The Hotel

Brilliant room that deserves all the praise. Varied hi-tech puzzles, spooky atmosphere (without being truly scary), and a cool choose-your-own-adventure slant towards the end. Every Riddle Room is fantastic but this one might be the best (along with The Mine).

The true definition of an exceptional escape room and in my opinion, Riddle Room’s masterpiece. A completely tech-based room, there is not a single padlock to be found throughout the entire experience, a real testament to owners Chris and Jesse’s technical expertise. Between this and The Nightmare, The Hotel is head and shoulders the more frightening and immersive experience of the two, with top tier sound and lighting design I felt on edge from start to finish. It is genuinely hard to find the words for this one as absolutely everything was perfect here, the design, the flow, the choice of puzzles, the method of storytelling, all of it combined to be the best, most well-rounded escape room you’ll find in Canberra. Bravo.

Probably the room I was most excited about coming into our playthrough and I absolutely loved it. Challenging, atmospheric, story-driven, this room had everything I'm looking for and more. I had multiple moments of awe where it had me genuinely feeling like I had stepped into an old-school hotel, the attention to detail is truly second to none. The perfect mix of actual scares and fakeouts, I was impressed at every single turn. The puzzles were quite challenging with a great amount of content to fill your time limit. They were all well-themed culminating in a branching narrative which has multiple endings, a great touch and one that fits the horror genre well. The game necessitates 4+ players across multiple puzzles but I think with the amount of content and difficulty of the puzzles inside this is probably for the best. As a bonus, more people get to experience this room which can only be a good thing, it is fantastic. The storyline is not only very apparent but also drives you throughout, especially in the last section where a lot of rooms can fade, this one shone. I can't say much more other than play it. I don't care if you live in another state or even another country, the trip is certainly worth it.

We came down to the Riddle Room. Felt butterflies. Impending doom? First room attempt was the Hotel. Check-in empty. Should ring no bell. Tasked to find a special stone. Asked in kind to go atone. The vibes were great. Spooky effects. No time to wait or self reflect. All mechanisms. No locks in sight. Was it scary? A minor fright... Fun room to play and built so well. Go book a stay at the Hotel.

The room was awesome and very immersive. I can very much see why this room won an award. I wasn’t expecting the room to be so dark, and as someone with a minor fear of the dark, I found this difficult to keep going, occasionally.

We did this room as a group of four, it was our first of three escape rooms that we did on the day. Really liked the interior design of the escape room and that it was more spacious. Had lots of things to look at so at no point did it feel like I was bored even when others were solving a puzzle. The atmosphere was great and contributed well to the theme of the room. There was only one puzzle I really disliked and mainly because it was a bit time consuming and the fact that I'm not a huge fan of having to read a bunch of text to solve puzzles (but that's just me). Other than that it was fun and loved that there were no padlock and key based locks in this one.

We completed The Hotel as a group of 4. It was a very immersive experience and the set design was beautiful. It was a little scary but not as bad as I feared. There were no padlocks or number locks to be seen and it had some really unique and creative puzzles. Overall, it was a great experience and I would highly recommend!

Hotel was our fourth room at Riddle Room and my 39th overall. The atmosphere in Hotel is both thematically intense and dimly lit, creating an eerie experience. There are a couple of jump scares, but they are pretty tame and only add to the overall ambiance. The room boasts a plethora of puzzles, encompassing a brilliant variety of both tech and more traditional observation puzzles. The quality of the theming in Hotel is exceptional, reminiscent of the high standards seen in Cipher Room. We all felt like we had been transported to another place and time. The props all made sense in the space, and the sounds and lighting were perfect, as were the wall and floor treatments. The room design and the backstory are fantastic, continuing seamlessly throughout the experience. The puzzles all link to the backstory flawlessly, and all the spaces in the experience are well considered and well designed. Overall, Hotel is a fantastic room. It is an escape room enthusiast’s dream, ticking all the boxes that enthusiasts look for—off-the-charts theming and immersion, a strong storyline, and unique puzzles. We were thrilled to manage an escape with about 5 minutes remaining.

Incredible. Really clever ways of getting the team to work together. Great atmosphere and story.