How to open a VR arcade: headsets, play space, safety and pricing

When you open a VR arcade, choosing headsets is only half the job. The other half is a safe space for every player, the turnaround between sessions, and pricing that you check per headset hour rather than per session. Until you know how many guests one headset can actually serve in an hour, your revenue plan is just a guess. Below is a practical plan covering format, equipment, space, safety and pricing.

Format: a corner, a room or an arena

VR venues come in three shapes. They differ in floor space, investment and the kind of traffic they get.

For a first venue, a room with 4 stations is a comfortable size. One attendant can watch everyone, a group of four can play together, and a mistake won't cost you much. An arena needs more space, staff and preparation, so it makes sense to add one once you can see the demand.

Think about your guests early on as well. VR is often a "try it once" experience. To bring people back, keep the game list fresh and have games that groups can play together.

Headsets and equipment: general requirements

Pick a model for how your venue will run, not for its advertising. The main choice is between two types:

• Standalone headsets run on their own, with no cable: easy to set up, quick to swap, cheaper to maintain. The graphics are simpler than on a PC setup.
• PC-tethered headsets suit games with heavy graphics. But each station needs a powerful PC, and the cable hangs from the ceiling to stay clear of the player's feet.

Whichever you choose:

• Commercial use terms. Many headsets and games are sold for home use, and paid sessions may need a separate licence or a business mode. Check the manufacturer's and publishers' terms before you buy.
• Charging. One charge of a standalone headset won't last a working day. Plan a charging spot and a spare battery or headset, for example one for every 4.
• Controllers are consumables. They get dropped and hit against walls. Wrist straps are mandatory; keep spare controllers and batteries at the counter.
• Identical setup. Same games and settings on every headset. Install updates before opening, so the evening queue isn't waiting for a download.
• A spectator screen. If the headset view can be cast to a TV, do it: the queue stays entertained and passers-by stop to watch.

Play space: floor area, flooring and light

A player wearing a headset can't see the room. That makes the space as important as the equipment.

• A separate zone for each player. Roughly 2 × 2 m for standing games, 3 × 3 m or more for active ones; take the exact minimum from the headset maker's guidance. For example, 4 stations at 3 × 3 m need 36 m² just for play, plus walkways, a waiting area and the counter.
• Dividers between zones, such as a soft curtain or netting, so two players swinging their arms don't hit each other.
• Ceiling. A raised hand shouldn't reach a light fitting or a ceiling fan.
• Flooring. Level, non-slip, preferably soft. Mark the zone edge with a different material and players feel it underfoot.
• Light. Even, with no direct sunlight. Sunlight on the lenses can damage the display, and mirrors or shiny surfaces confuse tracking.
• Air. Players move and sweat. Size the air conditioning for a full room.

Drinks and bags stay out of the play area, on a separate table or shelf.

Safety and hygiene: set the rules in advance

In a VR arcade the risk is usually the person, not the game: they forget the boundary, feel dizzy, drift towards a wall. Write the rules down and apply them the same way on every shift.

• An attendant is always in the room. No more than 3–4 players per attendant, and one looking at their phone isn't keeping anyone safe.
• A short briefing. First-timers get 1–2 minutes: the zone boundary, the wrist strap, how to stop. Decide in advance whether this counts as session time.
• Motion sickness. Start new guests on a calm game, not the most intense one. Keep a chair and water nearby, and tell guests they can take the headset off at any moment.
• Age and health limits. Post the headset maker's warnings at the entrance, and don't give a headset to children below the stated age.
• Liability. How to record that a guest has read the rules, how to handle minors, business registration and taxes: check these with a lawyer, a tax adviser or the public services centre.

Hygiene is your reputation. After every session, wipe the face cushion and the controllers, and clean the lenses only with a dry microfibre cloth. Offer disposable face masks or swappable covers. More on the routine between sessions in timing and billing karaoke and VR rooms.

Pricing: what one headset earns per hour

In VR the guest buys a session, 15 or 30 minutes, not an hour. But you should check revenue per hour, because a headset earns nothing between sessions.

For example, the rate is 100,000 UZS per hour, so 15 minutes costs 25,000 and 30 minutes costs 50,000 UZS. Each 15-minute session is followed by 5 minutes of turnaround: take the headset off, wipe it, fit it on the next guest. One cycle is 20 minutes, so the headset runs 3 sessions an hour and earns 75,000 UZS, not 100,000.

This is how much the turnaround matters:

If 4 headsets are fully busy for 4 hours a day on average, that's 4 × 4 × 30 = 480 headset-hours a month. With a 5-minute turnaround that's 36,000,000 UZS; with 10 minutes, 28,800,000 UZS. The difference is 7,200,000 UZS a month, purely from how you wipe and fit headsets. Spare face covers, a charged spare headset and briefing the next guest while they wait all save those minutes.

Other pricing rules:

• A 30-minute session has a 35-minute cycle, so the headset earns about 85,700 UZS an hour. Longer sessions mean fewer turnarounds, so offer them too.
• Guests often arrive with an amount in mind: "I've got 40,000". At 100,000 UZS an hour that's 24 minutes.
• Demand is high at weekends and during school holidays and low on weekday afternoons. A cheaper day rate, or daytime slots for schools and groups, fills the quiet hours.
• For birthdays and groups, book several stations for the same time and agree the time and amount in advance.

How to track quiet hours and how busy each station is: see the key numbers to watch in a club.

Tracking every headset: what ClubTime does and doesn’t do

A VR arcade runs many short sessions. In a notebook they turn into arguments: who started when, who ran over, who left without paying.

In ClubTime every headset or VR zone is added as a separate station:

• a session starts for a fixed time or a fixed amount, and the app warns before it ends, so the attendant takes the headset back on time and the queue doesn't wait;
• stations are grouped into types (a standard station and an arena, for example), each with its own price, and day and night rates apply by time of day;
• if a headset stops working, the guest moves to another station and the session moves with its time and bill, with both stations shown in the history;
• bookings for groups and birthdays can be made up to 14 days ahead, and overlapping bookings are blocked;
• bar sales run in the same app, with stock levels and FIFO cost;
• the shift hands over the till in one tap, and every closed session and shift is sent to the owner's Telegram;
• reports are broken down by day, station and shift;
• if the internet drops, tracking carries on, and the data syncs to the cloud on its own once the connection is back.

To be clear about the limits: ClubTime doesn't control the headsets. It runs on the administrator's phone, tablet or computer, and it doesn't stop the game or lock the headset when time is up. The app tells the attendant that time is running out, and the attendant ends the session. Features for rooms and VR are on the karaoke, VR and anti-café page.

In short

• For a first venue, a room with 4 stations is easy to run and keeps the risk low.
• When choosing headsets, sort out commercial use terms, charging and spare controllers in advance.
• Each player needs their own zone, dividers, level flooring and even light.
• An attendant is always in the room, the rules are written down, and hygiene happens after every session.
• Measure revenue per headset hour: the turnaround between sessions is money.

Try ClubTime free for 15 days, with every feature included and no card needed. The plan depends only on the number of stations: see pricing.