$60k in 24 hours sounds too good to be true – and if I hadn’t seen with my own eyes, I’d be right there with you. You see, I spent 17 years at an award winning family resort as the Corporate Social Director, and these kinds of transactions happened all the time.

So what is the secret to bringing in $2,500/hour? For us, it was a 150 person Corporate Retreat.

I can’t tell you what business it was, but I can say that if you put the title of this article in your search bar, they would be responsible for delivering your results.

Ok, so now I’ve piqued your interest – but how do we actually bring in that kind of business?

There are 3 major pillars you need to focus on to attract this caliber client: work, play, and stay.

Work

Work is by far the most important thing – we’re dealing with Corporate Retreats after all. To host a Corporate Meeting, you MUST have a meeting space. If you don’t, your first assignment is to make one, either by reorganizing your current blueprint by using an existing room (banquet or wedding hall works great) or even better – a new build or renovation. You have to realize, families come to your resort or hotel because they are on vacation. Corporate retreats come to work. No place to work – no booking.

Play

Yes, I said play. But isn’t that the opposite of what you just mentioned? Well there’s an old saying – “If you work hard, you play hard!” – and with Corporate Retreats this rings very true.

You need to provide the attendees with activities or experiences to fill their “off” time. By offering Team Building options, you fulfill this need on-site – keeping meeting attendees from spending money at the bar down the street.

“Tom, you see they’re hosting Karaoke in the hotel lounge tonight? Wanna check it out and grab a late night burger and brew?”

Money-making opportunities such as ‘Late Night Bar Trivia’ or ‘Name That Tune’ can be excellent ways to captivate meeting planners and attendees, all with minimal risk and cost to you. By providing these options, you promptly address the “off” time concern for planners, making their job easy – and they are more than happy to pay a premium for it.

Stay

So this last one is self explanatory because it hits on basic human needs – Food & Shelter. You’re a hotel or resort, so we don’t have to explain lodging – just know that if your rooms look bad, no group will book you. As for the food – you need to come up with some “Corporate Menu” packages. Planners generally don’t want to meticulously choose seven hundred different options (sorry for the one’s that do – those are tough groups) – so have 4 or 5 nicely balanced packages that cater to a wide variety of tastes – and always make sure you let them know you accommodate special diets (somebody in the group is always going to be vegan).

Get started

That’s it. That was our formula – Work, Play, Stay. If you’re thinking you’re too small to get started – or you’re too nervous to try it out – you can check out our advice on hosting NO FUSS Corporate Meetings to give you some more insights and ideas.

Follow this formula and you may soon be writing your own advice on how you made $100k in 24 hours.

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