Choosing the Wrong Platform Would Have Cost Them Years: How Area 51 is Expanding to 19 Venues by 2028

Area 51 is Australia's fastest-growing family entertainment center, offering an immersive, out of this world experience for families and kids. The concept was born at 51 Kingston Road, and quickly evolved into a nationally recognized brand anchored by its signature mascot, “Gizmo,” the alien. 

Area 51 currently operates locations across Queensland and New South Wales, with ambitions to expand nationally. Built on a bold vision for what family entertainment spaces can be, Area 51
 combines high-energy play spaces, a fully integrated café, and standout party experiences that set a new standard in the market. When guests arrive, Chief Operating Officer, Michael Affleck, describes the moment as "the morning of Christmas" – that’s the experience and sense of wonder they create every day when kids see the neon lights and scale.  

That jaw-dropping experience is the cornerstone of their rapid growth and how they’ve won the hearts of communities across Australia. Now, Area 51 is on track to open 5 new venues in 2026, with an ambitious target of 19 locations by the end of 2028.

The challenge: scaling without losing control

Growing from one venue to many is where most attraction businesses stumble. Area 51 didn’t.

From the start, Michael knew what he wanted to accomplish and what he needed to make Area 51’s ambitious goals become a reality. 
    
Consistency was the most important factor. That meant every booking, waiver, party package, and café order had to work the same way. Whether that’s at venue one or venue 19.  Without it, Area 51 risked inconsistent guest experiences, ballooning operational costs, and uncertain expansion plans. 

Having worked with other platforms in previous roles, Michael knew exactly what to look for and what to avoid. He would make sure not to make the same mistakes because he knew how detrimental that would be. As he explains, the wrong system would have set the Area 51 vision back years. 

"Our last system was really clunky. It was really hard to complete tasks without creating loopholes and workarounds.”

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

What Area 51 needed was a single platform that kept every venue consistent, every guest experience seamless, and every operation running without the workarounds.

Why ROLLER

The decision to partner with ROLLER came down to a fundamental question: who could support Area 51’s vision, and who could they depend on to help them scale?

Area 51 had options, but Michael wasn’t buying software for a single venue. He was choosing the operating platform for a future national brand. As the business expanded, Area 51 would need technology that could evolve with them, support every new launch, and keep improving as the guest experience and business became more complex.

As Michael explains, “Other platforms had strong online booking, but the on-site experience was a different story. POS, payments, guest data, and operations felt disconnected, which meant we couldn’t deliver a unified experience. ROLLER was different. They gave us one platform to manage the full guest journey.”

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

But the platform was only part of the decision. For Michael, partnership meant knowing ROLLER would be there when the business needed answers fast. “ROLLER understands our vision, and they want to grow with us. To us, they are a true partner. I know that if I need to call them, I’m going to get an answer.”

With the right partner in place, Area 51 has built a repeatable operating model for growth. Here’s how that model comes to life across the business.

How Area 51 uses ROLLER

One platform across every venue

One platform across every venueWith a growing national footprint, consistency is everything. ROLLER gives Area 51 a single platform foundation that allows every location to function identically. 

"The key to making the experience similar from venue to venue, state to state, is quite straightforward: use the same platform, use the same technology, ask the same questions. So as soon as you land on the website, everything's the same. Doesn't matter if it's Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, or wherever else we build next."

Staff are trained on the same system, using the same processes, so that even brand-new team members can be operational on day one. That reduces the risk of staffing gaps and gets new team members contributing to the guest experience faster, instead of spending their first week buried in training videos.  

“ROLLER’s intuitive interface means I can teach someone reception in five minutes. The faster a new team member is confident and competent at check-in, the better the guest experience. ROLLER prompts staff on what to do so nothing gets missed.”

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

Smoother expansion 

One of the clearest signs of ROLLER's impact on Area 51's operations is how dramatically venue launches have improved. In the early days, without ROLLER's HQ feature, opening a new location meant rebuilding the entire platform from scratch.

"Opening up venue number two and venue number three without utilizing the HQ feature was really hard. We had to rebuild the entire platform from scratch. This was hours and hours of manual labor. Now we've got HQ, we want to open a venue, it's open. The hard part is actually opening the venue itself. The easy part is using ROLLER — click a button, we're good to go."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

Every day a venue sits unready is revenue that doesn't exist. It's a delayed marketing launch, party bookings that can't be taken, and guests who walk through the door to an experience that isn't quite right yet. For a brand growing at Area 51's pace, a slow venue launch is a direct threat to momentum and reputation.

"We had 136 bookings in 24 hours just for our parties alone. And that makes our marketing, our social presence, and our word of mouth work so well because people know what they're getting."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

Party bookings: the backbone of the business 

Parties are central to Area 51's revenue model. Getting them right, across multiple venues, requires airtight systems for pre-sales, check-in, and fulfillment.

"Parties are crucial. If you haven't got parties, you haven't got a business."

When Area 51 opened its Castle Hill location, the demand was extraordinary:

"The more we scale, the easier it gets. We could open up location after location after location, and they're all the same."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

By launching online sales early and leaning on ROLLER's seamless party management software and pre-booking capabilities, Area 51 knows weeks in advance exactly how busy each venue will be, enabling accurate staffing and smoother operations. 

Turning waivers into guest data 

Every guest who visits Area 51 completes a digital waiver. ROLLER's integrated waiver system turns a legal compliance requirement into useful data that can be used as better guest intelligence.

"If we didn't have a waiver, we wouldn't be in business. Having an all-in-one system with waivers attached is crucial. 
 

The waiver flow automatically creates guest records, which feed into ROLLER's segmentation tools. Area 51 uses these segments to build targeted marketing lists that reach the right families in the right postcodes at the right time.

"You need to capture as much guest data as you possibly can. We go back into ROLLER, go through segmentations, and we create the segment pathways that we can use in a marketing plan."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

Pricing rules: driving visitation across the week 

Area 51 uses ROLLER's smart pricing tools to drive off-peak visitation and reward group bookings, without adding complexity for guests or staff. 

"We've got different aspects of how you pay. Buy 11 tickets and get 10% off. We've got on-peak and off-peak pricing. Come in Monday to Friday and get a different price, or come on a Friday and pay for two and get the third hour for free. Being able to leverage that tool through ROLLER is so vital because it means we're more dynamic."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

Smart pricing allows Area 51 to turn slow periods into deliberate ones, drawing in families, schools, and groups during hours that would otherwise be quiet. The result is a venue that earns revenue across the full week, not just on busy weekends. The variable pricing logic lives inside ROLLER, so guests see a clean, intuitive booking experience, and staff are never left explaining discount structures at check-in. 

Growth partners 

For Michael and the team at Area 51, one of the most important assets their technology platform can provide them is the mindset. As Michael puts it: 

"We've got different aspects of how you pay. Buy 11 tickets and get 10% off. We've got on-peak and off-peak pricing. Come in Monday to Friday and get a different price, or come on a Friday and pay for two and get the third hour for free. Being able to leverage that tool through ROLLER is so vital because it means we're more dynamic."

Michael Affleck

COO, Area 51

It’s not just the features that define the relationship; it’s a shared vision, one where both parties are inspired and fueled by the other's drive. 

For venues looking to scale, the power of that kind of relationship can’t be understated. For Area 51, it’s the driving force behind their decision to choose a platform that meets them where they are today, and where they need to be at every stage of their growth journey. 

Ready to scale your venue like Area 51? We’d love to chat.  

About Area 51

• Location: Australia 
• Number of locations: 19 by 2028
• Venue type: Family Entertainment Center
• Website: https://www.area51world.com.au/