For those looking to reset by stepping out of their routine, few experiences rival the impact of a week-long retreat. Curating an environment that inspires insights and leaves participants feeling renewed is, in many ways, an art form. Done well, a retreat seamlessly weaves together travel logistics, hospitality, and self-care, balancing structure with spontaneity, guidance with freedom.
If you’re drawn to the idea of helping others unplug from the stresses of modern life and reconnect with themselves and others, starting a retreat business might be your calling. Here’s what you need to know.
What is a retreat business?
A retreat business is a service business that curates and hosts structured getaways, offering participants an intentional break from daily life.
These retreats can support self-care, personal growth, wellness, or spiritual development (think yoga retreat on the beach), and often focus on developing a certain skill or mindset, like creativity, team-building, or reconnecting with loved ones in a screen-free setting.
Retreats often take place in peaceful, scenic destinations, where organizers take care of travel, lodging, meals, and activities.
The key differences between a retreat and a vacation are curation, structure, and a clear outcome. Retreats are typically designed around a specific goal and ideally help participants achieve this goal by the end. Whether it’s summiting a peak, deepening connections with coworkers or life partners, or holding a chaturanga for five minutes with a goat on your back, that purpose drives the experience.
Examples of common types of retreat businesses include:
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Wellness retreats
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Surf retreats
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Spa retreats
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Yoga retreats
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Corporate retreats
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Meditation retreats
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Couples retreats
How to start a retreat business
- Conduct market research
- Identify your niche
- Find your location
- Write your business plan
- Develop partnerships
- Get ahead of legal requirements
- Hire staff
- Build a website
- Develop a marketing plan
- Iterate and improve
The wellness retreat market is projected to surpass $360 billion globally by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5%, driven by rising demand for wellness tourism and holistic experiences, health awareness, an aging population, higher incomes, and eco-friendly values.
If your idea aligns with this demand, there’s never been a better time to enter the wellness tourism market. Here’s how to start a retreat business:
1. Conduct market research
Thorough market research is instrumental in identifying opportunities, understanding the potential of various target audiences, and developing your brand identity, all of which will be key pieces of your retreat business foundation and overall strategy.
Your approach to market research might include a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can also conduct a competitive analysis of similar retreat companies, noting what they get right and, crucially, where they fall short, and gather evidence of demand or interest for your retreat concept.
Let’s say you have a target audience in mind, like avid mountain bikers, for example. You might join popular message boards or browse relevant social media accounts for insights and a chance to test your assumptions about what they would or would not look for in a retreat dedicated to the sport.
If you know that you’d like to organize meaningful experiences in beautiful locations, but don’t have a specific angle in mind, look into trending interests (like wellness and stress relief), common pain points (like employee mental health and well-being in corporate settings), and gaps in the market (retreats built for parents with high-quality built-in child care) to give your retreat business more shape.
2. Identify your niche
Once you have a broad sense of the potential niches the market will support, narrowing down what you want to offer and who you want to offer it to will provide the structure for your initial business plan. Your retreat should provide a clear, unique value to its target audience. What do you, as an individual, do better than anyone else, and how can you channel it into a repeatable group format? What kind of transformation should your retreat attendees expect? Is location a central piece of your offering, or will it move with each successive session?
Consider your expertise, interests, capital, and resources to arrive at the type of retreat business you want to create. You can build out your retreat business from several different starting points:
Location
You can build your retreat business around a particular location—one you own, rent, or even a destination you’re particularly familiar with and have connections to. Maybe you own a B&B, or ranch, or spa, and want to create a tailored business around it, or have spent years living in a remote mountain town and want to help seasoned hikers explore the trails.
Audience
Finding a specific target audience demographic is a great way to narrow your focus while still offering a wide variety of retreat styles and activities. Identify underserved communities, or those who are looking to spend money on premium experiences. Maybe your retreat is designed for gap-year students, or 30-somethings living in cities, or retirees looking to travel more adventurously.
Activity
Anchoring your retreat brand to a specific activity allows you to build expertise within an existing audience. Maybe you want to host budding content creators looking to bolster their portfolios and digital business acumen, host workshops for would-be yoga instructors, or design a mindfulness retreat specifically geared toward executives.
Expertise
Some retreat businesses begin as a means to an end: a way to travel with like-minded people, or a way to put hard-won expertise, like a past career in competitive sports or linguistic fluency, to good use.
3. Find your location
Your retreat business can be tied to a particular location you own or rent, or partnerships that you build with location owners. If you don’t already have a location, your choice may be dependent on your startup capital—building out a location from scratch can cost millions of dollars.
If your business isn’t location-specific, you may choose to partner with a small venue for exclusive use for a few days or weeks, or use part of a large resort’s facilities for your guests and activities.
Proximity, weather, and popularity are also factors you’ll need to consider. For example, if you operate a corporate retreat, you may want to be close to major cities where large corporations are headquartered. If your model involves bringing small groups to experience the natural beauty of remote natural settings, consider accessibility and travel costs for your guests. For activity-based retreats, think about how seasonal changes might affect the experience.
Locations with an established tourism industry will likely have large resorts or hotels you can partner with, as well as other businesses you can partner with. However, these locations may be more expensive to start up in and have more competition.
4. Write your business plan
A business plan is a document that outlines your company’s goals, how you’ll achieve them, and a rough time frame for their achievement. It’s also what you present to potential investors and loan officers if you need external funding to get your business off the ground.
Your retreat business plan should include an executive summary, audience and customer segment profiles, sample itineraries, an organizational overview, financial projections, and any other high-level details you want to communicate to potential partners or financiers. Shopify has a free business plan template you can use to get started.
5. Develop partnerships
Beyond your venue partnerships, teaming up with like-minded brands or tour businesses can help enrich and round out your retreat experience by offering local expertise, sourcing equipment and apparel, preparing meals, and more. For example, you might partner with individuals offering experiences like beekeeping, cooking classes, or meditation, in order to expand your offering.
The strongest partnerships are mutually beneficial—look for collaborators who share your strategic vision but bring different strengths to the table. Your offerings should complement each other to create a complete, compelling experience. Collaborating with photographers or content creators, for example, can help capture memories for your guests while generating valuable marketing content for both parties.
6. Get ahead of legal requirements
Certifications, licenses, insurance, and permits are important for just about every small business, but they are essential to wellness retreat businesses, which assume responsibility for their guests away from home. Check with your city and state jurisdiction for what you’ll need for things like food handling or wellness treatments, and any other legal considerations to account for when traveling, like liability waivers or media releases. Shopify offers waiver apps that seamlessly integrate with your website’s online booking portal.
7. Hire staff
Staffing needs vary depending on your retreat’s theme and structure. If you’re partnering with a resort, communicate clearly with their team in advance to understand their capabilities and expectations. You may also need to bring in your own specialists, such as coaches or instructors, who add valuable insights to the experience.
8. Build a website
One of the most important steps for your new business is creating your website. This is where prospective clients can find information about your facilities and pricing, look at photographs, and make bookings. Use a website builder like Shopify that lets you pick a theme and template in keeping with your brand and needs. Include a Contact Us page with a simple form or email and phone options, an FAQ page that answers common queries, and add detailed, high-quality photographs of rooms and amenities.
Even if your clients book their stays online, you can still sync your ecommerce store with an on-site point-of-sale system for additional purchases and upgrades when they arrive.
9. Develop a marketing plan
Your marketing strategy maps out how you plan to reach out to and bring in clients. The best strategies begin with actionable goals—like engaging with a specific audience and generating bookings—through many platforms, simultaneously. Here are a few things to consider when building out your marketing plan:
Social media
Because social media marketing relies on appealing visuals, retreats are perfect fodder for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Influencer marketing, where you partner with influencers who speak to your potential customers and align with your brand positioning, can be a particularly effective tool to showcase what your retreat offers and attract new customers.
Traditional media
While a strong social media marketing strategy might reign supreme in most marketers’ minds, traditional media can also have an impact on retreat bookings. Mentions and reviews in mainstream media can catch more casual readers who might not have otherwise considered booking a retreat. Choose your ad spend wisely—your corporate retreat may be a good fit for a financial magazine, while your yoga retreat would be more appealing to those listening to a lifestyle podcast.
Omnichannel marketing
Starting a newsletter or podcast on topics related to your retreat can give you more credibility as a brand and increase your reach. You can also create and sell branded merchandise to boost visibility and generate an additional revenue stream.
Pitch to corporate HR teams
Corporate retreats pair workshops, team kickoffs, and offsite meetings in stunning outdoor locales all over the world—a major perk for employees. Marketing your retreat as a way to attract and retain talent positions you as an appealing solution for many companies, especially those with a primarily remote workforce. Reach out to HR departments or team managers at large companies, who might be responsible for retreat planning.
10. Iterate and improve
Once your retreat is up and running, regularly gather feedback from past guests to help refine your operation. Whether through surveys or customer interviews, go beyond the basics. Ask about standout moments, key takeaways, or how they’d describe the experience to a friend.
Each retreat is a chance to improve, so get all the details you can. Monitor review sites, social media comments, and mentions in travel blogs or newsletters to track your customers’ experiences.
How to start a retreat business FAQ
Are retreats a profitable business?
Yes, running retreats can be a profitable business. Because retreats serve a public that increasingly prefers in-person experiences over purchases, they can command higher prices, especially if your retreat offers unique expertise or guidance. Like any business, profitability requires well-managed resources, a diverse revenue stream (think courses, workshops, individual add-on sessions, or merchandise), and a premium pricing strategy that anchors on the experience as a whole.
How do I create my own retreat?
To launch your own retreat, start by choosing a theme and location, then outline a rough itinerary. Next, build a budget that captures all the projected expenses. Determine how many guests you need to break even, then set a price that reflects the market and your audience, while leaving room for profit.
How much does it cost to start a retreat center?
Because a retreat center is a permanent venue, it can be very costly to start. Purchasing land and property development are the two largest expenses, and depending on the retreat location, size, and facilities you offer, can cost millions of dollars to set up.
