FORT MILL, S.C. — For many people, escape rooms are fun, safe and very addicting.
The owners of Hometown Escapes on Katy Lane in Fort Mill say although COVID-19 has slowed business, it’s still ready to provide players with intriguing clues and fun mysteries.
Let’s solve the case in tonight’s CN2 Business Spotlight.
Hometown Escapes came to Fort Mill just over two years ago and has 5 different rooms with various themes.
Some include Escape The Titanic and there’s also Black Beard’s cabin where you’ll look for the last of his treasure.
And we can’t leave out Crisis at 1600. Someone sets off a nuclear launch to Russia and the White House is on lock down. You must save the world!
After shutting down because of COVID-19 in March, Hometown Escapes reopened its doors back in May.
The business is leaving more time between bookings to sanitize each room and has established different exits and entrances.
Since rooms are private with groups going in one at a time, we’re told it’s easy to manage with COVID-19 and guests are not required to wear masks.
Now, Hometown Escapes is back open in the evenings during the week.
Owner Lorie Merrill says she and her husband work together to come up with different puzzles to incorporate into each room, as well as create clues so everything is logical.
“It’s a great creative outlet building and designing the rooms, but it is so much fun watching people go through the rooms, watching how kids just react to the different things, watching how people interact with each other,” Lori Merrill said. “It is like watching the same sitcom over and over with different characters.”
Merrill is the owner of Hometown Escapes.
She says she and her husband are already planning for the next escape room – a wizards academy where you try to stop the evil wizard.
Merrill is also putting together a Halloween room, that will eventually be changed to a Christmas theme. It will then be made into an inheritance room where a woman has passed away and left her hidden will for you to find.
The escape room costs $25 per person and is designed for people of all ages.
