Several years ago, Vancouver residents Tamara and Rob Bertrand were supposed to go to an escape room in Portland for a friend’s birthday. Being in the entertainment industry off and on for pretty much his entire life, Rob thought that an escape room would be “stupid,” so he opted not to go. That didn’t stop Tamara from going, however, and when she returned home from the birthday adventure, she couldn’t stop raving about how awesome the escape room was.
Tamara decided that for their son’s 17th birthday, they would all go to another escape room as a family. The family was reluctant, but decided to go in order to make Tamara happy.
“(We watched our) two children actually working together, having fun and interacting in a way that (we had) never seen before,” Tamara said. “As soon as the escape room was over, Rob told (me) in the parking lot before (we) left that there was not an escape room in Vancouver and that (we) would open one so that Clark County (residents) didn’t always have to go across the river to do something unique and fun.”
Two months after that conversation, in October 2016, that idea became a reality and Rob and Tamara opened up their very first escape room in the back of their daughter’s cheerleading gym where the owner had an empty room that wasn’t being used. In January 2017, Tamara said they quickly realized that they needed to move their business to its own larger location and open more rooms. In July of 2017, NW Escape Experience moved to its current location in Hazel Dell at 1503 NE 78th St., Suite 7.
The rooms at NW Escape Experience play two to 10 players, and participants work together to find clues, solve puzzles and escape. Each room is designed and crafted around intriguing storylines set here in the Pacific Northwest, including one called Operation: D.B. Cooper. Participants have only 60 minutes to escape.
Tamara said they have seven employees, including their son Austin and daughter Hayley. When NW Escape Experience first opened, Tamara and Rob were the only employees, hiring their first actual employee in March of 2017, who still currently works for them. Since then, they have grown to their current seven employees and are looking to add an eighth as soon as their fourth escape room is opened. During their second year in business, Tamara said they increased revenue by 75% and their third year looks to have an increase of at least another 60% over last year.
“We are growing so much that we are now looking at an even larger location where we can house a total of six escape rooms and a large conference room for corporate team building events and birthday parties,” Tamara said.
Having lived in Clark County for the majority of their lives, Tamara said it was important to her and Rob to provide a unique, immersive and exciting experience for their community to keep them from having to go across the river to do something fun.
“We aim to keep the community in the community supporting local businesses,” she said. “We also strive to use local small-owned business as well. It’s very important to us to keep everything we can in our community.”
Tamara said that the escape rooms at NW Escape Experience are different from all others in the Portland Metro area because they design their own storylines, create all of their rooms from the ground up and provide a live-action experience, including actors for each of the room themes. She also said they make sure that when their customers walk into their facility, that walking up to each room, they feel completely immersed in the environment – “whether it be a serial killer’s basement, a cabin in the woods or a crazy hotel room.”
“We also thrive on giving back to the community,” Tamara said. “We donate escape room tickets to every nonprofit that asks. We feel like giving back to our community is the best way to keep the community involved and staying in Vancouver for all of their needs.”
