How to Plan a Luxury Retreat: A Step-by-Step Guide
Are you a coach, leader, or entrepreneur with a thriving online community? Are you ready to elevate your connection with clients by hosting a transformative in-person retreat? If your soul is calling you to lead, travel, and create unforgettable experiences, this guide is for you.
In this post, we’ll walk through a five-step formula to plan a successful and luxurious retreat. This method ensures your event is transformational for attendees and profitable for your business. Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Prepare
The first phase is all about envisioning and defining your retreat. Here’s how to set a strong foundation:
Mission and Vision
Ask yourself: Why am I hosting this retreat?
Define the transformation you want attendees to experience. You were set on this earth to impact thousands, what is the impact you need to make on the world?
This is very important as it lays the ground work for every decision while building out the retreat details.
But also, if you don’t know why you are hosting the retreat, your dream attendee will not know WHY they MUST be at the retreat, let alone, drop $5K, $10K, or even $15K on the experience.
Then, close your eyes and imagine your dream location—whether it’s a beach, the mountains, or a vibrant city. Align your destination with the mission of your retreat.
You don’t have to know a city yet, just parameters and ideas around what environment will enhance the transformation (the WHY).
Ideal Attendees
Ask yourself: Who is this transformation for?
Be specific. Consider their demographics, challenges, and goals.
The more clear you are around who the retreat is for (and you keep blinders on) then the right people will be attracted to the retreat through your messaging.
The right person will feel like you are speaking directly to them.
Once you feel good about your dream attendee, analyze your current and past clients. Do you already have people who know, love, and trust you AND has paid for your services? THOSE people should get personalized invitations to join the retreat first.
Step 2: Logistics
This phase is all about the details of the retreat. The logistics are what bring the retreat transformation to life!
From venues to budgets, here’s what to focus on:
- Venue and Accommodations: Select a location that compliments your retreat’s purpose. Make sure there is enough space in the common areas so everyone can learn and eat together.
- Activities: Curate experiences that drive home your mission. For example: If you are a branding coach, have a day for photo and video shoots so your attendees will walk away with marketing assets to amplify their brand.
- Budgeting: Most first time retreat hosts spend money hosting retreats.. aka.. the walk away spending more money than they made. Many first-time hosts under estimate expenses and overspend to make sure the retreat is perfect. I am here to help you NOT do that. We are here to make money will serving deeply. Check out my post about
Retreat Budgeting 101 so you create a a budget that makes you money.
Step 3: Attendee Alchemy (Sales)
With your logistics and budget dailed in, it’s time to attract your dream retreat attendees.
You will need the following:
- Landing page to check out page.
- An email marketing sequence to generate excitement and invite your warm leads.
- Automate a seamless onboarding experience, including an event registration form, retreat contract, and links to a retreat attendee container like a Facebook private group, Whatsapp group, or Telegram group.
You can grab my workflow, landing page examples, and templates in Retreat in a Box Digital Bundle to make creating these assets easier.
Step 4: Nurture
Once your dream retreat attendees are “ALL IN”, the nurturing process begins. This phase ensures they feel supported from the moment they pay through the retreat experience:
- What to Know Before You Go Document: Share itineraries, packing lists, and FAQ’s. I recommend hosting Q&A session 30 days prior to the start of the retreat to address any logistics questions so they are full prepared for the experience.
- Community Building: Encourage connection in the private container so the attendees feel like they already know everyone once they arrive.
- During the Retreat: Hold the space to go deep. Encourage sharing, questions, and interacting to get the most out of the experience. You will also want to communicate constantly where you are in the itinerary, send journal prompts to the group space, and keep on schedule to honor your time.
Step 5: Refine and Repeat
On the last day of the retreat, ask for video testimonials. Your dream attendees will be glowing to give a recommendation and having video testimonials is KEY to selling future retreats at a higher price point.
The day everyone departs, send a feedback form to gather written feedback to refine your future retreats. An example feedback for is in Retreat in a Box Digital Bundle so you can (almost) copy and paste to make it super easy.
Remember, not all feedback is good feedback. Use discernment to focus on meaningful improvements and write out actionable items to make the next one 10X better– the more you document the easier building out the next one will be!
PS. Don’t forget to grab The Ultimate Retreat Planning Guide (for free) so you can plan, host, and sell your dream retreat using my exact formula for planning my client’s retreat.
Check out Luxury Gift Ideas for your next retreat.
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