How to organise a retreat

Who this guide is for

This guide is for anyone planning their first retreat, and for people who’ve run one before and would like a steadier way to plan the next. A writing retreat, a walking weekend and a yoga weekend have a lot in common once you look past the activity, because they all need somewhere to stay, food, a programme and enough guests to pay for it.

The sections follow the order most people tend to work in, since the venue affects what you’ll need to charge, and the price affects who’s likely to book.

Deciding who it’s for, what it’s for and how long it runs

Start with the people you’re hoping will come. They might already come to your classes or groups, or they might never have met you, and they might be beginners or very experienced. It’s worth being clear about this early, because it affects the venue, the programme and the price.

Then try to say what the retreat is for in a sentence. “A weekend to get the first draft finished” or “three days on the coast path, with good food and nothing to organise” tells guests what to expect. It also gives you something to check the rest of the plan against.

A weekend, arriving on Friday and leaving on Sunday, is often the easiest place to start. Guests don’t need much time off, and you’re committing to less with the venue. A longer retreat suits people travelling further or going abroad, but it’s usually harder to fill the first time, and you’ll have more money at risk if it doesn’t fill.

Many retreats are residential, meaning guests stay over, but a day retreat can be a gentler way to test the idea. If guests are staying, decide early whether they’ll share rooms.

Choosing dates and a venue

Popular venues can book up a year or more ahead, so it’s worth looking early. Give guests a few months’ notice as well, since many will need to book time off. Check your dates against school and bank holidays, too. Holiday dates might suit your guests or rule some of them out, and venues often charge more for those weeks.

When you look at a venue, try to picture the whole stay, not only the room where the group meets.

• How many beds there are, and the mix of single, twin and shared rooms
• A room big enough for the whole group, with decent light and heating
• A kitchen you can use, or the catering the venue offers
• How guests will get there, including the nearest station, parking and step-free rooms
• What’s included, like bedding, towels and cleaning, and the rules on arrival times and noise
• What the venue needs from you, like proof of insurance or a damage deposit

Visit if you can. If it’s abroad or too far, a video call, recent photos and a chat with someone who’s run a retreat there all help.

Venues tend to charge in one of two ways, and the difference matters most when you don’t fill every bed.

Planning what’s included and a realistic programme

Write down what the price covers, which is usually the accommodation, meals, sessions and any trips or materials. It’s just as useful to say what isn’t included, like travel, drinks or a supplement for a single room, so guests don’t have to guess.

It’s tempting to fill every hour, so guests feel they’ve had their money’s worth. People tend to come away happiest, though, when there’s been time to rest, wander and talk to each other. Travel days are tiring, so keep the first evening light.

As an example, a weekend might look something like this:

• Friday: arrive from 4pm, settle in, dinner at 7 and a short welcome afterwards
• Saturday: breakfast, a long morning session and a packed lunch, a free afternoon back at the house, then dinner
• Sunday: a shorter morning session, an early lunch together, and leaving by 2pm

Have a plan for bad weather, and leave gaps between sessions, because moving a group around usually takes longer than the timetable says.

Sorting out food, cooking and who does what

Food is a big part of how a retreat feels, and it often takes more work than organisers expect. You might use the venue’s catering, hire a cook, or cook yourself with some helpers. Plenty of people mix these, with a cook for dinners and a simple breakfast guests help themselves to.

If you’re leading the sessions, cooking as well is a lot to take on, since even a simple menu means shopping, cooking and washing up at least twice a day. Ask guests about dietary needs and allergies when they book, so you can pass them on to whoever’s cooking well before the shopping starts.

Friends sometimes help in return for a free or cheaper place. That goes most smoothly when you agree beforehand what each person’s doing and when they’re off duty. It also helps to write one name next to each job, like the cooking, collecting guests from the station, the keys, the first aid kit and the money.

Working out a budget and how many places you need to fill

List every cost you can think of. The venue is usually the biggest, followed by food. Then there’s your team, travel, materials, insurance, payment fees, promotion and small things like firewood or a minibus for an afternoon. If you want to earn something from the retreat, either add your own fee as a cost or look at what’s left once everything else is paid.

Then look at what you’d bring in at different numbers, not only when it’s full. As an example, say a farmhouse for a weekend costs £3,000 for the whole place and sleeps twelve guests, and a cook costs £400. That’s £3,400 you’ll pay however many people come. Food and materials come to about £80 a guest. You charge £395 for a place in a shared twin room and £495 for a single. There are eight shared places and four singles.

• All twelve places: £5,140 coming in and £4,360 going out, which leaves £780
• Ten places (six shared, four single): £4,350 coming in and £4,200 going out, which leaves £150
• Eight places (four shared, four single): £3,560 coming in and £4,040 going out, which leaves you £480 short

With that mix of rooms, you’d need ten of the twelve places to cover your costs, and more if the singles are the ones left empty. Needing nearly every place is a sign to look again at the prices, the room mix or the venue before you commit.

To keep it short, the example leaves out travel, insurance, payment fees, promotion and the team’s food, and it assumes the team don’t need beds in the house. Your own budget needs all of those.

Matching the venue’s payment dates with your guests’ payment dates

Venues commonly ask for a deposit when you book, which may not be refundable, and the rest some weeks before you arrive. You’ll often pay that deposit before anyone’s booked, so it’s worth knowing how much you’d lose if the retreat didn’t go ahead.

The aim is for your guests’ money to come in before yours goes out. If the venue wants the balance eight weeks before, you might ask guests for a deposit when they book and the rest ten or twelve weeks before. That way you’re paying the venue with money you’ve already received.

Your cancellation terms should line up in the same way. If the venue won’t refund you after a certain date, your guests’ refund cut-off should be on that date or before it. Otherwise you could end up refunding a guest for a place you’ve already paid for.

It also helps to pick a decision date. That’s the last day you could cancel with the venue at a cost you could live with. Decide how many bookings you’d want by then to go ahead. If you do cancel, guests will expect their money back in full, so it’s safest to keep their payments in a separate account until the retreat has happened.

Describing and promoting your retreat

A good description answers the questions guests would otherwise email you about. Say who it’s for, roughly what happens each day, what’s included, the room types and prices, and any experience or fitness it needs. Be honest about shared rooms, stairs and phone signal. Good photos of the bedrooms and the views often do more than a long paragraph.

Your first guests are likely to be people who already know you, like people on your mailing list, people who come to your classes, and people in groups you belong to. Tell them before you post anywhere else. An early booking price with a clear end date can help fill the first few places, and once a few people have booked, others tend to find it easier to commit.

Once it’s on sale, a short update now and then, like “two places left in twin rooms”, can help people who were thinking about it make up their minds. Only send one when it’s true.

Telling guests what they need to know before they arrive

When people book, ask about dietary and access needs, an emergency contact and whether they’re happy to share a room. If it’s relevant, ask about anything else you should know, like whether they can manage stairs or a long day on their feet.

A week or two before the retreat, send everyone a welcome email with the practical details:

• the full address and postcode, directions and the nearest station
• what time to arrive and what time you’ll finish
• what to bring, like comfortable shoes, a notebook or their own towels
• a rough outline of the programme
• whether there’s wifi or phone signal
• a phone number to call on the day if they’re lost or running late

Send a reminder about the balance well before it’s due, too. That’s easier than chasing someone for money on the first evening.

Preparing the running order, the team and the arrival

A running order is the timetable for the team rather than for guests. It lists what’s happening through the day and who’s looking after it, from setting up the room to locking up. Share it with everyone helping, along with each other’s phone numbers, and talk it through before guests arrive.

Get to the venue a few hours early if you can, to check the rooms and the heating and put the room list somewhere handy. When guests arrive, a cup of tea and a quick tour help people settle. Keep the house rules short, and save the rest of the welcome for after dinner.

Plan the end as well. Tell guests what time they need to leave and whether you’d like them to strip beds, then check the rooms for anything left behind before you hand back the keys.

Before your retreat

What to do once it’s over

A few days later, email guests to ask what they enjoyed and what they’d change, since people often say more in an email than they would while they’re packing up to leave. Then compare what you spent with the budget, which gives you a good starting point for pricing the next one.

If it went well, think about the next dates fairly soon. Guests are often keenest to book again in the weeks after they get home, and the venue may hold the same dates next year if you ask early.