Hens party, Melbourne
Kick off the hens with something you will all remember
Sixty-plus minutes of competitive, high-energy fun before you head out for the rest of the night. Split the group across rooms and see which team escapes first.
Friday and Saturday evenings are the first to disappear, often weeks out. Lock the date before the group finishes deciding.
Why Rush
A hens night that is not just another bar
Start the night with something everyone will be talking about at the wedding. Split into teams, race the clock, then spill straight out to dinner and drinks nearby.
Built around your night
We recommend evening sessions from 6pm so you can play, then head straight out for the rest of the celebration.
Everyone plays at once
We split your group across rooms running at the same time, up to 6 at South Yarra, so no one is left waiting.
Naturally competitive
Two or more teams, one clock. Everyone compares times at the end, and it gets loud.
Drinks sorted
Every venue is surrounded by bars and restaurants within walking distance for the after-party.
Rooms we would pick
The rooms with the most energy
Pick the vibe that suits the group, from an epic fantasy and a fast spy mission to a stylish dark Wonderland or a full horror hit.
Game of the DragonSouth YarraA fantasy quest with the largest capacity we run, for keeping more of the group in one room.
Secret Agent ManSouth YarraFast, funny and impossible to sit out, which is what a mixed hens group needs.
Alice in WonderlandSt KildaStrange, beautiful and the best-looking room we have for photographs.
Strangest ThingHawthornEighties nostalgia and a mystery, spooky enough to be fun without frightening anyone.
HackSawHawthornThe visceral one. Only for a group that has actually asked for it.
Plan your group
How big is the hens group?
Put the headcount in for a quick estimate. Filling each room brings the per-head figure down, so an even split across rooms costs less than an uneven one.
Estimated at standard rates, from $70 a head in a full room of six. Evening and weekend times are confirmed at booking, and a guest who drops out costs you nothing.
Book your roomGood to know
The practical bits
Can we play in the evening?
Yes. For hens groups we recommend evening sessions from 6pm onwards, which leaves the rest of the night free for dinner and drinks.
Can we drink before we play?
The game needs a clear head to be any fun, so we ask that you save the drinks for afterwards. The good news is the bars are a short walk away.
What ages are suitable?
Everything we run suits adults, and the difficulty and fright ratings vary widely across the sixteen. Tell us the mood you are after and we will shortlist two or three that fit the group.
Lock in the hens
Send your date and numbers and we will set up the best combination of rooms for your crew.
The first thing in the night, not the whole night
A hens night is a schedule problem wearing a party costume. Fifteen people, one of whom cannot be disappointed, several who do not know each other, a dinner booking somewhere, and an organiser who has been managing a group chat for six weeks.
An escape room is very good at the opening act and poor as the entire evening. Sixty minutes, everybody talking to each other by the end of it, no seating plan and nothing to sit through. Then the group walks out with something to talk about and the actual night starts.
Book it early in the day, not late
The single most common scheduling error is putting the room at the end. It reads well on paper and it does not work, for two reasons.
An escape room is a participation activity. It needs people paying attention and moving around, which is the opposite of where a group is at ten at night after several hours of celebrating. And it works as an icebreaker, which is only useful before the part of the night where everyone is supposed to already be relaxed.
Put it in the late afternoon or early evening. The group arrives as a set of separate friendship circles and leaves as one, which is precisely what the rest of the night needs.
Splitting a group of eight to twenty
Above six you take several rooms running at once. Who goes where is worth ten minutes of thought.
- Split by nerve, not by friendship group. A hens group is almost never uniform on how frightening it wants the hour to be, and mixing the enthusiastic with the reluctant produces one room where half the players are miserable.
- Break up the cliques deliberately. School friends in one room and work friends in another means everyone leaves knowing exactly the people they arrived with. Mixing them is the whole point of doing something with a task in it.
- The bride picks her own room first and everything else arranges around that. It is the one preference that outranks the rest.
- Same start time across every room, so the group reconvenes at once and the comparison happens while everyone is still on a high.
Which rooms actually suit this
Two considerations, and neither is the theme.
Competitive beats frightening, by default
Unless the bride has asked otherwiseA room that produces shouting, racing and a result is a better hens experience than one that produces genuine fear, because everyone can participate in the first and only some people enjoy the second. Save the horror for a group that has explicitly asked for it.
If the group does want a fright
Two very different kinds of itOur four sixteen-plus rooms split into the visceral and the atmospheric. If anyone in the party would be genuinely unhappy with the visceral end, that distinction decides the booking, and it is published for each room on the scare scale.
Practical things nobody mentions until it is too late
- Shoes. Rooms involve crouching, kneeling and occasionally crawling. Heels are a genuinely bad idea, and this is worth putting in the group chat rather than discovering at the briefing.
- Bags and phones go into lockers before the session, so nothing needs carrying.
- Sashes, veils and props come through fine, but there is nowhere to store a box of them, so bring what is being worn rather than what is being distributed later.
- Do the drinking after. An hour of concentration is not improved by a head start, and the photograph at the end is the one that gets posted.
There is no party room at any venue. No function space, no food storage and no cutlery. Cake and decorations in the foyer depend entirely on how busy we are, and a weekend evening is exactly when we are busiest, which is also when hens nights happen. Plan for the celebrating to occur at the place you are eating.
What it costs for a hens group
A Friday, which is when most of these land. Crew Night is live through Monday to Friday, 4pm till late, charging by the room rather than the head where four to six play, $250 to $300, code CREWNIGHT. Three rooms of six on a Friday evening is the best-value version of this booking.
A Saturday. From $74 a head, easing to $70 once each room is full.
Every other rate sits on prices and deals. For anything over two rooms, email enquiries@rushescapegame.com.au and we will lock the start times together.
Organiser questions
The bride hates being scared and two of her friends want horror.
Two rooms, two different ratings, one start time. Nobody compromises and the comparison afterwards is better for the contrast.
Someone will almost certainly cancel on the day.
You pay for who plays. A no-show costs you nothing beyond a slightly emptier room, so book for the number you are hoping for.
Can we all be in one room if we squeeze?
No, six is the cap and six is already the point where quieter people stop contributing. Two rooms of five beats one room of ten every time.
Which venue for a group this size?
South Yarra for the largest groups and for Chapel Street afterwards, St Kilda if the night continues along Fitzroy Street or the foreshore. The venue group pages have the numbers each site takes.
Do we get photos?
Yes, a team photo at the end of every session, which for this occasion is usually the reason half the group agreed to come.