one international escape room magazine recently selected Siner’s “Curse II’ Saul’s Revenge” its top horror-themed “ER” around the globe.
“The thing is, there are some people who are really good at this, and some who aren’t, but we take care of both,” he stated. “Each room is constantly being watched by an operator on monitors, so he or she knows when a group has won or is having problems.
“The objective, obviously, is to have people enjoy their experience, so for those people who aren’t that good at escape rooms, if they get stuck in one place, we don’t want them to stall and get frustrated. That’s when we’ll help them along (without giving them too much information). Even a good group will stumble sometimes because they missed a clue or got confused. That’s why everybody works together.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he added. “There’s too much interest in this. The only thing holdiing us back is COVID, and it’s not gonna win.”
For those interested in experiencing an escape room at Lock & Clue, visit www. lockandclue.com and follow the prompts. It’s open Thursdays and Fridays between 5-10 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from noon-10 p.m. Registration fee per adult is $29 on Fridays-Sundays and $24 for children under 18, while kids can enter anytime for $15.