How We Started

Hi, my name is Sean Wilson and I own and operate Padlockd Escape Rooms. I was born in Ipswich, grew up on the Sunshine Coast, and then moved to Brisbane to study Technical Production at the Queensland University of Technology.  Today, I am proud to now be living and running my own business on the Gold Coast. So, how does one get the idea to open up an Escape Room and how does it all work? Where do we come up with the ideas for our rooms?

It all started when a few friends invited me to an escape room one night. My first reaction was, "What is an escape room?" The short answer, you are locked in a room and tasked with finding clues and solving puzzles in an attempt to get out before the time runs out. Upon hearing what lay ahead - I was sold. I joined them for the adventure and had a fantastic time. The themed room, the hidden clues, the unveiling of secrets... It's all just one big OOO and WOW moment after another. Before we knew it the time had hit zeros. One of the employees promptly came in and explained just how close we were to escaping (about 80% in my opinion). After making sense what puzzles we had left, we exited the room and entered back into reality.

Fast forward six months and multiple escape rooms later and I had a full-blown addiction on my hands. I started thinking about previous rooms I had done and began brainstorming my own ideas. I wanted our rooms to really stand out. I wanted to make our rooms more immersive, including sound effects and adding in mood lighting. The ideas were big. I had to scale them back down a little bit to something more realistic within a themed room. Next, followed the business side. I had run a few small businesses of my own before (Photo Booth, IT Services), but nothing to this scale. After getting the right people alongside me to coach me through the initial phases, we successfully Launched Padlockd Escape Rooms in March 2018.

Since then we have continued to create, grow, and evolve - offering amazing and immersive rooms for our guests. Myself and my staff have now built 27 Escape Rooms in the last 5 years, with more rooms currently in the works. We have grown from our modest staff of 3 to a collection of 50 Gold Coast locals. Our passion is creating captivating experiences for Gold Coast locals and tourists alike to escape reality and test their minds. 

My staff and I welcome you to Padlock'd to come and escape reality with us.

*Being locally owned and run, we are continuously looking for ways to become more involved with our local community - from running seasonal events to giving out sponsorships.

SEAN WILSON

Creator & Managing Director