The Disappearance of Rita Jacobs

This is a review of the Escape Room “The Disappearance of Rita Jacobs” offered by Escape Hotel in Geel, Belgium.
  • ⭐️ 7.5/10
  • 🌡 Medium
  • ⏳ 60 Minutes
  • 👥 2 – 6 Person

Last stop on the first day of our weekend trip to Belgium. It’s gotten quite late and it’s time to look for a place to stay. So it’s a good thing that Geel has an Escape Hotel.

You can check out any time you like, but can you leave?

From the outside, the corner building, with its red bricks and dark windows, looks like a real hotel. I would even guess that it used to be one. Many thanks to the nice owners for letting us check into your accommodation at this late hour.

Escape Hotel opened The Disappearance of Rita Jacobs in 2018 as its first and only Escape Room to date. The story is about the couple Rita and Tijl Jacobs, who founded the hotel in 1950. When Tijl died in 1980 and Rita disappeared without a trace a year later, rumours of strange happenings began to circulate, the hotel guests stayed away and the son had to close the hotel.

We want to get to the bottom of the truth of the stories. Upon entering the entrance area and lobby, one gets the impression that time stood still here 30 or 40 years ago. The furnishings in the rooms date from the 1980s and are authentic.

We had a hard time getting into the game at the beginning. It was a lot about searching and this was not made easy for us. Some things were too well hidden for my taste. Moreover, the ghosts from the past didn’t seem to like us snooping around their hotel. I found the jumpscares too predictable and they could have been made a bit more varied.

Apart from one task where we had a mechanical problem that cost us quite a bit of time, The Disappearance of Rita Jacobs is a pretty solid escape game with a nice setting and a well thought-out backstory, which is suitable for 3-5 players.

Very nice operators!

Heiner Stepen

Heiner Stepen