How to Choose a Corporate Retreat Planner (Questions to Ask)

Hiring a corporate retreat planner can save your team months of work and a lot of money. Hiring the wrong corporate retreat planner can cost you both. These are the questions to ask before you sign anything. (Full disclosure: we're corporate retreat planners, and we like getting these questions.)

10 questions to ask a corporate retreat planner

1. How do you get paid? The big one. A lot of planners will tell you their services are "free". While that sounds good, you know there's no free lunches. Most planners are paid commissions by the hotels and vendors they book. Translation: they make more when you spend more. Doesn't seem great to us, that's why we charge a flat fee starting at $8,000 and never earn commissions.
2. Will I see every cost before I commit? You should get a complete budget, not one number.
3. Who signs the contracts and makes the payments? You should stay in control of your agreements.
4. Will you be on site? And who, specifically?
5. Who will I actually work with? The person who sells you the trip should be the person who plans it.
6. How much of my time will this take?
7. What does your planning timeline look like?
8. How do you choose venues? Listen for your goals, not their partners.
9. What happens if plans change? Headcount, dates, cancellations.
10. Can you show me trips like ours?

Corporate retreat planner red flags

• "Our services are free to you." Someone's paying them, and it's usually baked into your prices.
• Vague answers about who's on site.
• One budget number, no line items.
• Pressure to sign before you've seen options.

Commissions vs. a flat planning fee

A corporate retreat planner paid on commission has a reason to steer you toward the properties and vendors that pay them best. A planner paid a flat fee is paid by you, so their only incentive is getting you the right trip.

Corporate retreat planner, travel agent, or DMC?

• Corporate retreat planner: designs and runs the whole trip, from strategy and venue to logistics and on-site operations.
• Travel agent: books travel and rooms, usually paid by commission.
• Destination management company (DMC): a local specialist in one destination, can be great for one trip (or really bad if you pick the wrong one).

When to hire a corporate retreat planner

• Nobody on your team has the time to do it well.
• The group is big or flying in from all over.
• The trip matters a lot: a leadership retreat, a kickoff, an incentive trip.
• You want the people who organized it to actually be present at it.

When you might plan it yourself

For a small, simple, local get-together, DIY can make sense. Want expert direction without full-service planning? We offer a 1 on 1 Retreat Strategy Session: a 60-minute call plus our DIY retreat planning playbook for $800.

How we answer these questions

• We never take commissions, referral fees, or markups from venues or vendors.
• Every proposal includes a complete budget before you commit.
• You sign the contracts and stay in control of payments.
• We're on site for every trip.
• We charge a flat fee that starts at $8,000, and it's often offset by the savings we generate.

Read what a corporate retreat costs, or tell us about your retreat.