How to choose premises

When we talk about VR venues it is way too important to pay enough attention to the space, where you are planning to place your arena. It is hard to tell at first sight how long it will take you to choose the best option for that kind of business, how to do it exactly, what are the requirements and pitfalls, while selecting suitable premises. You may spend dozens of hours searching for information on the Internet, but BATTLE START chooses to make it much quicker for you. In just one article we’ve compiled all recommendations on how to choose premises, renovate it and make it perfect for VR.

There are some key points that you should consider, before buying or renting a place. First step is to analyze your location: what is the city population, are there any competitors with a similar product nearby, what is the average rental cost and so on. These calculations will help you to see a full perspective of your future business.

We have experience in operating different types of VR venues from small mini arenas to huge VR parks, but the thing is it can be placed whatever you wish. For example it can be a city mall downtown, or a separate building in a residential area. In the first case, it’s a perfect solution to place a mini-arena for 4 or 8 people and set a per-minute tariff to charge customers. Your target audience is parents with their kids who either want to take a break from the shopping or on the contrary need to leave their kids in some safe place to entertain them, while they are busy with some necessary things. It will also work for bigger VR venues, where you will be able to hold childrens’ birthday parties and other celebrations like graduation days and corporate events, but you should pay attention to rental cost. In any case it should not be over 20% of your total profit. So to reduce the investment for rental cost it would be a good option to take into account a separate building somewhere in the residential area. In big cities you can make it a good place for tourists and as well as a great option for local people to come there for special occasions or to spend time with friends and family any time.

To sum up, it is needless to say that it is not necessary to have a passable location to create a loyal audience, but it's important to show a wide range of services and make your place unique, ingratiate yourself with your customers, so they want to come back.

Speaking about the competitors it is way less things to worry about. BATTLE START team develop unique VR games for all ages and interests from family-friendly non-aggressive mini-games to breathtaking shooters with realistic graphics and true-to-life gameplay. So on the VR market we are kind of standing apart. But If you are planning to gain money and focus on childrens’ birthday parties, your competitors are also all of the amusement parks and companies that are engaged in holding parties or have something to do with the entertainment industry. Thus you should learn some information about them and come up with your own USP.

The next step is to assess the premises to see if there is noise, smells from somewhere and, lack of 18+ facilities nearby. It is crucial to ensure the comfort of your customers and get rid of all negative factors which may disturb them. You should be also aware of necessary requirements for the VR specifically, such as evaluating lighting, sockets availability, good internet connection etc. And finally you should consider and keep in mind availability of all necessary permissions and licenses to run the business, while selecting premises.

When you are through the common things mentioned above, here comes the time to pay attention to specific requirements depending on the type of the arena. Speaking about the space layout and its business process compliance, it is necessary to have enough space to place all the kinds of premises, such as reception area, VR playground, the loo and the lounge zone. For a mini arena you can have a 5m x 5m or 2.5m x 10m play area and a small reception. For bigger ones, depending on the number of players, it is needed to have 10m by 15m play areas ( for a VR park there should be two of them), entrance area, toilet facilities and a reception area. It is also good to have a few (2 or more for VR parks and one for smaller arenas) lounge zones and storage facilities to place all the necessary things to hold birthday parties.

Important thing which is specific for VR is lightning and finishing materials for the play area. The use of large light surfaces is not recommended due to the fact that the finishing materials of the play area should not reflect light rays. Thus, the floor, walls and other interior elements should be matte. Reflective surfaces throw off the calibration of the headset.

Mirrors, uncurtained windows, floodlights or flickering laser projectors are not allowed in the play area. If there are windows, they must be closed with blackout curtains. Other lighting devices, except for ceiling lamps, must be disabled during the game. Lighting should be diffuse - it is necessary to evenly cover the playing area without shadows, glare and reflections. Steady and stable light is required, without flickering.

When it comes to the flooring there are some good materials, which are easy to find and install. To choose the best option for you it is needed to be aware of what the players are going to wear during the game: socks or shoes. If you choose socks, which will be more convenient for customers, it’s good to think of applying high-quality budo mats or modular PVC tiles. They are good materials to do the flooring fast. It is great to choose 3 colors to make a contrast and emphasize the bases of different teams. Carpeting is also possible. It is recommended to use solid-color tufted carpets. The pros of this carpet technology include dense texture, attractive appearance, durability and versatility. If you decide that your customers will play in the shoes, linoleum is another good option.

There are some further points that you should consider and keep in mind, such as permitted noise level, firefighting equipment, existence and quality of security of the building and surrounding area, accessibility for people with disabilities, is there any access to public transport and public services nearby and things like that. It may seem hard at the first sight to keep these things in mind, but it is crucial to be aware of all of it, to avoid certain problems while operating your business and create a wonderful entertaining place for your customers.

To conclude it is necessary to mention that operating a new business or upgrading your existing one is a tough journey and the BATTLE START team will do the best to make it easy and fast for you. Our managers will help you on each stage and be happy to answer any of your questions. You can find more free useful information about VR business in our articles.