Your annual church retreat is two months away.  You have a location, a theme, a speaker, and a worship leader. You are contracted to bring 100 guests, but only 50 people have signed up.  What do you do? 

First, check your event contract.  Does your contract allow you to reduce your room block at the 60-day mark, or have you already missed your final deadline to reduce your numbers? For most locations, your final reduction period will have already passed, but checking your contract is always a good first step. 

Second, don’t panic!  You have two months left to promote your event and recruit more attendees.  Encourage people who have already signed up for the event to bring a friend or two along.  Maybe even offer an incentive for each person who brings a guest with them.  Put event registration reminders on the church website (or bulletin) and social media.  Ask your retreat venue for a promotional video that you can show at your church service, or if you have the resources, create your own personalized promo video for the retreat.  And lastly, don’t overlook the importance of a personal invitation!  Some people will ignore an open group invitation but strongly consider attending when someone reaches out to them one-on-one. 

Third, consider opening your retreat up to others.  This may mean inviting people from a sister church or other nearby church to attend the event as well.  Or, it could mean inviting a different group of people from within your church.  For example, if you are planning a women’s retreat, would the church staff like to come and do a separate mini retreat using some of the hotel rooms from your block? What about the men’s ministry?   

Fourth, offer participants the option of upgrading to a private room.  Most retreat groups plan on two people per room to allow for fellowship and split lodging cost.  However, some guests might happily choose to pay for the full room cost to allow themselves some extra privacy and rest. If your event contract requires a minimum room responsibility (rather than a minimum number of total guests), then using more single occupancy rooms can help you fulfill your minimum room responsibility faster. 

Fifth, lean in.  If you have done everything that you can do bolster your registrations, and the numbers just aren’t coming in, consider a different perspective.  Maybe God is giving you the opportunity for a more intimate retreat with fewer participants.  How can you lean into this?  What activities or small group discussions are only accessible with a smaller group of people?  Perhaps what seemed like a negative can be turned into a positive. 

If you find yourself with lower numbers than you expected, hopefully these tips will be helpful to you as you are evaluating your next steps.  Retreat planning is a fun, and sometimes challenging, role to fill.  Remember that your planning is for a purpose, and pray that God would use your efforts for His glory.