Can You Really Make Money from Running a Retreat?
Short answer: Yes. But only if you stop winging it.

You can’t scroll for more than ten seconds without seeing someone sipping a green juice by a pool, journalling under the moon, or clinking Prosecco glasses in a hot tub. And behind every dreamy insta reel is a host who (hopefully) is making money from bringing that experience to life.

But here's the thing: not all retreats are created equal.

We see so many brilliant business owners who’ve built great reputations on doing things the right way with their main business. Ethical. Acting with integrity. Qualified. Insured up to their eyeballs. And then they decide to run a retreat and… just literally throw the rulebook out the window?

No tour operator liability. No financial failure protection. No legal compliance.

How can you run a professional business 90% of the time, and then host a multi-thousand-pound event with zero compliance? You can’t be all "integrity and values" in your Instagram posts and then ignore the Package Travel Regulations when it suits.

Let’s Talk About the Money

If done right, retreats can be seriously profitable.

Let’s take a basic example. You run a three-night retreat in the UK, 12 guests, £650 per person. That brings in £7,800.

Venue costs you around £3,000. Catering, say £1,000. Throw in £500 for extras, marketing, and that essential oil diffuser someone insisted was "essential". That leaves you with £3300 profit!

Sounds great… until you factor in what you should be paying to make that retreat legally compliant.

Tour operator insurance, financial failure cover, public liability, plus the admin involved in managing bookings, refunds, cancellation policies, etc. If you’re only running one or two retreats a year, those costs can wipe out most of your profit and your sanity.

You’re looking at £3k–£4k a year minimum if you do it all yourself.

So what’s the alternative?

You Work with Someone Who’s Already Built the Infrastructure

This is literally why we set up the Retreat Standards Organisation – to take care of all the compliance headaches so you don’t have to.

At the RSO, we take care of all the stuff most people either don’t know about or try to ignore until it bites them later.

With something like our Silver Package (£997), you get:

* All the legally required insurance (yes, all of it – we are fully compliant with Package Travel Laws 2018.)

* A compliant booking system - we process all of the bookings on your behalf.

* T&Cs that actually stand up if something goes wrong

* Someone else (us) handling the admin and compliance

You recruit your guests, show up, and do what you do best - hosting an amazing retreat. We handle all of the back-end chaos.

So from that £2500 profit, you spend £997 with us and you still walk away with £2300+ profit. Actual profit, not imaginary profit that gets swallowed by fines, cancellations, or three days of reworking your T&Cs after someone in your group decides they can’t make it and asks for a refund.

If You’re Still Tempted to Wing It…

You could skip all of the above. Plenty of people do.

But if something goes wrong – a cancellation, an injury, someone asks for a refund and your T&Cs aren’t worth the Canva template they were written on – you’re the one legally responsible. Not the venue. Not your assistant. Not the coach you hired. You.

And if Trading Standards gets wind that you’re selling travel packages without proper compliance? The fines can run into tens of thousands.

So is saving that £997 really worth it?

Would you run your main business without public liability or professional indemnity insurance? No. So why risk it with something that involves travel, group logistics, multiple suppliers, and thousands of pounds?

And more importantly – what message does that send to your clients?

“I do everything properly… except when your huge investment means I’d have to spend a bit of money to make it legal. In that case, I’m happy to cut corners.”

Not exactly the brand reputation most of us are going for.

Retreats are a brilliant way to bring your work to life in a deeper, more impactful way. They can be profitable. They can build your brand. They can create lasting change for your clients.

But they’re not just a weekend away with mates. They’re a business offering – and if you’re going to do it, do it properly.

If you want help with that, that’s literally what we’re here for.

Find out more and get in touch at retreatstandardsorganisation.com