How to price a retreat: costs, break-even and profit

Most underpriced retreats are not priced too low on purpose. They are priced against an incomplete cost list. Before you think about what guests will pay, write down everything the retreat costs you and sort each line into one of two buckets.

Fixed costs stay the same whether three people come or thirty:

• Venue hire, a whole-property booking or a minimum spend
• Teacher, facilitator, assistant and guest-speaker fees
• Your own travel, accommodation and meals
• Marketing: ads, photography, video, a website, listing fees
• Insurance, permits, music licences, equipment you rent or buy
• Software, and a buffer for things that go wrong (5–10% of fixed costs is common)

Per-guest costs grow with every booking:

• Meals, usually quoted per person per day by the venue
• Per-person room rates, if the venue charges by the bed
• Airport transfers, excursions and entrance fees
• Materials, welcome gifts, manuals, certificates, merchandise

Some costs move between buckets depending on the contract. A venue that charges per room is a per-guest cost until you commit to the whole property, when it becomes fixed. Use whatever your contract actually says, and if the venue has a minimum number of guests, treat that minimum as fixed.

A guest's price is not all yours. Before anything goes towards your fixed costs, you lose the VAT or GST you have to pass on, any payment fees you absorb, and the per-guest costs from step 1. What is left is the guest's contribution.

In this example guests pay the card and platform fees on top, so the guest's checkout total is $1,569.35 and you receive the full $1,500. If you absorbed the fees instead, the contribution would drop to about $1,094.

Break-even guests = fixed costs ÷ contribution per guest.

With $12,000 of fixed costs (venue $9,000, teachers $2,500, marketing $500) and a $1,160 contribution, you need 10.3 guests, so 11 in practice. On a 20-bed retreat that is 55% occupancy. Every guest after the eleventh is profit (before income tax).

Where break-even should sit depends on how confident you are of filling the retreat. A first retreat with no mailing list is a guess; a fifth cohort that sold out last year is not. As a planning rule, many organizers aim to break even at around half capacity, so that a slow sales season costs them their profit, not their savings.

Break-even tells you the floor. Before you publish, look at what you take home if the retreat half-fills, mostly fills or sells out:

Ask yourself honestly whether $4,920 for the most likely outcome is worth the months of planning, marketing and the week of running it. If it isn't, the price is too low, or the retreat is too small for its fixed costs.

Notice how lopsided it is: going from 10 to 16 guests adds $5,320, but going from 16 to 20 adds only $3,480 more. The first guests above break-even matter most, which is why early marketing and early-bird bookings are worth so much.

Run the same retreat at five prices. Everything else stays the same:

Each $150 step changes profit at 16 guests by $1,800. The real question is how many bookings a higher price costs you. If $1,650 loses you one guest out of 16, you still come out ahead: about $5,740 with 15 guests, against $4,920 with 16 at $1,500. Organizers underestimate this more than any other number in their plan.

Instead of guessing a price and checking the profit, decide the profit first. In the example, if you want $8,000 after tax with 16 guests, the price has to cover:

• $8,000 ÷ (1 − 25% tax) = $10,667 of profit before tax
• plus $12,000 of fixed costs = $22,667 to raise from 16 guests, or $1,417 each
• plus $340 of per-guest costs = $1,757 per guest

The retreat pricing calculator does this for you, including VAT and fees, and rounds up to the dollar.

One price for everyone is simplest, but most venues have a mix of private rooms, shared twins and dorm beds, and guests expect to pay for privacy. Price room types from what the bed costs you, not from a feeling.

A few rules that hold up:

• Make the premium big enough that you don't mind if everyone picks it. If private rooms sell out first, the premium was too small.
• Price the cheapest bed to break even on its own, so a retreat full of dorm beds still works.
• Show the per-person price for shared rooms and the per-room price for private rooms, so guests compare like with like.
• Limit single supplements by offering roommate matching: two solo travelers sharing fills a room at the shared price.

If you're registered for VAT or GST, the tax on your price isn't yours: you collect it and pay it on. The trap is advertising a price that includes tax after doing your sums as if it didn't.

Same headline number, very different business. Decide whether your price is before or after tax, and say so on the booking page. In most of Europe, prices shown to consumers must include VAT, so do the maths from the VAT-inclusive price.

Income tax works differently: it comes out of profit, not price. The calculator applies it to profit only, so a loss-making retreat pays none.

Early-bird pricing brings bookings forward, which gives you deposits to pay the venue and tells you early whether marketing is working. Keep it simple: one deadline, a discount guests notice (often 10–15%), and a date that leaves you time to react if sales are slow. Then re-run your break-even at the early-bird price: if every guest books early, that is the price you actually get.

The same goes for promo and referral codes. A 10% discount on a $1,500 retreat takes $150 straight off a $1,160 contribution, which is 13% of what that guest gives you towards costs and profit. Read early-bird pricing for retreats for the full maths.

Card processing typically costs around 3% per charge plus a small fixed amount, and booking platforms add their own fee. Absorbing both on a $1,500 retreat costs you around $66 per guest in the example above, about $1,060 before tax on 16 guests.

Passing fees on keeps your listed price clean and your margin predictable; absorbing them gives guests one round number at checkout. Either is fine, as long as your break-even uses the option you choose. On MyRetreatDesk you decide per retreat, and separately for the card fee and the platform fee. Should you pass card fees to guests?

Only now look at what similar retreats charge. Compare like with like: same length, similar accommodation, similar region and what's included (meals, transfers, excursions). Then ask three questions:

1. Am I far below? A low price can read as low quality, and you're leaving money on the table. Raise it and add what justifies it.
2. Am I far above? Find out why: a pricier venue, a smaller group, more teaching hours. Make that difference obvious on your page.
3. Is my break-even still safe at the market price? If not, the retreat as designed doesn't work at this price point. Change the design, not just the price.

A payment plan helps a higher price land: “$1,650, or $300 today and the rest monthly” feels very different from a single $1,650 charge.

A retreat can be profitable on paper and still leave you short in the months before it runs. Venues usually want deposits early, while guests pay in instalments. Line up when money goes out against when it comes in:

Set your deposit and early-bird deadline so guests' money arrives before the venue's bills do. See how much deposit to take.

• Leaving yourself out. Your time is a cost. Pay yourself a fee and treat profit as the business's return.
• Pricing from competitors only. Similar retreats tell you what guests will accept, not what your venue and teachers cost.
• Forgetting VAT or GST. If you're registered, the tax isn't yours. Decide whether your price includes it.
• Assuming a sell-out. Plan on the occupancy you expect and treat a sell-out as upside.
• Giving private rooms away. A private room takes beds you could sell. Price it from what those beds are worth.
• Discounts on discounts. An early-bird plus a promo code plus a group rate can take a quarter off the price. Decide what stacks.
• Not budgeting for refunds. A cancellation after you've paid the venue costs you the refund. A clear policy and a non-refundable deposit limit that risk.