One of the booming areas of tourism is retreat tourism. Millions of people are boarding planes and hopping borders to be part of a group experience - everything from kite surfing to meditation. This naturally means that there are more and more retreat operators starting up to cater to the market. What isn’t so clear is that there is a burgeoning array of services aimed at helping retreats get that mystical ‘edge’ and succeed.
In order to understand the revolutionary wonder of “Plug and Play” retreat packages, we must first understand what exactly goes into planning and operating a successful retreat. Creating and operating a retreat business is no joke - it’s a lot of work that falls into two categories:
a) building a brand and customer base
b) handling logistics
Building a brand means making a website, drafting copy, creating quality content, engaging with potential customers, putting together a program around a central concept, handling payments, etc. This is the aspect that brings profitability and growth to a retreat business - but it’s impossible without also handling logistics.
The logistic side of a retreat is a proverbial nightmare. How can you know what your profit margin is if you don’t know your cost? How can you advertise to your customer base if you aren’t sure the price you give them brings you a profit? This is where things have traditionally gotten sticky for retreat operators - especially those who will operate their retreat in a place other than where they live.
In order to have their program go live, a retreat operator must know the following logistics
The location and cost of all activity and accommodation spaces. This sounds easy enough but using the internet to book these spaces usually results in the costs of the program exceeding profitability. Because of this most retreat operators actually arrive at the location ahead of time to scout and negotiate the spaces themselves. This yields a much better profit margin, but also creates large expenditures measured in the time-frame of months and the monetary units in the thousands of dollars.
Transportation arrangements and costs. In many places it’s pretty much impossible to book transportation online, so most people make arrangements while they are “on the ground” or through their activity and accommodation providers. Usually a retreat operator ends up with a very expensive service that is neither timely nor reliable.
Food arrangements. With the variety of diets abounding today and other factors, arranging a simple meal-time for a group of people can become a task worthy of seppuku. Whether it’s catering or a private chef the challenges are basically the same.
Internet speed, reliability, flexibility, etc. For most people maslow’s hierarchy of needs now includes internet as one of the primary necessities of life. For most retreat operators this is the most difficult need to guarantee. Sharks, pirates, hackers, rogue governments, broke hippies, monkeys, and greedy internet providers resembling Jabba the Hut are all in your way - ready to pounce at any moment. It just shouldn’t be such a crazy thing to deal with, but it is.
Tours. Whenever man crosses a border into a new country, passes the threshold into a new culture, or finds himself in a new climate he wants but one thing: to look around and see the sights. While the wonders of blogging and the internet in general have made accessing the wonders of a new location much easier there is still the overwhelming need to see something the other tourists generally miss - and for that there is only one option, ask the locals.
Why go through all that trouble? Well, if you are successful retreat operator you can net over $100,000 dollars a year (tax free if you do it right) and only work 6 months out of the year - leaving you plenty of time to explore the world, meet interesting people, and generally kick ass at life.
One of the absolute most popular destinations in the world for retreats is Bali. In Bali lives... us - a little startup called No-Location and we’ve revolutionized the world of retreat providers forever. We created the “Plug and Play” package.
We took a long hard look at the world of retreat operations and figured out we could solve the most major of problems in the most simple of ways - take care of all the logistics cleanly and efficiently long beforehand.
Because No-Location acts as an agent for accommodation and activity space providers, they are willing to give the absolute best rates they have, and because No-Location is acting as facilitator for retreat operations we make sure that we don’t scalp the savings - we pass them right along to you. We’ve actually driven a scooter around every street of Bali collecting the names, locations, specifications, and true costs of every accommodation provider that there is.
We know all the best catering options in every area and we have amassed a variety of quality chefs - just say what you need and we’ll make sure you get it on time and exactly how you imagined it. No more seppuku for your interns.
Because we live here we understand exactly what is going on with the internet at all times and we’ve created a modular system to ensure that you always have reliable and speedy internet service. No more worrying - you can just sit back and relax.
Visiting Bali is the experience of a lifetime - nothing else compares to it, so you’ll want to be sure your retreat gets to see the best and most wonderful sights. We’ve been all over the island, trekking through rocky shores and jungled vistas looking for the unknown, visiting hidden waterfalls Lonely Planet doesn’t know exist, drinking coconuts on hidden beaches, and so much more. We’ll make sure your breath gets taken away and your group skips their collective heart beat.
You see, our “plug and play” packages are a revolution - gone are the days of spending months and thousands of dollars just trying to figure out what your ticket price is. Now you can know your entire base cost and profit margin in just a couple of minutes browsing our packages. This leaves retreat operators time and money to focus on what is truly important: building a brand and loyal following of fans and clients.
Our Plug and Play packages are divided to three different categories: Budget, Business and Luxury so you will get the best rate with the best quality for your retreat.
While No-Location only has “Plug and Play” packages in Bali at the moment, soon we’ll have them all over Southeast Asia so you can conquer the world.
If you'd like to know more feel free to contact us at info@no-location.com or visit our website at http://no-location.com