Escape Hotel Hollywood
Hollywood, California
Cocaine: We found ourself in the office of a mob boss and soon had to solve a murder mystery in order to escape with our lives.
Zombie: A zombie apocalypse was underway and we had to track down the cure to save the human race from extinction.
Pros: The lobby was designed like a 1920s-era hotel complete with zombified bell hops and hotel staff. From the moment we walked in, we were excited to begin our adventure. The clerk took our photo and created passport books for us which further added to our excitement. We anticipated a great experience based on the initial hubbub in the lobby. Once we exited the lobby, our excitement, unfortunately, permanently checked-out of this hotel.
Cons: Once we were escorted to the escape rooms (we played two back-to-back: Cocaine and Zombie), our experience quickly degenerated into frustration and annoyance. The rooms were dark and full of clutter in the form of tools and other props that we were hesitant to touch for fear of getting our hands dirty. The puzzles defied logic and were often either overly complex or utterly incomprehensible. Our frustration was further exacerbated by game masters who were slow to respond and mostly unhelpful in providing hints or clues. In Cocaine, we stumbled our way through the awkward puzzles but had substantial difficulty solving the last puzzle because pieces were missing since the room had been improperly reset. Instead of apologizing or offering to refund our money, the game master insisted that the fault was in our game-play. When he finally agreed that the error was on the part of the staff who reset the game he simply shrugged it off and continued to remind us that we had failed to escape the room.
Don't be fooled by the glitzy lobby. Save your money for some of the much higher quality escape room experiences in So Cal.
