Where to Advertise Your Retreat
Filling your retreat is fundamental to making it a rewarding experience, financially and otherwise. If you can fill it from your pool of regular students who already love what you do, that’s awesome but if you need to draw from other sources then you may need to consider using one of the many booking platforms out there.
So here’s the lowdown on some of the sites you can use to advertise your retreat. I’ve used some of these platforms to advertise my own retreats in the past so the opinions expressed are based on my personal experience.
Please note that these prices and commission rates were correct at the time of writing but may have changed since.
Cost: Free to list, 14% minimum commission on confirmed bookings + VAT, with the option of increasing your commission to 30% (more about this below).
Pros: this is an established site with a wide reach and it is consistently at the top of Google searches with translation into various languages. Enquiries, booking, and full payment can all be handled through the site. Reviews about your retreats can be included from your Facebook and TripAdvisor pages.
Cons: there are so many listings so if you’re new to the site and have not generated any income for them before then you may find your listing on page 10 for the country you’re hosting in. You can increase your ranking to make your retreat more visible by opting for a higher commission charge of up to 30%. The site can generate a good amount of enquiries but the lead conversion rate is very low so you can spend hours replying and not receive a booking. It’s possibly worthwhile considering this site if you have a couple of last-minute spaces available and the retreat is running anyway. That said, plan well ahead as it can sometimes take weeks for your listing to appear after submitting it.
Cost: Free to list, 14% commission on confirmed bookings + optional 3% payment processing fee on the deposit if handled through the site.
Pros: this is also an established site with a good reach. Enquiries, booking, and payment of the deposit (but not remaining payment) can be handled within the platform. The turnaround time for new listings is approximately 1 week after submission. You can link your account to pick up reviews from TripAdvisor.
Cons: whatever the currency you set your price in, BookRetreats charge and pay out in USD. This can be problematic if you aren’t based in the USA due to receiving charges for foreign currency payments plus it isn’t great for your guests getting charged in USD either. The accounts dept is slow so you can find yourself with an unexpected bill months after the retreat has ended, even when you have been proactive in notifying them of a booking.
Cost: Free to list, 14% on confirmed bookings
Pros: This site has grown considerably since starting and is now very well established receiving 90,000 unique visitors a month with an average lead conversion rate of 10-25% (statistic provided by the website). The conversion rate is very much dependent upon how much info you provide within the listing. Something that is unique to Retreat Guru is the option to integrate their booking software into your own website - when you add a retreat, it's automatically uploaded to Retreat Guru and your own website saving you time and energy. This also increases your conversion rate because it makes the booking process smooth and seamless for the end user.
Cons: Nothing to comment as I haven’t used this platform personally.
Cost: $75USD for 10 listings at any one time within a year.
Pros: Good, friendly, and responsive customer service. It’s quick and easy to create and manage listings. Once payment has been made you can upload your listings immediately, listing a maximum of 10 dates at any one time. Each listing can have different text and as dates pass, you can update that listing with a future date and new text which is great if you give lots of retreats. I haven’t used this site for a while but from memory, the lead conversion rate is fairly good.
Cons: Listings are more of an overview about your retreats rather than a fully detailed description with just 1 photo which features on all of your dates.
Other platforms you may want to explore:
Yovada
Retreat Finder
The Retreat Company
Soul Seed Media
