Hiring a space:
You will need to find a space that suits the image and purpose of your retreat with appropriate accommodation, food/catering capabilities, and suitable amenities, and every detail needs to be contracted. More generally, the agreement to lease the space will need to include price and timing of payment/s, deposit amount and time of payment – and whether this is to be kept by landlord between retreats, exact time/s you will have access to the space and whether this will be in a shared or total occupancy situation, cleaning requirements relating to both the condition you receive and leave the property, security for the premises and what happens if payment is not made by you in proper time. Ensure that the contract acknowledges and allows the kinds of activities involved with your retreat and make sure you are aware of any restrictions.
Accommodation:
Make sure the type of accommodation fits in with the object of your retreat, and has capacity to hold enough participants to make your retreat profitable. If your participants are more likely to be singles or couples, you will need to factor that into your pricing as it will affect capacity. It is always a good idea to inspect the accommodation yourself first!
Food:
If you are planning to organise catering yourself, you will likely require a commercial kitchen. Some venues will provide food or catering. Either way, make sure the food provided will meet the nutritional needs of your health retreat, and taste amazing. You may wish to completely control what food is available and design the menus yourself – find out if this is possible when searching for a space that includes catering. Whichever way you organise it, contract every detail so that you and your guests are not disappointed and there are no unexpected costs.
Amenities:
Some spaces for hire offer amenities such as day spas, mineral pools, gardens that may be used for outdoor activities, access to beaches or forest walks, and so on. Spa treatments can be very attractive to potential attendees – treatments may be included in the price or available to participants at an extra cost. You may organise the beauty therapist, or the venue holder may want to use their therapists and be paid accordingly. This needs to be part of the contract with the venue operator.
Consider how you can incorporate the natural environment into your exercise or wellbeing programs and contractually confirm outdoor activities will be allowed.
Attendees:
Considering your health retreat’s purpose, goals and agenda, think about your marketing strategy wisely and attract appropriate attendees. Find the right audience through social media platforms, magazines those people might read, and follow up with a beautiful website that will speak to people who value what your retreat offers. It is important you communicate the vibe of your retreat to potential attendees through written material about your daily program, approach to health, and purpose, and images of activities and amenities. This should protect you against unhappy attendees expecting something else. Word-of-mouth is priceless – you may need to invite some journalists and host them for free when starting out. The success of your retreat will also partially depend on the people in the room and their compatibility.
When guests place a reservation with you, require payment at the time or within a short amount of time – within five days for example. Include in your terms and conditions the kind of behaviour that will be acceptable on your retreat (and the consequences of failing to meet that standard of behaviour), that clients will need to pay for any damage caused by them, that participants must follow health and safety rules whilst on the retreat, that your retreat does not accept responsibility for lost or damaged valuables or sickness or injury, and a privacy policy.
Cancellations:
You will need to have a strict cancellation policy as part of your terms and conditions to avoid losing money. Define cancellation to include postponing or rescheduling the retreat and refuse refunds. Depending on how many retreats you run per year, and whether you can fill cancelled spots if given notice, you may allow guests to transfer their retreat if they give sufficient notice (such as 90 days, for example), or you may allow guests to assign their place on the retreat to another person.
You may also insert a condition that allows you to cancel a retreat for any reason. This situation should obviously be avoided at all costs, but protects you against going ahead with a retreat that is minimally booked and unaffordable to your business, or any other unforeseeable problems.
Suppliers:
Make sure you have a robust supply agreement in place with all suppliers – for the supply of food and beverage, exercise equipment, outdoor equipment, and possibly beauty supplies or beautician, speakers and presenters or other professionals you wish to have involved so that you can rely on suppliers delivering as promised. Engage your lawyer to carefully look through the supplier’s terms of trade and supply agreement before signing; you may wish to draw up your own terms of trade as extra protection. Supply agreements should cover description of supply and timetable for delivery, performance criteria and specifications, supply site and safety, price/invoicing and payment. There needs to be a warranty that goods will meet certain criteria, a defects liability period in which you can ask the supplier to fix any defects, risk and title (that states that the responsibility for security and safety of products passes to you on delivery), and indemnity that protect you as the customer to damage resulting from breach of contract or negligence of supplier.
If your retreat claims to serve organic food, use organic materials and/or products ensure your suppliers hold correct certification.
Insurance:
Make travel insurance mandatory for all guests visiting your retreat, to protect yourself and your guests against any travel issues, accommodation problems, health problems, accidents, injuries, losses or damages. Most retreats require insurance of this kind and you may ask guests to buy their travel insurance within a certain time after making the reservation with you.
This is general advice only. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Published Sep 12, 2017
Jessica Kerr is the Director of Sinclair + May, a female-led, boutique commercial law firm based in Melbourne’s inner north. Sinclair + May work with small businesses to ensure their legals are in order. Book a free 15-min chat here to talk with one of our solicitors.
