An SME Owner’s Decision to Open in a Second UAE Emirate

The Smash Room’s move from Dubai to Abu Dhabi shows what an owner can carry into a second location, what a new site can change, and which numbers matter once the opening campaign ends.

The Smash Room began in Dubai’s Al Quoz with a simple booking proposition. Customers paid for a timed session in which they could break things in a purpose-built room. When co-founders Hiba Balfaqih and Ibrahim Abudyak took the business to Abu Dhabi, they carried that proposition into the Nahil Building in Al Rawdah and added a café and arcade games. The resulting visit could last beyond the activity customers had originally come to book. That made the second location a test of two things at once. It would show whether the core experience could reach a new audience and whether a broader offer made sense at the new premises. The Smash Room’s founder and location page, The National’s opening coverage

Abudyak described expansion within the UAE as an existing goal and said the Abu Dhabi site would introduce the experience to a new audience. He also pointed to the capital’s growing entertainment offer. Those comments explain the ambition behind the move. The public record gives much less insight into how the founders compared sites, priced the fit-out, estimated weekday traffic or judged the new venue’s returns. For an SME owner considering a similar step, the value of the case lies in separating the documented choices from the business questions each choice creates.

The opening happened in stages

The first Dubai branch opened in 2018. In mid-July 2023, the Abu Dhabi venue was already in a soft-opening phase, according to contemporaneous coverage. The operator then announced a Halloween-themed grand-opening event for 28 October. Both dates belong in the story. July records the beginning of operations as publicly reported. October is the date the operator advertised for a launch event, with themed rooms and refreshments. The Smash Room’s October announcement

A soft opening gives a site operator a chance to watch how the whole visit works while taking bookings. The useful observations start before the activity itself. How early do groups arrive? How long does the briefing take? Where do people wait when the previous session runs over? How much time does staff need to clear and reset the room? The first busy weekend can reveal which of those steps governs capacity. The first quiet week can show which shifts still have to be staffed even with fewer bookings.

The public timeline does not reveal which observations The Smash Room made or how it acted on them. It does offer a way to separate launch measures. During the opening period, track late starts, cancellations, complaints and throughput by shift. Assess ordinary demand across subsequent weeks with a record of bookings made without special event pricing or promotion. A grand opening can help people discover a venue. The paid bookings that follow are the evidence an owner needs for a recurring payroll and rent commitment.

What travelled from Dubai

A recognisable brand and an activity customers can understand in seconds are assets when moving into a different catchment. An owner can also bring less visible assets, such as an existing booking process, staff training material and a record of which session formats use the most staff time. The ability to transfer that operating knowledge is especially valuable when the service depends on a sequence of handovers.

The company’s FAQ describes a typical session of about 30 minutes, mandatory protective gear and rooms monitored by CCTV. The operator also describes a recycling process for items used in the experience. Those are elements of the service as the company presents it. They point to work that has to happen around the customer’s booking, including gear preparation, room checks, item handling and cleanup. The Smash Room’s operating FAQ

The Smash Room’s July 2023 reel shows the experience as the brand presented it around the time of the opening.

For a site that sells a fixed duration, the time before and after each session matters as much as the time on the booking page. If a 30-minute activity needs 15 additional minutes of room reset, it occupies the room for 45 minutes. A schedule that ignores that difference promises more inventory than the team can deliver. Across several rooms, a second constraint may appear if all sessions start together and the same person must brief, check and reset them. A branch model should show how bookings, staff availability and room availability intersect on an ordinary shift.

What the café and arcade changed

The Abu Dhabi venue’s café and arcade made it possible to spend time on site beyond the session. That can benefit an experience business when people arrive in groups, when part of a group chooses to watch or wait, or when the next room is still being prepared. It can also consume space and staff attention that could have supported more bookable sessions. The commercial question is how each extra use of the premises contributes to the whole visit.

An owner can test an add-on by specifying what it is meant to achieve. If it is intended to improve the wait, look at early arrivals, group flow and complaints. If it is intended to lift spend, compare net contribution per group after product costs and staffing. If it is intended to attract its own visitors, count transactions from people who did not buy a session and see whether they appear often enough to justify the hours and space. A fuller premises can feel busy while the core activity still has empty slots.

The company subsequently promoted a mobile service that takes the experience to customers. That later initiative illustrates how the same brand can sell through a different operating model. A mobile booking depends on transport, setup and takedown. A fixed branch depends on a premises and enough local bookings across its opening hours. A business choosing between formats needs separate cost and staffing assumptions for each. The company’s announcement establishes that it offered a mobile format after the Abu Dhabi opening. The Smash Room’s mobile service announcement

Work backwards from an ordinary month

Consider an illustrative venue with two rooms, each able to sell eight sessions a day after allowing time for resets and shift constraints. Over 26 operating days that is 416 sessions. Assume the average booking brings in AED 180 in net revenue and incurs AED 55 in direct costs such as consumables and payment charges. Each session then contributes AED 125 toward the site’s fixed costs. If those costs are AED 30,000 for the month, the branch needs 240 paid sessions, or about 58% of the stated capacity, to cover them. This example uses hypothetical figures and excludes initial fit-out recovery and financing.

Now suppose the extra customer areas require AED 6,000 a month of incremental fixed costs and generate AED 3,000 in monthly contribution after their own direct costs. The session business must cover the remaining AED 3,000, equal to 24 more bookings at the assumed margin. If the extra space also lowers room capacity, the necessary utilisation rises again. The calculation is worth doing even if the café is mainly there to improve the experience. A service benefit can be a deliberate use of money once the owner can see what it costs.

A monthly average also hides the hardest part of the forecast. If the site reaches capacity on Friday and Saturday evenings, those sessions cannot make up for every weak weekday. The owner needs to forecast demand by time band, compare it against staffed inventory and see how often each slot must sell. Separately, build an opening cash forecast with deposit, fit-out payments, pre-opening wages and the period before customer receipts catch up. A venue can cover recurring costs in a mature month and still need substantial cash to get there.

Check the activity against the actual unit

The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development describes the general business establishment sequence, including defining the activity, finding a suitable location, securing a tenancy contract and obtaining additional approvals where the activity and location require them. Its licensing page distinguishes economic licence types and directs applicants to TAMM. The public sources for The Smash Room do not show its branch structure or approval history. ADDED’s establishment guidance, ADDED’s licensing requirements

A business owner can turn that sequence into questions about a specific unit before committing capital. Which activities are planned at the address, including any paid add-ons? Does the permitted use match the proposed layout? What conditions apply to operating hours, customer access, waste handling, storage and building works? Which approvals are required for the chosen activities and which party is responsible for obtaining them? Written answers from the relevant authority and landlord can be compared with the lease and fit-out proposal.

The answers also affect the timeline and forecast. A room layout that needs substantial revision can reduce capacity or delay the first trading day. Restrictions on noise or deliveries can alter staffing and supplies. An owner who has already negotiated the cash schedule can see how a later opening affects working capital and whether the project still fits within the amount the business can afford to commit.

Decide what the second site has to prove

Demand evidence is strongest when it reflects the journeys customers actually make. For a Dubai operator, enquiries with an Abu Dhabi postcode may suggest interest, but a useful follow-up is to distinguish people who would travel for a special occasion from groups who could book regularly near home. A short local trial, where permitted, can test willingness to pay at a real time and place. Keep records of who booked, what they paid and how they found the offer. When the evidence comes from a corporate booking or a single event, enter it separately in the forecast. One large customer can validate an offer for groups without saying much about Tuesday afternoon walk-ins.

Before opening, write down what would make the expansion worth repeating. A useful first measure is paid utilisation by time band, with promotional sessions identified separately. A second is contribution by service line, including any add-on that uses floor area or shift hours. A third is operational independence. Can the second site run a full shift at the expected standard while the original site keeps its own manager and experienced staff?

The founders’ public account and the opening record document the choice to reach a new UAE audience with an established experience. They also show how the operator broadened the offer at its Abu Dhabi premises and moved from a summer soft opening to an advertised autumn launch. For another SME owner, the decision turns on how that kind of move behaves after the calendar returns to normal. If the new branch can fill enough ordinary slots, cover the work that happens between customers and operate without borrowing capacity from the original site, the owner has evidence that the business can work in a second emirate.