Corporate ·
The short version
An offsite often fails because the agenda fills every hour. Nobody has time to think, and nobody talks outside a session. A better offsite has fewer sessions and more room between them.
This post shows how to run a two-day offsite for a team of 16 at Spoonbill Lodge. The lodge is a corporate retreat house in Happy Jack, Arizona, 45 minutes south of Flagstaff.
The rooms that do the work
The family room is the main session room. It has a stone fireplace, a vaulted ceiling, and windows on two sides. It seats the whole group around the fireplace.
The movie theater is the room for a presentation. Four full-size reclining couches face a 200-inch screen, with a 4K projector, surround sound, and a small stage. Connect a laptop over HDMI.
The theater couches seat 12, and a team of 16 fits in the room.
The deck takes the meals. It covers about 750 square feet across the back of the lodge, and half of it is roofed. Two grills sit on it, and the kitchen opens onto it.
For breakouts, use the upstairs landing, the long dining table, the game room, and the Study. They are separate spaces, so four groups can work at the same time. The landing has a sofa, armchairs, and a large TV. The game room has a card table.
A two-day agenda for a team of 16
Use this agenda as a start. The minimum stay is two nights. Check-in is at 3:00 pm, and check-out is at 11:00 am.
Arrival day, afternoon. Arrive from 3:00 pm and settle into the bedrooms. At 4:30 pm, hold one short session in the family room. Cover the goals for the two days and nothing else.
Arrival day, evening. Cook dinner together and eat on the deck. Then go to the firepit, if the fire restrictions permit it. Nobody presents anything.
Full day, morning. Eat breakfast at 8:00 am. From 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, run the main session in the theater or the family room. Use the big screen for the material everyone must see.
Full day, afternoon. Leave it open. Play disc golf or pickleball, walk in the forest, or drive 15 minutes to Blue Ridge Reservoir. Give one small group a problem to talk about on a walk.
Full day, late afternoon. From 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm, split into four breakout groups of 4 people. Use the landing, the dining table, the game room, and the Study.
Full day, evening. Eat dinner, then watch a film in the theater or play in the game room.
Last morning. From 8:30 am to 10:00 am, each breakout group reports back, and the team agrees on the next steps. Pack and leave by 11:00 am.
Connectivity, honestly
The Wi-Fi is fast, and it reaches every room and the deck. It supports Wi-Fi calling, so calls and texts work over it. It runs on Starlink, on the fastest tier. A team can present, stream, and take video calls on it.
Cell service in the forest is unreliable, and it depends on the carrier. Expect no signal once you turn off Lake Mary Road. Tell the team to turn on Wi-Fi calling and download their maps before they leave town.
Nora’s Room has a standing desk with two monitors. Give that bedroom to the person who cannot be offline for two days.
Some teams want no signal at all. If that is your plan, collect the phones at the start of each session. The Wi-Fi is still there for an emergency.
Meals: cook together, or bring a caterer
Meals do more work than any icebreaker. The kitchen has an island, a full-size range, and counter space for more than one cook. Two grills sit on the deck: a 5-burner gas grill and a flat-top griddle.
Make one or two meals a group job. Give each meal a crew of 3 or 4 people, and mix the departments.
There are place settings for 16, so a team of 16 eats off real plates. The paper goods cabinet has paper plates and plastic cutlery for extras.
Shop on the way up. The nearest full grocery store is 45 minutes away, in Flagstaff or Payson. We can also have groceries in the kitchen when you arrive. Send us the list a few days before, and we charge the cost plus a $50 delivery fee.
A caterer from Flagstaff or Payson drives 45 minutes each way. Ask about a travel fee before you book one. We can tell you which caterers work in this area.
The unstructured half
Plan the open time as carefully as the sessions. The property has a disc golf course of four goals, the sport court, the field, and 12 acres of untouched forest. The sport court has pickleball and half-court basketball. The discs, balls, and paddles are in the game room.
After dark, go to the firepit. We provide the firewood. Check the Coconino County fire restrictions first. In the driest weeks, outdoor fires are banned, and the ban is enforced.
Inside, the game room has billiards, ping pong, skee-ball, foosball, darts, and three arcade cabinets. The theater shows a film on the 200-inch screen.
Quiet hours start at 10:00 pm, for noise and outdoor lights.
Sleeping without a hierarchy problem
The lodge has five bedrooms and a study, with 11 beds: two kings, four queens, and five queen sleeper sofas. The beds sleep 20 adults comfortably, but colleagues usually want a bed each.
With one person in each bed, 11 people sleep in beds. Add the three air mattresses, and 14 people have a place of their own. For a team of 16, two people share, use the camping mats, or bring an RV.
Every bedroom except the Study has two beds. Two colleagues can share a bedroom without sharing a bed.
The bedrooms are not equal. Madison’s Room is the largest, with a fireplace and a freestanding tub. The Window Room has the best view, but it shares the common bathroom downstairs. Nora’s Room has its own entrance and a desk.
Assign bedrooms by need, not by job title. Give Nora’s Room to the person who must work. Give the main floor to anyone who cannot manage stairs. Draw lots for the rest, and say so before the offsite.
Booking and invoicing for a company
Book directly with us, not through Airbnb or Vrbo. We can invoice the company directly. Payment is due when you receive the invoice. We do not accept purchase orders. We can send a W-9 for your accounts team.
The person who books must be at least 24.
A stay has these costs: the nightly rate for your dates, the cleaning fee, and tax at 6.9%. The cleaning fee is $450 for two nights and $550 for a longer stay.
A team of 16 or fewer pays no extra-guest fee. Above 16, the fee is $25 per night for each extra guest age 13 or older, when you book direct. We also hold a $750 security deposit and return it after checkout.
The cancellation policy is moderate. Cancel more than 30 days before arrival, and you get a full refund. Cancel between 30 and 14 days before, and you get half back. Inside 14 days, the booking is not refundable.