There is fun to be had with colleagues, friends, and family in an escape room. 

While the activity itself is low-risk, COVID and the close quarters in which people participate in your activity have significantly raised the stakes. 

As COVID vaccines are distributed and the risk winds down, your escape game business is likely to reopen if it hasn’t already.  

Escape room business owners know that a top-notch waiver has always been essential to keep customers safe while also protecting their business. With the risk of contracting COVID still a reality, adding COVID-19 liability waiver clauses to the mix is essential.

Many businesses are now using COVID-19 waivers to protect their businesses, particularly those where participants need to be in close quarters like spas or hair salons. 

A waiver makes sure that your customers are aware of the risks and fully understand the COVID-19 safety procedures you’re asking them to follow. 

Read on to learn more about how you can protect your customers so they feel safe when participating in COVID and how to add a COVID release of liability clause to your waiver.

Protect your patrons in the age of COVID-19

As an adventure business owner, you’re already well aware of the need to mitigate risk for your customers. A waiver can only protect your business when you’re taking every possible measure to prevent your customers from injury or illness. 

You already have a plan in place to protect your customers in the event of a fire or natural disaster. Or in the event of sudden illness or an anxiety attack. These procedures are crucial to avoiding gross negligence claims in an injury and essential for your insurance eligibility. 

Until such time that COVID is no longer a national emergency, you need to add COVID precautions to your risk management plan as well.

It’s important to follow your State and local COVID-19 guidelines for indoor businesses to remain open safely. Some of the many precautions you should be implementing include:

• The wearing of face coverings at all times within your facility should be mandatory for both staff and customers.
• The time between games must be staggered to allow for a complete sanitization of all surfaces
• Hand sanitizer should be readily available both in the lobby and escape rooms themselves.
• Reduce the capacity of your games down to a maximum of 10 players to avoid overcrowding your game spaces or halls.
• Waivers should be signed before arriving or on the customer’s device (more on this below).
• Staff should maintain a 6-foot distance from customers at all times. Teams should have designated spots in the lobby to ensure customers are entirely physically distant.
• All employees must pre-screen before they enter your facility.
• All games must be by private booking, allowing no walk-ins or last-minute additions. 
• You can also look into better indoor air filtration systems to help prevent infection spread.

These measures will help mitigate the risk of contracting COVID, but there is still risk all the same. That’s why adding a COVID clause is a necessity.

How to write an escape game COVID-19 waiver

A strong COVID-19 release and discharge clause will include the following:

• An acknowledgement of the current status of the coronavirus pandemic as a national emergency
• An acknowledgement that you have implemented preventative measures to protect the customer
• An acknowledgement that despite this, you can not eliminate the risk of contracting COVID at your facility
• A release of liability clause in which the participant agrees that they accept the risks of contracting COVID, including personal injury, illness, permanent disability, and death

Here’s a great example from 601 Escape Rooms of a COVID-19 release of liability escape room waiver template clause: 

The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has been declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 is extremely contagious and is believed to spread mainly from person-to-person contact. As a result, federal, state, and local governments and federal and state health agencies recommend social distancing and have, in many locations, prohibited the congregation of groups of people. 

Escape Rooms 601, LLC (“601 Escape Rooms”) has put in place preventative measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19; however, we cannot guarantee that you or your child(ren) will not become infected with COVID-19. Further, taking part in an escape room could increase your risk, and your child(ren)’s risk of contracting COVID-19. 

By signing this agreement, I acknowledge the contagious nature of COVID-19 and voluntarily assume the risk that my child(ren) and I may be exposed to or infected by COVID-19 by taking part in an escape room and that such exposure or infection may result in personal injury, illness, permanent disability, and death. 

I understand that the risk of becoming exposed to or infected by COVID-19 at 601 Escape Rooms may result from the actions, omissions, or negligence of myself and others, including, but not limited to, escape room employees volunteers, and program participants and their families. 

I voluntarily agree to assume all of the foregoing risks and accept sole responsibility for any injury to my child(ren) or myself (including, but not limited to, personal injury, disability and death), illness, damage, loss, claim, liability, or expense, of any kind, that I or my child(ren) may experience or incur in connection with my child(ren)’s or my attendance at 601 Escape Rooms. (“Claims”). 

On my behalf, and on behalf of my children, I hereby release, covenant not to sue, discharge, and hold harmless 601 Escape Rooms, its employees, agents, and representatives, of and from the Claims, including all liabilities, claims, actions, damages, costs or expenses of any kind arising out of or relating thereto. 

I understand and agree that this release includes any Claims based on the actions, omissions, or negligence of 601 Escape Rooms, its employees, agents, and representatives, whether a COVID-19 infection occurs before, during, or after participation in any 601 Escape Room activity. 

To ensure the clauses are legally defensible in your region, we always recommend consulting with a lawyer when making modifications to your waiver.

To help avoid needing participants to sign waivers in your lobby during COVID, many choose to use escape room online waivers so they can have patrons sign on a device before visiting.

That’s why escape room businesses love WaiverForever!

The benefits of using an electronic waiver service

COVID-19 has upended all of our lives and added a whole layer of complication to running your escape room business. Let WaiverForever make your COVID-19 waiver signing easy and safe.

Escape rooms love WaiverForever for its ease of use and options for sending waivers to clients. Not to mention no more paper waivers to store. 

Our waiver service works in browsers on both desktop and mobile – just send them the link or set up a QR code, and you’re good to go. Waivers are stored securely in the cloud, and our security protocols support legal digital signatures.

We encourage you to learn more about WaiverForever and start your unlimited free trial. It’s time to streamline your processes during the pandemic, to enhance your business now and well into the future.