Part of Corporate Travel
Quick answer
Reviewed · 3 min read
Plan a company offsite in this order: goals and budget, then a destination chosen around where attendees live, then venue and room block, then flights, agenda, ground transport and communications. Start six to nine months out for groups over about 30 or international destinations, and three to four months ahead for a small domestic retreat. The checklist below follows that timeline.
Researched and maintained by Empyrean Travel · How we research
- Start
- 6–9 months out for large or international groups
- Often the biggest cost
- Airfare, not the venue
- Contract watch-outs
- Attrition, food and beverage minimums, cancellation
- Going abroad?
- See planning an international offsite
The checklist
Tick items off as you go — your progress stays in this browser.
How do you use this offsite checklist?
Work through it in order. Each stage depends on the one before: you can’t choose a venue until you know your goals, headcount and where people are flying from, and you can’t book flights until the dates and venue are locked.
Give every line an owner and a date. Offsites go wrong when everyone assumes someone else confirmed the bus, the vegetarian meals or the projector.
How should you adapt the checklist for your offsite?
Different offsites stress different parts of the plan, so weight your effort accordingly.
- Leadership retreat (under 15 people): compress the timeline, consider a private villa or lodge, and skip the group air contract
- Company-wide offsite (50 or more): use group air and a formal venue contract with a room block
- International: add passports, visas, travel insurance and a longer lead time
- Incentive trip: give leisure and experiences more weight; see our incentive trip destinations
What are the most common offsite planning mistakes?
These are the ones that cost the most money or goodwill, and all of them are avoidable.
- Choosing the destination before mapping where attendees fly from
- Signing a venue contract without reading the attrition and cancellation clauses
- Scheduling the first session before the last flights land
- Packing the agenda so tightly that nobody has time to talk
- Forgetting dietary, accessibility and time-zone needs
- No plan for flight disruptions on arrival or departure day
How do you choose between offsite destinations?
Price the whole trip, not the venue. Map attendees’ home airports, estimate airfare for each candidate destination, and add rooms, meeting space, food and transfers. A destination most people reach nonstop often beats a cheaper venue that needs two connections for half the team.
Then weigh what the place does for your goals: a city for client visits and dinners, a resort or lodge for focus and team time, somewhere memorable for an incentive. Check the season, too; shoulder-season dates often bring better availability and terms.
How can Empyrean plan your offsite?
Empyrean can take the travel off your plate: pricing destinations against where your team lives, sourcing venues and negotiating room blocks, booking group and individual flights, coordinating transfers and keeping a live arrivals list. Virtuoso amenities typically apply to individual hotel bookings, while group contracts are negotiated on their own terms.
See meetings and events travel for the full service, or send Gigi your dates and headcount to start.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should you plan a company offsite?
What is an attrition clause in a venue contract?
Should attendees book their own flights for an offsite?
What should an offsite budget include?
How full should an offsite agenda be?
Official sources
Rules, fees and schedules change — confirm the latest details at the source before you travel.