A retreat website that answers the questions before the booking
People book a retreat when they can picture the days and trust the arrangements. Show a realistic day-by-day itinerary, the rooms and who shares, exactly what the price includes, and how payment and cancellation work. Take deposits through a payment link from your own provider.
What a retreat page has to settle
A retreat is a big decision for a small number of people. A yoga week, a writing retreat or a founders' weekend often costs as much as a holiday and takes the same leave, so readers look for reasons to trust it. The page has to make the days concrete and the money clear. Vague promises about transformation do the opposite.
The itinerary
Show a typical day with real times, then the shape of the whole retreat. For a writing retreat: breakfast at 8, workshop 9:30 to 12, lunch, silent writing until 5, one-to-one feedback slots, dinner, an optional reading. Say what's optional, how much free time there is, and what happens on arrival and departure days. Honest detail sells better than adjectives, and it filters out people who'd be unhappy. If the itinerary depends on the weather or the group, say so and give an example of how a day might change, so nobody arrives expecting a fixed timetable.
Rooms and the place
Photographs of the actual rooms, the shared spaces and the view do more than any paragraph. On a designed page they can show as entries in a CMS collection (rooms or spaces) whose image field holds each hosted address, or upload them to an app build, where the model places them. Then spell out:
- Room types (single, twin share, dorm) and how many of each
- Bathrooms: private or shared
- Accessibility: stairs, step-free rooms, terrain
- Food: who cooks, the diet, how allergies are handled
- Wi-Fi and phone signal, which some retreats deliberately limit
- Getting there: nearest airport or station and any transfer you run
What the price includes
| Included | Not included | Optional extra |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation, all meals, sessions | Flights, travel insurance | Single-room supplement |
| Airport transfer at set times | Alcohol | Massage or one-to-one sessions |
| Materials | Visa costs | Extra night before or after |
Put the prices for each room type on the page rather than behind an enquiry. If places are limited, say how many there are in total; don't invent scarcity with "only two left" unless it's true.
Deposits through a payment link
Anticode's booking calendar is built for appointments, one booking per service per day and time slot, and it takes no deposits. A retreat needs something else. Use payment links from a provider you already have: Stripe Payment Links, PayPal, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Shopify or Whop. An Anticode account has one payment link, and every buy button on your sites opens it. So point it at a deposit checkout with a choice of room types, or a product list at your provider, and send the balance as a separate link or an invoice by email, due a set number of weeks before. Check whether your provider can cap how many of each room type can be bought, so you can't oversell.
Put the payment schedule and cancellation policy right next to the buttons, in plain language: what's refundable, until when, and what happens if you cancel the retreat. The cancellation policy guide helps with the wording.
Enquiries first
Many retreat hosts prefer a short conversation before taking money, to check fit. The contact form asks for a name, an email and a message; tell people above it what to include (experience, dietary needs, the room they'd like), or use a custom form tied to a site function with a field for each. Each enquiry is saved, can be emailed to you, and can go to a Google Sheet or Notion through a connector. Reply with the payment link once you've both agreed.
Building it
Describe it: "a website for a six-day writing retreat in a farmhouse in the Lake District, 12 to 18 May, with itinerary, rooms, what's included, prices by room, a deposit button and an enquiry form". Organic (Figtree) and Luxury (Jost) suit most retreats; Editorial (Geist) suits a writing retreat. Publish on an anticode.dev address or your own domain on a paid plan.
Limits
- No deposits or balances in the booking calendar. Use your payment link.
- No room inventory. The site doesn't track which rooms are taken; update the page as they sell.
- The booking calendar's fields are fixed. For custom questions, use a custom form tied to a site function (up to 30 plain-text fields), the contact form's message field, or an app build.
- No automated reminders for balance payments.
Questions people ask
Should a retreat website show prices?
Yes. Hiding them behind an enquiry loses the people who'd have booked and attracts those who can't.
Can I run several retreats from one site?
Yes. Keep the retreats in a CMS collection so each date has its own page. They share your account's one payment link, so point it at a product list at your provider with each retreat in it.
Does Anticode handle refunds?
No. Refunds go through your payment provider.