How to Plan an Atlanta Company Holiday Party Your Team Actually Wants

Every December, somebody in the office gets handed the party. They book a private room at a restaurant, everyone sits at a long table, and the people who already talk to each other talk to each other. Two hours later it is over, and nothing has changed.

If you want a company holiday party people actually remember, the fix is not a nicer restaurant. It is giving your team something to do together. Here is how to plan one in Atlanta, from a venue that runs these most weeks in December.

Lock the date before you plan anything else

December fills from the top down. The first two Fridays and Saturdays go first, then the week before Christmas, then everything else. If you are reading this in the autumn, you still get to choose. If you are reading it in the first week of December, you will be taking what is left.

Two decisions worth making early:

• Weeknight or weekend. Weeknights are easier to get and people are already out after work. Weekends feel more like an occasion, but they compete with everyone’s family calendar.
• Straight after work, or later. A 6pm start catches people before they go home and lose momentum. A later start gives people time to change and sort out childcare.

We are open every day from 11am, with a last start of 11:30pm, and 11:45pm on Saturdays. Late starts are genuinely available here rather than theoretical, which matters if half your team is driving in from the other side of the perimeter.

Let your headcount pick the format

This is where most party planning goes wrong. People pick an activity they like the sound of, then try to squeeze forty people into it.

Work the other way round. Count heads first, then choose the format.

• Up to 10 people. One room. Everyone plays together and everyone shares the same story afterwards. The simplest possible version of the night.
• 11 to 30 people. Two or three rooms running side by side. This is the sweet spot: small enough to still feel like one group, big enough that comparing results afterwards gets genuinely competitive.
• 31 to 80 people. Several rooms across staggered start times. Nobody sits out, and you get a natural rotation where some groups are finishing and mixing while others are still playing.

We have eight rooms: CIA Black Site, Mafia Boss, Detective Slayer, Trophy Heist, Interrogation, Isolation, Cartel and Narco. Each room takes 2 to 10 players, except Cartel, which holds up to 6 and is for ages 12 and up. You can see the full line-up on our escape games page.

Every game is private. Your group is never merged with strangers from another company, which is the thing people most often assume and most often get wrong.

What the night actually looks like

A rough shape for a group of around thirty, so you can picture it:

• First 15 minutes. People arrive, park and find each other. Parking is free and on site, which quietly removes the most common source of pre-party stress.
• Next 10 minutes. Teams get sorted and briefed. Worth doing deliberately, for reasons below.
• 60 minutes. Rooms run. Three groups, three different rooms, one clock.
• Last 20 to 30 minutes. Everyone comes out at roughly the same time and immediately starts comparing notes. This part is the actual team building. The room is just what gives them something to talk about.

Budget about two hours door to door. If you are going on to dinner or drinks afterwards, put the rooms first. People are far more talkative after an escape room than before one.

Sort the teams deliberately, not randomly

The highest-value thing a planner can do costs nothing: decide the teams in advance, and mix departments.

Left to themselves, people group up with whoever they already eat lunch with, and you have paid for an activity that reinforces exactly the cliques you were trying to break up. Put the finance person with the warehouse person. Put the new starter with someone senior who is not their manager. An hour of solving problems together does more than a year of sitting near each other.

Split managers from their direct reports where you reasonably can. Escape rooms surface who actually takes charge under pressure, and that is far more interesting, and far more useful to you, when the org chart is not standing in the room.

What it costs

Group pricing starts at 11 players and comes down as the group grows:

Booking two or more rooms on the same day takes a further 10% off the total, which most groups over ten are doing anyway. Full details are on our team building and large groups page, and if you are running several rooms back to back it is worth comparing our multi-room packages.

For a thirty-person party that comes to $28 a head before the multi-room discount. Set that against a sit-down dinner anywhere in Atlanta and it is usually the cheaper option, not the extravagant one.

Which rooms suit which groups

You do not have to match people perfectly, but a few pointers help:

• Mixed group, wide range of ages and experience. Trophy Heist or Detective Slayer. Approachable without being easy.
• Nobody has done this before. Narco is our easiest room and the friendliest introduction for first-timers.
• Competitive group that has played before. Isolation or CIA Black Site, our two hardest rooms. If you want the best photos of the night, Interrogation starts with players handcuffed.
• A smaller sub-group of six. Cartel. Remember the minimum age of 12 if anyone is bringing family.
• Two teams you want to pit against each other. Book CIA Black Site and Mafia Boss at the same start time and compare escape times afterwards. The trash talk writes itself.

If you would rather not choose, tell us the size and mix of the group when you call and we will match rooms to your headcount.

Five things that quietly wreck a company party

1. Booking before you have a real headcount. Get RSVPs in first. Rooms are sized in tens, so guessing costs you either money or seats.
2. Letting people pick their own teams. Covered above. This is the big one.
3. No point of contact on the night. Nominate one person who knows the plan and whose phone is on. Not the CEO.
4. Forgetting the people who would rather not play. There is always someone. Give them a job, timekeeper, photographer, scorekeeper, rather than leaving them standing in a corridor feeling awkward.
5. Not telling people what to wear. You are on your feet and moving for an hour. Say so in the invite, or half your team turns up in heels.

A few things worth asking when you call

Every group is a little different, and there are details that are better confirmed directly than guessed from a web page: daytime and weekday slots for large groups, how far ahead you need to book for forty-plus people, how payment works for a company booking, and whether you want somewhere to gather before or after. Ask all of it in one call and you will have your answers in a few minutes.

How to book

Groups of 11 or more are booked by phone, so we can match rooms to your headcount and stagger the start times properly: (678) 395-6392. Smaller groups can book online anytime.

Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before your slot. Inside 24 hours, the payment stays on file as a credit rather than disappearing.

We are at 2258 Northlake Parkway, Suite 105, Tucker, GA 30084, two minutes from the Northlake exit off I-285, with free parking right out front. We hold a 4.7 star rating across 535 Google reviews.

FAQ

How many people can you take at once?

Each room holds 2 to 10 players, except Cartel, which holds up to 6. Groups of 11 to 80 play across several rooms at the same time, so nobody sits out.

Are the rooms scary?

They are suspenseful, not frightening. There are no jump scares and no live actors in any of our eight rooms. The tension comes from the story and the clock, which is what you want for a work party where not everyone signed up for a haunted house.

Is the room private?

Always. Every booking is your group only. You are never put in with strangers from another company.

How long should we allow?

About two hours door to door: arrival and parking, ten minutes of briefing, the 60-minute game, then the comparing-notes part afterwards, which is the bit everyone enjoys most.

What if someone does not want to play?

Give them a role rather than a seat in the corridor. Timekeeper, photographer and scorekeeper are all genuinely useful, and most of them end up joining in by the second room anyway.

Get the date in the diary, get a real headcount, mix up the teams, and the rest looks after itself. Call (678) 395-6392 to talk through group options, or read the full rates on our team building page.