House of Hints

This is a great spot if you’re looking for a place to host a team building activity. We booked the two JD Beckett rooms for 12 of our managers and split into two groups to compete against each other. My boss got to watch us on camera, so that was a treat for her. It allowed her to make observations about how we collaborate and solve problems. Also, the two guys hosting the games were absolutely wonderful and hilarious. Everyone had a blast and many said it was the best team building event they’ve ever attended. Highly recommended!

Man, if I could give this place 6 stars I would! It was the most fun I’ve had in years. Our little band of merriment broke off into 2 groups and competed in identical rooms to solve THE P.I.‘s OFFICE mystery. None of us were chumps about solving difficult puzzles and this mystery kept us hopping. It was difficult enough to be entertaining and stimulating but never so impossible that we slid into being stressed. Oh, and Ben, our host, was awesome. He was as much fun as the game, giving us pointers and sometimes a hard time when we overthought ourselves off the path of solving the mystery. I’ve already told friends about this place and I’m certainly coming back. I can’t recommend it enough. (Oh, and the team I was on won, btw. We solved the puzzle and escaped with only 2 seconds left on the clock. What a rush!)
One thought if you’re planning on going… The people in your room have to be able to work together and independently. If you always clot up in the group then you’ll never get done in time but if you’re independent and competitive such that you don’t share your findings then your team will fail to solve the puzzle in time.

Fun experience. Well-​built puzzles that encourage teamwork. I was a bit skeptical at first, but enjoyed working through each phase of the mystery. The staff was excellent and set a great tone for the game. No zombies or crazy contraptions, so it is a great escape room for first-​timers. Highly recommended.

I recently had a work function retreat here with the fellow interns that work at my company. Upon entering, the staff was very welcoming and hospitable. They kept the mood light and set the tone for the rest of the experience as all of us thoroughly enjoyed it. I never have done something like this before but I am sure to grab some friends go back as I want to try some of the other rooms. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a challenge/​mystery as all the rooms will take you almost the entire time to complete and with each room have a small percent chance of success. Luckily I was able to make it out in time with my group as we put together all the clues!

This place was extremely cool. Came here with family we were able to split our group in half of 4 on 4 with their side by side rooms which let us compete on who coukd get out first! Place exceeded every expectation we had. everyone had a blast and were still taking about it. definitely recommend it!

This is my fourth escape room experience and I must say that I am very impressed with this place. We did the THE P.I.‘s OFFICE and it was the right amount of difficulty. We were a group of four and could barely escape the room. The room is very polished and the ambiance is very absorbing. I cant wait to try their other rooms. This is a must try if you are in the area.

An excellent venue for team building or a birthday party … or a reunion of classmates /​childhood friends.
Fun with a twist of mystery in the Private Detective room. Will definitely return to try CSI next.

This was very cool, I had expectations, but they were exceeded.
Both the plot, and the clues were very creative, and had depth, along with comical trappings. I was very impressed with this place along with my coworkers who solved the crime. This really was a nice way to mix it up with people and see how the both think and respond.
Very creative outing, and our moderator also was key to making it both pleasurable and comical. Great sense of humor made this detective assignment very fun.
It was also great to see how ranked against SD finest!

Good fun for groups. Highly recommend it. Lots of challenging puzzles, and put together very well. Nice and friendly staff.

Nearing 50 rooms…
TIP: When you go to reserve your room online, click on the «House of Hints?» in the upper right quadrant of the homepage, scroll to the bottom, and solve the puzzle; the solution is a discount code that will take 20% off your order.
House of Hints is located in a very secluded area with plenty of street parking, so once you’ve reserved a room it’s easy to just pull up and walk right in without spending half an hour looking for parking.
We were greeted at the door of this escape room by a man named Matt, who is very knowledgeable about escape rooms and enthusiastic about doing them. He’ll talk quite a bit about his other experiences if you’ve done any number of them.
Now, onto the room…
The Black Ops Room is pretty difficult. Clues and puzzles are hidden in the weirdest places, you’ll have to be precise with your math (sorry: if you absolutely suck at math, you might want to look elsewhere), and the sheer volume of things you have to find and do is staggering. Your team will be forced to use every second of your hour efficiently and to keep track of everything you find and use, especially because the room is completely non-​linear (that is, finding or solving one clue or puzzle will not immediately lead you to the next step) and there are so many props and so much décor in the room. The nature of the Black Ops room punishes teams that lack this sort of teamwork.
But this is the reason that the Black Ops Room at the House of Hints was so impressive: There are few other rooms that emphasize communication and organization as much as this escape room. None of the clues are impossibly frustrating to find (though many are creatively hidden), nor will the puzzles leave you wondering how any human being could possibly arrive at a solution. However, if you aren’t organized, you’ll find yourself scrambling for things you have or another teammate has already found or solved, wasting time in a room where you just don’t have the luxury of doing so.
This place lost a star because, despite the incredible amount of props in the room, the story just didn’t draw me in. Lock after lock after lock… after a while, it just seemed like a giant hunt for keys and combinations with some math sprinkled in. It’s hard to find escape rooms that nail this balance of thematic immersion and creativity and difficulty of puzzles, but I guess that’s why five-​star reviews shouldn’t be given out willy-​nilly. This is still a beautiful example of an escape room because of its emphasis on teamwork and scavenging, and one that I would heartily recommend to any escape room enthusiast. The next time I’m in San Diego, I’d love to do another one of their rooms (the CSI Lab is apparently better); in fact, the Black Ops Room was so good I might come back down from Los Angeles just to do their other rooms.
You might want to take an experienced team; Matt (our host) told us afterward that we were the first team he hosted to get out in quite a while.

My daughter and I had the time of our vacation! Spencer and Steven were amazing! Professional, clean and intense!!! A great experience! Helpful staff. A must for team building, family building, friend building. Can’t wait to return to try one of the other scenarios! Be sure to book your appointment early!

I wish there was an option for six stars, because days later, I am still smiling like a dork from how much fun I had. We did the Private Eye room for my friend’s birthday and we had no idea what to expect but it was beyond our expectations. It was so much fun to follow the clues and the rush of solving them was incredible! A HUGE thanks to Matt for being our hintgiver for the day, he was really in tune with our vibe and it made the whole experience a lot more fun! With eight seconds to spare, we made it out and the accomplishment was enough to make us want to come back and solve the other two rooms! Looking forward to the San Marcos location too!

Took the family here last week had a fantastic time! What a great concept. The best part is that if you had teenagers they lock up their cell phones before the game begins and halfway into the excitement they forget all about their electronic devices. Great for critical thinking and people who love puzzles. Staff was fun, enthusiastic and supportive about communication. I would recommend this Adventure to anyone anytime!

First time doing something like this. We did the CSI room and it was an absolute blast. We went with 3 people and had a great experience. Our moderator, Ben, was great to interact with.
Definitely a great experience with friends. The room was some what small even for a small group like ours but it was negligible.
Would love to do more rooms from here. They’re opening another in San Marcos soon!!!

This was our second time at the House of Hints and both times it was amazing! This time we did the CSI room. Really a great brain teaser & bonding experience. The staff is great. Last time we had Kat and today we had Ben. I’m addicted.

Hands down the best place for a teens birthday party. Got two rooms, each with 5 15 year old girls in them. One finished in 62 minutes, the other 64 minutes, the two moderators were apparently really good and entertained the kids as they went through it. We chose the base level which was the PI room, afterwards talking with the girls they all found the puzzles and actions to be well worth wild and they genuinely showed excitement, which is rare for 15 year old girls unless it is a horrible pop singer whose name rhymes with Dustin Feeber…
They were engaged, they used their minds, which again, if you have a teenage daughter, you know is incredibly rare. I do not recall the other moderators name, but Serena was the moderator for the room my daughter was in, she was simply phenomenal.
I have already sent their information on to our corporate team to see if we could set up a team building event over at their facility. Very well worth it.
I would say one thing though, if you get a time that is a little after sunset, it may look pretty desolate in the location they are in, but it can be quickly found if you pay attention. Also, as Serena says, do not mess with the walls, do NOTHING with the walls. apparently many people scuff up the walls, they do not want you to do that, it would be very bad.

Went to House of Hints today for a team building activity, there was 8 of us so they divided us up in 2 groups and let us compete for the quickest time to solve the puzzle.
This place is great for a fun activity among friends, co workers, relatives, etc. It gets the mind going and really makes you think. The puzzles and clues were hard but good so that you are constantly thinking.
The operation was being run by two ladies, they were sarcastic and witty and made it fun since they would give us hints from the ‘outside’.
The place was clean and well kept, it is in the middle of an industrial park. I would recommend House of Hints.

My husband found this entertainment spot for a family outing for my birthday. We had soooooo much fun. My brother had been to a similar one in another state that was scary so I had my reservations since our group included three people between 35 – 45 and two more over 70. I was pleasantly surprised that it REALLY was family friendly for all ages and we had nothing to worry about!
I don’t want to leave too many details as to give all the fun away, but we had an absolute ball! We solved the puzzle and made it out of the room with TWELVE seconds to spare!
Mark was our moderator and clue provider. He was great and made us all at ease about walking into a mystery situation that most of us really knew what to expect. By the way, my brother raved that this one was MUCH better than the one he had gone to in another state!

This review is for the new Black Ops room only. I haven’t tried any of the other rooms.
We were coming into SD from OC for a brewery day, and traffic was abnormally high, causing a drive that is normally 1 hour to take 2 hours and some change. Thankfully, they allowed us to postpone our 2:30 game to 3:00, which was quite accommodating of them.
We were the only group at 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon when we first walked into House of Hints. An employee greeted us and gave us the standard rundown: you’re trapped in a room, you have an hour to get out, please don’t force anything or tear up the floors or ceilings in your mission to find hints, and the storyline scenario. The hint system here was pretty creative. Instead of providing a buzzer to call an employee, or an actor locked in the room with you, the employee is constantly monitoring your progress via cameras and microphones. The employee will then provide you hints via a computer monitor in the room, which is SUPER useful.
Especially since the room is FILLED with red herrings! This seems to be a common theme among spy-​themed escape rooms, but House of Hints absolutely went overboard providing ambient furniture and props that have NOTHING to do with any puzzle. So it was useful when I picked up an item, spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how it fit with other hints in the room, and the computer screen told me that I was wasting my time.
The puzzles themselves were very creative, and I appreciated how well thought-​out many of the puzzles were. There were two safes that were broken, only one of which they knew about, which kind of sucked since we burned about 10 minutes trying various combinations and rechecking our math before giving up, realizing that we wouldn’t get anywhere with that safe. Afterwards, the employee said that he would normally have given us extra time if he didn’t have another group following us so soon. He did give us a discount code for the next time we come.
All in all, I really enjoyed the creativity and the number of puzzles, as well as the hint-​throughs provided by the employee. We didn’t end up escaping, but it was understandable since we only had 3 guys and one was a bit of a noob to escape rooms.

I swear I wrote a review for this before but seeing as this is one my favorite places I would have no problem writing it a dozen times if I had to!
By now I’m sure you’ve all heard of those Escape rooms that are popping up here and there. No? Well the premise is that you and your friends (hopefully good friends) are locked in a room. You have one hour. You must decipher the clues and get out. It isn’t about brute strength. It’s about teamwork, puzzles, and organization.
There are currently three rooms at House of Hints: The Private Investigator Room, the CSI crime lab, and the Black Ops Room. I’ve personally done the first two now and can say that it is a sure fire recipe for good clean fun. I don’t want to give too much away of course but it’s a super fun time. Bring your friends, bring your family, I’ve even brought my direct reports here for a team building exercise. This place never fails.
The owners Jill and Steve are just plain nice hospitable people (well, as long as you like hosts that lock you in a room=) just go. You’ll thank me later.