23 December 2021

**Business as (almost) usual at our 3 venues**

Following the recent updates from the Scottish Government, we have had many enquiries recently, so wanted to make the implications of this clear as it pertains to our venues.

Firstly SUPERCUBE venues are not included in the scope of “nightclub” as recently defined by the Scottish Government, and as such will not be required to close.

Having studied the First Minister’s speech on this topic on 21 December we have the following information to offer our customers, who may well be feeling a little confused at this time.

1 – the FM stated “I can confirm that a requirement for table service only will be reintroduced for venues serving alcohol for consumption on the premises.” This means that we will return to a strict table (i.e. room) service only. However as our venues have always been setup for room service this is something that we can achieve seamlessly and something that we would always advise in any case.

2 – the FM then mentioned “And we will also ask indoor hospitality and leisure venues to ensure 1 metre distance, not within, but between groups of people who are attending together.” Since re-opening in August we have always asked customers to maintain a sensible distance from other groups/customers and from staff – you can see mention of this on our Coronavirus Measures page. As such this new requirement will not substantially change the way we operate. We will continue to ask customers to follow this. It is important to note that the FM made clear there is no requirement for 1m distancing “within a group”, i.e. distancing is not a legal requirement with the people you bring along in your group/room.

3 – finally the FM then mentioned “We will continue to advise people that if they are attending indoor hospitality or leisure venues – and remember our core advice remains to minimise this – there should be no more than three households represented in any group.” Unless we are mistaken, this would appear to be advice rather than a legal requirement. As such this new requirement will not substantially change the way we operate. On arrival to our venues we will not ask to the composition of your group, and their will be no new restrictions such as a max group size in our venues. However, as required we will ask all members of the group to complete our track and trace form as we have always done since re-opening in August.

Aside from these 3 points, there are more generally limits on “audience sizes” for large scale gatherings but as our largest room has a max capacity of 40 then these requirement will not affect our operation.

We do, of course understand that some customers may wish to take the advice given by government and reduce group sizes to a maximum of 3 households, or may wish to take PHS advice and defer Christmas parties until next year, and that this advice may mean you wish to cancel or defer a current booking that you have. To this end we completely understand this and we will always try our best to fulfil any reasonable request. We have already helped many customers reschedule bookings for next year. For any customers who are unsure of when they may be able to return, then we are happy to change any deposit already paid into credit which will be valid for the next 3 years and can be used in any of our 3 venues. All we ask is that you give us as much notice as possible so we can offer your slot to another group that may wish to come along. Best way to contact us is by email.

On the flip side, as the 3 household advice is not a legal restriction then it really is up to members of the public to decide if they wish to take this advice or not. It is not our role as a business to enforce advice as if it is a legal requirement. This is a decision for yourself as a citizen to make. Whatever decision you come to is fine by us and we will do our best to help.

As always, we do have a full range of measures in place to mitigate against the spread of Covid-19 and these can be found on our Coronavirus Measures page – we strongly suggest taking a look over these prior to your visit.

We look forward to seeing you back in the venue at a time that suits you either this year or in 2022.

We hope you have a good Christmas this year, and we really look forward to 2022 and hope that it is a significant improvement on 2020 and 2021.

2 October 2021

**Covid passports not required for entry to SUPERCUBE venues**

We have had many enquiries recently so wanted to make clear that SUPERCUBE venues are not included in the scope of “nightclub” as recently defined by the Scottish Government.

As such you will not need to show proof of vaccination to enter our venues.

However, we do have a full range of measures in place to mitigate against the spread of Covid-19 and these can be found on our Coronavirus Measures page.

All 3 venues are re-open and we look forward to seeing you back in the venue.

14 August 2021

Edinburgh George Street and Glasgow Bath Street venues now re-open as of 12 August 2021.

Both venues will only be open Wed-Sun during August – so the booking system will not allow bookings for Mon/Tues in August

The booking system is open for all available dates.

Due to staff shortages we have also decided to place a limit on group sizes but for August only – max 12 people per group. We will likely increase this limit soon so check back for updates. This is simply so the venues and staffed do not get overwhelmed for our opening. At the latest, by 1 September these limits will be removed.

If you had a previous booking that was affected by Covid (and you kept your deposit on file) then we thank you and really appreciate it. With the high volumes of enquiries and bookings that are currently coming in, if you have a date in mind for a new booking then the safest option would be to make that asap using our online system, secure the booking with a fresh deposit, then drop us an email to transfer over your existing covid credit to your new booking. You are welcome to contact us and we can manually transfer the booking over, but in the meantime if another group takes the slot you were after then there would be nothing we can do.

10 August 2021

**August opening dates**

Edinburgh George Street – Thursday 12th August

Glasgow Bath Street – Thursday 12th August

Edinburgh Cowgate – TBC

During August we will open at restricted times and days while we ramp up to be back to our pre-covid opening times by 1 September. Full details on opening times and days to follow, but likely Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun every week in August.

Due to staff shortages we have also decided to place a limit on group sizes but for August only – max 12 people per group. We may increase this limit later in August. This is simply so the venues and staffed do not get overwhelmed for our opening. By 1 September these limits will be removed.

On Tuesday 10 August at 11am the booking system will open for all available dates in August so please book in via the online booking system ASAP after that.

3 August 2021

Following today’s Scottish Government announcement, we are aiming to re-open all venues on or soon after 9 August.

We are working hard behind the scenes to get everything ready for re-opening, both in the venues and on our website, so more info will follow but only as we have it.

Our online booking system will also open soon, but in two stages. In the first stage, we will aim to re-open it on Thursday 5 August at 11am but this will only allow bookings to be made on or after 1 September 2021 (i.e. this includes Dec 2021 and bookings for any time in 2022 etc).

In the second stage, by Monday 9 August we will aim to extend the booking system to allow bookings for August, but only when we have more clarity regarding our exact opening dates for each venue and operating hours for August.

As always the quickest way to make a booking will be to do secure this online.

If you have emailed us recently regarding any topic such as future bookings, re-opening dates, refunds for past bookings etc then rest assured we are working through these emails one by one, but we do have a large backlog of emails and we this will take some time to clear. So apologies for any delay but we will respond to all emails in due course.

Look forward to seeing you back in our venues soon.

28 June 2021

We hope everyone is keeping well and enjoying getting back towards normality.

However, all of our venues remain closed until further notice – this is not our choice.

As you may understand, it was not clear where bespoke venues such as ours fit into the reopening roadmap laid out by the Scottish Government.

As such we reached out to the local authority to discuss how and when we could reopen under the Scottish Government levels system. Unfortunately, they made it clear that according to Scottish Government guidance, our activities are not to be allowed in our setting at any point of the levels system – not even in Level Zero.

We discussed at length the strong advantages of our venues (primarily the high level of isolation and separation that each visiting group is given by way of our private rooms), and highlighted a range of mitigations and measures we could utilise in order to, in our opinion, trade with a level of risk that is equal to or quite possibly far lower than other activities and settings which are currently permitted under the levels system. We further offered officials the opportunity to visit the venues to get first hand insight of the structure and mitigations we can put in place. Unfortunately all of these offers and ideas were turned down.

We also made it clear that we feel the levels system does not provide any flexibility or any form of a common sense approach to bespoke business offerings that do not fall into a traditional category, and that is simply not fair to us, our staff, or our customers.

As such we have had no option but to remain effectively in hibernation for this entire time with all staff on full furlough and very little ability to respond to the thousands of emails that we have on file. We apologise and really appreciate your patience at this time.

The recent announcement regarding 9 August is positive and fills us with hope that, as the Government is proposing to remove all social distancing restrictions, then the only logical conclusion is that all activities in all settings should be permitted after that date, including ours. We have reached out to get confirmation of that. Of course we recognise this as an earliest possible date and note that target dates such as these have slipped in the past and that could well happen in this case too.

As it stands it would seem like we will be able to return to hosting groups at some point in August. We look forward to being able to provide more detail in that regard once Scottish Government proposals have become clearer.

However, given there is still uncertainty around this, We will hold off re-opening our online booking system for August & September bookings until we have firm confirmation of exactly when we can re-open.

Before that we may re-open the online booking system for bookings later in the year and also for 2022 and beyond so that customers looking to plan ahead for longer term bookings can do so. We will hold off doing this right now but this may happen in the next couple of weeks.

If you have sent us an email then please rest assured we will be in touch and whatever the situation we will absolutely do the best we can for all customers, but that we are still facing a lot of uncertainty and in many cases the answer to many emails is simply “we don’t know yet”. We are looking to fully staff our emails by mid July so we can start to be more timely with responses at the point in time when we should have far more clarity about the timing of reopening.

If you had a booking which has been affected by Coronavirus closure then our default position is to save any deposit that was paid as credit which can then be spent like cash in our venues or used to secure a fresh booking in the future. This credit will be valid for up to 5 years. In addition, and by way of a small gesture for your patience at this time, we will gift an additional 50% extra credit on top of your existing deposit as a thank you from us.

If that still doesn’t work for you then rest assured we will find a solution for each customer but that we won’t be able to get to work on these issues until around mid July.

Thank you all for your patience. Sorry we can’t help more right now.

23 April 2021

We hope you are doing ok after what has been a very difficult year for all.

All of our venues remain closed until further notice.

At this time we are operating with incredibly restricted staffing levels and so we will be unable to respond quickly to emails and telephone calls as we normally would. We apologise and really appreciate your patience at this time.

It is great to see restrictions start to be lifted across the country and we are happy to see many fellow hospitality businesses start to reopen their doors in some way just now.

However, as you may understand, it is not exactly clear where our operation fits into the reopening roadmap laid out by the Scottish Government.

Our best estimate for when we may have any chance of being able to operate in a meaningful way is levels 1 or 0 – given current Government estimates that could mean some potential for June. It could also be earlier if Government relaxations are accelerated, or it could also be later if there are delays or if it becomes clear that levels 1 or 0 can not work for us.

Given this uncertainty, we feel it is best to keep our booking systems closed until things become far clearer.

Once we have a clear and firm indication when we will be able to reopen then we will publish this on our website and also on social media.

In addition if you had a booking which was affected by Coronavirus closure, and you simply want to change to a new date, then rest assured we will do our upmost to sort you with a new slot at a time and date that works for you, but that we would suggest holding off with a request until we have announced a firm reopening date to avoid further disappointment.

Thank you for your patience.

15 December 2020

Apologies in the delay of this update message – a lot has been going on since September.

Due to the current restrictions to hospitality and the likelihood that these will continue for some time, then we have decided to close all venues until further notice. We hope to reopen in at some point 2021 – hopefully in the Spring. However the exact timing will not be clear until we get clear and sustainable indications from Government. When we have a clear timeframe for reopening we will publish this on our website and on social media.

In the meantime we are unable to staff the phone lines to take calls right now and our email response will be slow at best I am afraid.

If you had a booking which has been affected by Coronavirus closure then our default position is to save any deposit that was paid as credit which can be redeemed or used to make a fresh booking in the future. This credit will be valid for up to 5 years. In addition, and by way of a small gesture for your patience at this time, we will gift an additional 50% extra credit on top of your existing deposit as a thank you from us. As an example, if you had paid a £30 deposit to secure a booking, that will now be saved as credit for 5 years and once you include the extra 50% extra credit, then your £30 deposit would now be available as £45 of credit to spend, and this is valid for 5 years.

If you are unclear when you would like to return then the best option is to keep the credit on file and drop us an email once things have become clearer in the future.

However if you already are sure of the date when you would like to revisit us in 2021 then just drop us an email and we will sort that for you. For the moment our booking systems will remain offline until we have further clarity about a potential reopening date. If you do directly rearrange your booking like this then you will also receive the 50% bonus on top of your existing deposit.

To do this please email the relevant venue direct to edinburgh@supercube.biz, glasgow@supercube.biz or cowgate@supercube.biz.

We hope you can have some kind of joy in this festive period, and we are really sorry that we won’t be able to host any of you this time around.

We look forward to seeing you back in our venues in 2021

19 August 2020

Following the Scottish Government’s “New safety rules for hospitality industry” published on 14 August 2020 we responded accordingly on the same day and have now published our response to these guidelines – for the benefit of staff and for the benefit of any officials or members of the public visiting the venue

Mandatory collection of customer/visitor contact details to support Test and Protect

Until now the Government had made this voluntary for hospitality venues. However at SUPERCUBE this has always been mandatory since day one of our Covid re-openings. Any lead customer unwilling to provide contact details for their group (single household) has not been allowed to enter. To date no lead customer has refused. We will maintain this strict policy as always for our peace of mind in addition to our desire to comply with the updated guidance.

Regarding Noise control – i.e. music in individual Karaoke rooms

We understand the Government’s position in wanting to minimise the risk of transmission and understand their fears of transmission risks as it pertains to open plan hospitality venues where people from a large number of households can be gathered in the same open plan area. Our venues are very different from the vast majority of hospitality venues (cellular structure and very low capacity) and as such we have implemented rules in line with the guidance that allows us to trade and host qualifying groups while minimising the risks of the creating of new transmission links between households. Our venue is different to almost all hospitality venues both in physical structure and current entrance policy as the only groups we allow entry are formed of single or extended households. These groups (households) will spend 99% of their time in their own room which is completely separate and isolated from all other groups (households) and in addition each of our rooms is also very well ventilated for these low levels of occupancy. Our customers will spend very little time in the communal areas of the venue (reception, corridors, toilets) and in these transient areas customers are highly likely to simply be going from A to B (there is a no “loitering” policy in all of these areas) and not conversing at all. Also while in these communal areas customers are unlikely to encounter other groups (households) and even if they do they are unlikely to need to interact with other groups (households). As such we have assessed that background karaoke music inside an individual and private karaoke room which houses a group formed only of a single or extended household presents no substantive risk of transmission between households and as such we see no reason why this activity cannot continue to be carried out safely in this way and with the range of other measures we have implemented for our Covid secure re-openings.

Queue management/Advanced Booking

We have not encountered any issues with queue management so far. Internally we currently operate room service only so there is very little occasion for customers to leave their own room and customers are informed of this on arrival. As such internal queuing does not happen. Regarding the possibility of external queuing and crowd control: we are operating at incredibly reduced capacities (approx 20%) and most groups entering the venue are in the range of 2-4 people. In addition we have extend room turnover times to 1 hour between groups so that the risk of groups exiting and entering at the same time is also further reduced. In addition we have door security who can control these small numbers of groups to wait in a socially distant fashion at the front door if needed. Aside from that, we have always advised our customers to book in advance during our entire 10 year history. This guidance remains the same now. Customers are made aware that the best chance they have to visit us is to book online. If they do not do this walk in slots may be possible, as long as safety can be maintained however we advise that customers only guaranteed method to secure a slot is to book online as well in advance as possible.

Noise control – no background music (communal areas)

All music in communal areas of our venues had been at very low levels since reopening. We had assessed (due to transient nature of our communal areas) that low levels of background music in these areas do not provide any significant risk as customers will not be loitering or conversing in these areas. However, following the above updated guidance we will now implement a “zero background music” policy in all communal areas of the venue (reception, corridors, toilets). As such there will continue to be a very low risk of transmission between groups (households) whilst in these communal areas.

Noise control: loud behaviour

Such behaviour has so far not been observed in any of our communal areas of our venues. If it were to happen staff have been briefed to act quickly to avoid the risk of transmission between different groups (households). However this could only happen in the rare occasion where multiple groups (households) are in the same public areas of the venue (reception corridor etc) at the same time AND a customer started to sing or shout while in these communal areas. This is a rare occasion and if it was to occur would quickly be acted upon.

So to recap – following the update from Government, our operations remain entirely as per our Covid secure re-openings except that until further notice background music will not be played in communal areas.

Thanks for reading

21 July 2020

Following the successful re-opening of the Edinburgh Cowgate venue with our Covid measures in place, we are now working to tweak operational aspects in the Cowgate “pilot” and we can now confirm opening dates for our other venues: Glasgow (Friday 31st July) and Edinburgh George Street (Friday 7 August). These dates are now firm, but as always potentially subject to change. We would like to let you know that the Cowgate venue was visited by Police Scotland on a couple of occasions over the weekend who were very happy with the measures we have in place after being given a tour of the premises. Essential part of these measures is the conditions on groups that we are currently allowing into the venue:

1 – Our rooms can strictly only be booked by groups formed of a single household (or an extended household)

AND

2 – the maximum group size for any group/room booking is strictly limited to 6 people

For more information on what the current rules are in regards to households and extended households please visit the Scottish Government website.

You can walk in to our venues, however we would always suggest it is best to secure a booking. Our booking system currently will quote you our regular prices as we are still working on all of the various updates required to bring the booking system in line with recent changes, however rest assured that on arrival you will be charged the much cheaper Covid room prices.

14 July 2020

Following the Scottish Government’s confirmation of moving into phase 3, we are now able to confirm that our Edinburgh Cowgate venue will be ready to re-open Covid securely from Friday 17 July. As advised by Government guidance we have decided to re-open our venues in a phased way so that we can ensure this is done safely for all customers and staff, and also so that, where we are able to improve any of the new measures, then we can learn from our experiences in re-opening one venue at a time and roll out all measures to following venues. Tentative dates for the other venues are: Glasgow (Friday 24th July) and Edinburgh George Street (Friday 31 July). These two dates are tentative only and subject to revision. Full information on temporary room capacities, group size limits, and temporary pricing structure & opening times will be on our website soon along with a full range of measures we are taking to ensure safety at this time. We look forward to opening our doors and welcoming all you back to our venues.

The venues are simply not the same without you.

11 June 2020

Following the Scottish Government’s announcement of a tentative date for moving into phase 3 of lockdown release (including hospitality sector) of 15 July 2020, we are now aiming to be ready to host groups in Edinburgh and Glasgow on that date. Formal reopening dates will follow based on updates from Government. In the meantime we have already put some measures in place in all 3 venues and you can find more info on our website. These measures are only provisional and will be subject to further measures or advice following guidance from relevant Government publications.

15 May 2020

Following both the Scottish Government lockdown extension and the publishing of the UK Government’s COVID-19 Recovery Strategy (which gives approximate timeframe for reopening the economy) we are now extending the below guidance (28 March 2020 post below) to include all affected bookings up to and including 31 July 2020.

Regarding any existing bookings from 1 August 2020 onward – please feel free to contact us if you wish to rearrange the date or cancel. However we ask for patience at this time as we may not be able to come back to you as quickly as we would like given the circumstances.

17 April 2020

Following the updated Government announcement yesterday regarding a 3 week continuation of the current lockdown restrictions, we are now extending the below guidance to include all affected bookings up to and including 31 May 2020.

Regarding any existing bookings from 1 June 2020 onward – please feel free to contact us if you wish to rearrange the date or cancel. However we ask for patience at this time as we may not be able to come back to you as quickly as we would like given the circumstances.

28 March 2020

Firstly we hope you are doing all you can to stay safe during these unprecedented times.

We are also incredibly proud of the NHS staff and core workers who are still going about their business while most of the country is shutdown.

SUPERCUBE is, like every individual, small business and large business, trying to work through this period in the best way we can. We want to be open and fair to everyone – our staff, our customers and our suppliers (many of whom are also small businesses).

Just over a week ago on Friday 20 March 2020 the Government asked venues such as ours to close as soon as feasibly possible and for an indefinite period. We very shortly after (at around 5:30pm) closed all 3 venues. We will not reopen until these instructions have been changed.

Since then we have had many enquiries regarding existing bookings and have only been able to respond to these with a small team of staff, so we have not been able to respond as quickly as we would like – our apologies for anyone who has been delayed by this.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been working behind the scenes to assess our cash flow situation and at the same time work towards a standard position which will hopefully satisfy all customers that have bookings which are affected by this crisis.

First of all we want to ensure everyone that SUPERCUBE as a business will get through this. Government support has been pledged in various forms and this, plus ongoing support from our fantastic customers, and cautious use of the funds we have, will ensure our return to stability.

However, according to updates it could be early May until payments come through from the Government Employment Support scheme. So for the next 4-5 weeks our intention is to prioritise the funds we currently have available and allocate them on a needs basis.

Simply put we want to:

1 – keep paying our staff for as long as possible through this turbulent time

2 – pay the outstanding bills from our smaller suppliers and tradesmen that are also in a tough situation at the moment

3 – prioritise any refunds to those most in need – i.e. any customer that has been put into serious financial difficulty due to this ongoing crisis

As a brief background, our standard t&cs (agreed to during booking) state that we do not return deposits for any reason. However we totally understand that these are exceptional times and we will act accordingly.

In the meantime we can advise the following for all bookings made for Friday 20 March 2020 until (and including) 30 April 2020: (EDIT on 15/05/2020: this end date is now extended to 31 July 2020)

All payments already made for any booking in this period have now been saved as credit (all details saved under your original booking). This credit can be used to secure a new booking once things have calmed down. If that works for you, we would like to offer you an extra 50% of credit, on the house, to spend on drinks or snacks to say thank you for your patience in these unprecedented times. (So for example if you had paid £50 deposit – you will now have £75 credit saved against your original booking)

The new total credit can be used anytime in the next 5 years. This credit can be used to secure a new booking in the future – just email us and we will get you booked in. Also note that the credit does not have to be used by yourself – it can be gifted over to other friends and family. In any case just email us and we will sort any details and new bookings.

We hope this offer of saving the credit and adding additional credit works for you. If you are happy with this there is no need to contact us – this will be updated on your booking automatically and will be ready for you to use for your next booking when the time comes.

Importantly, any customer who has already been put in serious financial difficulty due to this crisis please email us and we will prioritise your request for a refund. While our intention is to protect our staff and suppliers we do not want to put anyone else into financial difficulty at this time.

Anyone else who has a booking in this period and does not anticipate being able to use the enhanced credit, is welcome to request a full refund, but we would ask that if you are not currently in serious financial difficulty you give us some time to process the refund – currently we would anticipate being able to do that in early May but this could be brought forward if Government support can reach us quicker than that.

Regarding any bookings for August 2020 onward. We do not currently have any specific information so will not be able to advise until the Government position on the becomes clear, hopefully by early July.

If you need to contact us directly, please do so by email to the relevant venue – edinburgh@supercube.biz, cowgate@supercube.biz, or glasgow@supercube.biz.

Due to the high volume of enquiries just now we are only able to respond by email so please contact us by email only. It may also take us a few days to respond – but we promise we will respond to all emails. We will not be able to respond to messages via Facebook or other social media messages and we are literally unable to take calls at the venues right now.

Please do all you can to keep yourself and others safe at this time.

We really look forward to welcoming you back in the future.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES