Splatter Room Iowa- Merle Hay Mall - Des Moines, Iowa

Ashley C.

This was such a fun birthday for my 13-year-old daughter! We had a scheduling conflict, but the owner was so kind and able to move our reservation on short notice. When we got there, Ali was working, and she was so sweet and accommodating. Everything was very laid back; we could bring in our own food, drinks, and cake. The girls had a blast throwing paint at each other and covering themselves in the paint from head to toe. The paint easily came off after showering and did not stick to their clothes after washing. It was honestly so much fun, and I highly recommend them!

Peiffers

Edit: apparently the owner doesn’t think you can leave a review not on the day you went to the establishment. This is for the smash room inside of Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines. Yes correct location. Yes I read the other reviews, you really think every single negative review is lying…? Get real. Take ownership.
It was really poor quality. Our “baseball bat” (if you can even call it that anymore) was broken in half and was COMPLETELY smashed in. I understand with this type of establishment, damage will be done to your materials being used, but replace it after a certain point. It was beyond useless. They say you can’t smash or do anything other than punch the dummy but then have a video on display of people using the smash room and in said video they are destroying the dummy. Sounds and looks like false advertisement. The video also shows a way bigger room than given. The room we were given was about the size of a gas station single stall bathroom. You can throw the glass a whole 3 feet in front of you to just a giant pile of other broken glass bottles. The amount of items you’re given to break is sad. You can break everything provided in less than 10 minutes, and that’s even with us paying $20 extra to add on items. The barrels to “smash items on” were completed caved in and also useless. But you also were not allowed to smash those barrels. Not where near worth the money. Huge waste. I wish I would’ve looked deeper into the reviews. Looks like the only thing worthwhile here is the splatter room.

Tracy C.

I set up this adventure for my women's adventure group (7 women in our 50s and 60s). Our adventure was right after the election and before Thanksgiving. Great time to smash away any frustrations.

Online booking easy. Appointment reminders and directions were helpful. They were ready for us when we arrived. Instruction video important and the teen supervisor did a good job giving us our protective gear. Having protection was good, but know that your neck and ears are exposed (although nothing really touched those areas).

They had several sizes of crowbars, a sledgehammer, and a metal baseball bat. They need to replace their bat because it was missing the top part - so it was only half a bat, so wasn't very useful.

They had 20 beer bottles for us to break. Wish there was more variety for glass breaking. Throwing plates would have been satisfying. I also wish that they had something higher you could place the glass bottle on, so you could bat it to break. You mostly had to throw the bottles or swing at them at a low level (Perhaps it is a safety set up).

They had a printer and keyboard to destroy. A stabbing area where you could take your aggression out by using screwdrivers to stab a foam slab. A padded dummy to punch.

30 min was about the right amount of time. We were satisfied with the experience in about 15-20min.

Interesting concept. It certainly is freeing to give oneself the pleasure to destroy something when in everyday life, that isn't really an option to vent. Might be fun for them to have an area with foam nerf balls to have a Nerf/foam ball "snowball" fight.

I thought the price was rather high for the amount of satisfaction, but can imagine they need cash to make sure there are things to smash.

I probably would not go to this again unless they upgraded somehow. Also, I have nothing to compare it to as this is the first time I have been to something like this.

Novel experience and funny to watch others destroy things. Worth one trip.

Valerie J.

Went for my Bachelorette party and all 4 of us had an awesome time! The owner was super nice and it was such a fun and unique experience. Highly recommend doing this and I will definitely be going back.

Corina R.

Great idea to relieve stress. But we only had like 10 bottles to break and 1 thing to smash. We had nothing to destroy after 3 min there. You get 30 min in the room. The only barrel we could hit was already smashed. No head on Bob to punch, nothing left. Total waste of $80. The others before our time destroyed it all and they didn't add anything new for us.

Hannah R.

I booked a session for my boyfriends birthday with the party package and they absolutely LOVED it! There were plenty of things for them to do so they didn’t have idle time and came out sweating. Front desk was friendly and understanding of us showing up a little late when we got lost and even let me watch their session on the security cameras. The only “issue” we had was I tried calling for more information/clarification and the phone options were long and disconnected when I chose an option or tried to leave a voicemail. Regardless, they sent an incredible email after booking that answered most of the questions I was going to ask so it was easy to problem solve the little blips that came up as we drove in from out of town. Overall absolutely well worth the price, $40/person, for not having to set up or clean up the mess that was made! While the booking is for a half hour, plan for an hour because it takes a decent amount of time to get the gear on and off. They were talking about the session for the rest of the day and already planning the next time they can go back!

April M.

This was a lot of fun. My 10 year old nephew had been asking to go so that was his bday present this year. A little pricey for the amount of items you get to smash.... we had 1 printer, 3 keyboards and a small landline phone along with 10 glass bottles. Not a lot for 2 people when it comes down to it. I added on 10 glass bottles which helped but the larger items are definitely more fun. We were the only ones there which was great. Overall a fun first for both of us and we'd definitely go back

Martha L.

Very disappointing. Room was extremely tiny. Barely any room to move around. They give you 1 printer and 2 keyboards to break and about 12 beer bottles. Lots of rules about how you can break things. For the price, extremely overrated. Don’t expect much.