A yoga retreat program is a wonderful business for studios and yoga professionals alike. Studios bear more brand and reputation risk than individual teachers, because their studio is associated with all retreats advertised via the studio’s marketing channels. This includes flyers about hung up at the studio, postcards distributed at the studio, and announcements about the yoga retreat made at classes within the studio.
The easiest way to mitigate the reputation risk taken by permitting retreats to be advertised through the studio, is to create a yoga retreat program which can be monitored and maintained. A retreat program provides a framework for evaluating the yoga retreats that will be advertised in the studio. In addition, a well thought out program sets and maintains expectations with all the teachers associated with the studio so as to avoid hard feelings.
Evaluating and Approving Yoga Retreats
A good program asks all teachers who wish to promote their international yoga retreat within the studio to gain approval in advance. Approval is based off a clearly communicated set of expectations, so as to not be arbitrary. However, approval of the yoga retreat is ultimately up to the studio’s management. Here are important criteria by which to evaluate a yoga retreat:
Timing: Will the yoga retreat conflict with selling other already approved retreats? Will they compete too directly? How many yoga retreats can the community support within a certain time frame?
Geography: Is the location safe? Are their moral issues with visiting the area? Will the community accept the location and feel good about attending a retreat there?
Resort: Is the resort reputable? Are accommodations in line with expected retail pricing? Will the community feel good about their stay there?
Retail Pricing: Is pricing at a level that the community can support? Is pricing for the yoga retreat in line with the level of accommodations, programming, and add-ons? Will the community feel as though they’ve received a good value?
Retreat Leaders: Who are the retreat leaders? Do they represent your studio well? Can you allow them the time off? Do you trust them to execute the planning, customer service, and hosting at a high level?
Retreat Itinerary: What is the plan for the yoga retreat programming? Are there red flags around planned activities, workshops, themes, etc?
Legal: Who is collecting the money and what are the terms and conditions of the yoga retreat? Is the appropriate insurance up to date?
Any retreat leader should have thought through each of these 7 areas before they bring the trip to the studio for approval. By evaluating the retreat on these criteria prior to granting approval to market the retreat within the studio, a studio owner can effectively mitigate their reputation risk.
There are other risks, of course, you can learn more here.