How to Fill a Yoga Retreat: Spots, Enquiries and Deposits

To fill a yoga retreat, work backwards from the spots to the enquiries, channel by channel, and sell to your regular students first. In our worked model, 16 spots at $2,400 need about 84 enquiries: 20 from your class roster, 34 from your email list and social following, and 30 from a marketplace listing.

• The reader’s question: “How do I fill my yoga retreat when I have 12 to 20 spots to sell?”
• The unit to measure: enquiries per paid deposit, by channel. Followers and likes are not enquiries.
• The asset: a spots-to-enquiries reverse funnel table by channel, the Roster Rule (about 25 active students per roster spot), a marketplace cost-per-spot table and a deposit timeline.
• The market context: the Global Wellness Institute counted 819.4 million wellness trips in 2022, 88% of them domestic.
• What is not public: no survey we found measures enquiry-to-deposit rates for yoga retreats, so every conversion rate here is a labelled assumption.

Rules of thumb

• At an assumed 40% enquiry-to-deposit rate, 8 roster spots need 20 enquiries; at 10% on a marketplace, 3 spots need 30.
• If every conversion rate halves, the same 16 spots need about 167 enquiries instead of 84 (from the funnel table).
• On BookRetreats’ 15% example rate, a $2,400 spot costs $360 in commission plus 3% processing on the deposit paid through the platform (BookRetreats help centre).
• Half the spots (8 of 16) taken by the early-bird deadline holds $3,840 in 20% deposits in our timeline.
• Answering 84 enquiries and following each up takes about 21 hours across the sales window in our time model.

How do I fill my yoga retreat?

A yoga retreat fills when a teacher plans the spots by channel before announcing it, then sells each channel in order of how well it converts. A common mistake is announcing to everyone at once and treating every enquiry the same, which spends the early-bird window on the people least likely to book.

Three channels fill most yoga retreats: the students who already come to your classes, your email list and social following, and a retreat marketplace. Each converts enquiries at a different rate and costs a different amount per spot, so the plan starts with the number of spots you expect from each. Premium and application-led retreats sell differently: the brochure-and-discovery-call route is covered on how to sell out a luxury retreat, and audience sizing for women’s retreats on how to fill a women’s retreat.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should I start marketing a yoga retreat?

Start marketing a yoga retreat about six months before the start date if most spots will come from your own students. In our deposit timeline, the roster hears first at 26 weeks, the early-bird closes at 20 weeks and the list and marketplace open at 16 weeks.

How many students do I need to fill a yoga retreat?

Under the Roster Rule, plan about 25 active students for every spot you expect from your class roster. With 200 active students, 10% enquiring and 40% of enquirers paying a deposit, a teacher fills about 8 spots from the roster; the rest need the email list and a marketplace.

Should I list my yoga retreat on a booking marketplace?

List on a marketplace for the last few spots, not the first ones. BookRetreats charges commission on the full retreat price, based on the visibility rate selected, with options of 20%, 25% or 30% to boost ranking (BookRetreats help centre). At BookRetreats’ 15% example rate, a $2,400 spot costs $360.

What deposit should a yoga retreat take?

A yoga retreat deposit should cover the venue deposit you owe before balances arrive; this model uses 20% ($480 on a $2,400 spot). BookRetreats sets a minimum deposit of 15% for bookings through its platform.

Is wellness tourism growing?

The Global Wellness Institute reported $651 billion of wellness tourism spending in 2022 and forecast $1 trillion in 2024, with 88% of 819.4 million wellness trips in 2022 taken domestically (GWI).

How many enquiries does a yoga retreat need?

A sixteen-spot yoga retreat needs about 84 enquiries in our worked model, split across the class roster, the email list and a marketplace, at an assumed blended rate of about 19% from enquiry to paid deposit. If every rate halves, the same retreat needs about 167 enquiries.

Enquiries are rounded up at each row (5 spots at 15% is 33.3, counted as 34). “Engaged” means people who opened, clicked or replied to something in the last 90 days. Replace every assumption with your own numbers from your last retreat or workshop: if a past workshop converted 30% of enquiries from students, use 30%.

The Roster Rule: why your regular students fill the first half

The Roster Rule says a yoga teacher needs about 25 active students for every retreat spot planned from the class roster, in our model: 200 active students, 10% enquiring and 40% of those paying a deposit gives 8 spots. Teachers with fewer active students should plan fewer roster spots, not hope for more.

Regular students convert best because they already know your teaching, your level and your voice. The questions they ask are practical: is it suitable for my level, can I share a room, what is included, can I pay in instalments. Announce to them first, in class and by direct message, with an early-bird price and a deadline. A teacher with 100 active students has a roster ceiling of about 4 spots under the same rates, and needs the list and marketplace to carry the other 12, which changes the budget and the timeline.

Why most wellness trips stay close to home

Most wellness trips are domestic: the Global Wellness Institute counted 819.4 million wellness trips in 2022, of which 88% (725 million) were domestic and 12% (95 million) international (GWI). For a teacher selling to their own students, a retreat within a short trip of the studio removes flights, visas and extra leave from the decision.

The same GWI release reports that wellness trips were 7.8% of all tourism trips but 18.7% of tourism spending, and forecasts (in its November 2023 release) the wellness tourism market at $1 trillion in 2024, up from $651 billion in 2022. The forecast is a market-level figure, not evidence that any one retreat will sell. For a first retreat sold mainly to the roster, a venue close to home asks less of each student than a destination they must fly to.

What a retreat marketplace listing costs per spot

A retreat marketplace listing costs a commission on every spot it sells: BookRetreats’ own fee example uses a 15% rate on a $1,000 retreat, and at that example rate a $2,400 spot costs $360 in commission plus a 3% processing fee on the deposit paid through the site (BookRetreats, How do fees work). BookRetreats says listing is free and its commission depends on the visibility rate selected in the listing, so 15% is an example, not a fixed rate; higher options of 20%, 25% or 30% boost ranking (BookRetreats, Boosting your retreat ranking).

BookRetreats also sets a minimum deposit of 15% of the retreat price, adjustable up to 100% depending on the visibility rate (BookRetreats, How does the deposit work). A marketplace is worth its commission for the last few spots, from buyers you could not reach. It is expensive for spots your students would have taken anyway, which is why the model plans only 3 spots there. Pricing that commission into the spot price is covered on how to price a retreat.

The deposit timeline: how many spots should be filled by when

A yoga retreat deposit timeline sets a spot target for each sales milestone, so a teacher knows by week 20 before the start whether the retreat is on track. In our model, half the spots are deposited by the early-bird deadline and the break-even count by the venue’s final-numbers date.

If the roster is short of 8 spots at the early-bird deadline, open the list and marketplace early rather than extending the discount. The cash-flow side of deposits and payment plans is on retreat deposits and payment plans, and how far ahead to open sales is on how far in advance to sell a retreat.

What filling a yoga retreat yourself costs

Filling a yoga retreat yourself costs about 21 hours of enquiry handling across the sales window in our model: 10 minutes to answer each of 84 enquiries (14 hours) and 5 minutes to follow up each one (7 hours). That excludes content, ads and the retreat itself.

The hours fall unevenly. Enquiries arrive after classes, in the evening and right after each announcement and a reply sent two days later competes with every other retreat the enquirer is comparing. For one retreat a year from a strong roster, answering yourself is the right call. For several retreats a year, or a roster too small to carry half the spots, the choice is an assistant, booking software or a service that answers and follows up every enquiry: see retreat marketing and outsourcing lead follow-up.

Sources

1. Global Wellness Institute, Wellness Tourism Will Cross the $1 Trillion Mark in 2024: trips, domestic share, spending, forecast.
2. BookRetreats, How do fees work on BookRetreats.com?: commission on full price, 3% processing, 15% worked example.
3. BookRetreats, Boosting your retreat ranking with commission: 20%, 25% and 30% options.
4. BookRetreats, How does the deposit work?: 15% minimum deposit.