NextRetreat - All-in-one solution for organising team retreats & offsites

@malypetrcom 👋 Hello, PH community! I’m excited to finally get NextRetreat launched here. Filip, thanks a lot for hunting and everyone that gave us a vote! 🙂 NextRetreat app is an accumulation of almost five years of work, trial-and error (many of them) and effort of many people that joined throughout this journey. The story started in 2017 when I relocated from London to the Canary Islands with an idea of opening the first coliving space for teams in the world. I have put together a small team, we rented a traditional Spanish finca and worked hard on transforming it into 'Wolfhouse Los Gigantes’ on the south-west coast of Tenerife. It was really a unique venue featuring a fully equipped office space, accommodation and communal areas, all under one roof. Here (https://bit.ly/3CIWj9F) are some old pics if anyone would like to check. Companies in the world are facing a range of problems: * Barriers in socialising between team members 🙋‍♀️ * Poor work/life alignment, increasing risk of burning out 🥵 * High costs of employee unhappiness = high turnover rates 📉 * Boring company culture, problems with attracting talent 👨‍💻 For many companies, it is challenging to keep team members excited, engaged and passionate about a company’s mission and vision over the long term. Companies have gone to great lengths to keep their employees happy with gym memberships, office dogs, free beer and other perks.. While those make a difference, we have found that there is a unique energy and motivation that develops when teams travel and work together in a destination outside of their office. Team members often feel more driven, encouraged and valued while on a trip or retreat experience, helping to drive team camaraderie and growth. That’s why more companies and startups are realising the benefits of company retreats and team offsites. In 2017/2018 we started hosting teams from all corners of the world, primarily from Europe and the US. They have really enjoyed the experience and we started getting request from larger teams, with 30, 50, 60..team members, looking for the same kind of experience. Wolfhouse venue could fit only up to 20 people (and that was already too much), so we started working with other property owners, hotel and coworking space managers and helping teams facilitate a team retreat. Over time we brought over 70 groups to Tenerife, Las Palmas and few other locations. After hosting more than 2,000 team members, we began identifying several challenges that companies face when organising these trips, such as choosing the most convenient destination, finding the right venue that is suitable for a team (no one likes to share a bed with a colleague:), securing necessary amenities and getting support with eg. airport transportation or a private chef. After organising these trips ourselves and speaking with other companies, we found that teams were spending literally hundreds of hours on various travel sites comparing locations, flight connections, venues, availability and other tedious details when organising team retreats or offsites. This is a lost time that could have been used more efficiently. Once we identified the biggest pain-points, In 2020 we set to work to create a solution. We put together team, raised some cash, started designing and building the first prototype.. 🦠 😷 ..and then the pandemic hit, like a bombshell. Shall we continue, pivot or drop the project completely? Building a travel product when there was essentially no travel wasn’t an easy decision to make. After few more months and another COVID-19 wave, it wasn’t clear how long the pandemic will last, and we couldn’t afford to keep burning cash and run out of money once the pandemic was over. So we keep it low for few months, including expenses (and development) and kicked into full gear again few months ago. Thanks to the great team we were able to finalise the MVP, test it (got over 40 registered companies) and optimise it into version that we are sharing today. 🙂 NextRetreat offers an easy way to organise team travel, saving time and money in the process: 🌎 Pick the right destination - discover the most suitable destinations to match your original work base locations. NextRetreat will find a trip destination that works for everyone, taking into account details such as the number of flight connections, average travel time and price. 🏡 Find and book the right venue for your team - Attention to detail is vital when booking a team trip. NextRetreat enables you to easily find a destination and venue designed to meet all the needs of your team. 📅 Choose the most optimal dates – NextRetreat's Sync Calendar compares flights from your original locations and selected destination alongside other data, helping you choose the best dates for your trip. The NextRetreat platform provides clear and transparent pricing with no hidden fees, contracts or special software. Best of all, it’s currently free to use. We are encouraged by that energy and driven by our mission to connect, strengthen and unify teams while helping them discover unique and unforgettable locations in the world’s greatest destinations. That’s why we are building NextRetreat. 🙂 Please have a look and send us your feedback. We will continue working on improving the NextRetreat experience! 💪

@peter_baros Thank you for your kind words, Peter! You're right, time factor is extremely important. We are glad to have solved this problem for many teams 💪

@rob Thanks Rob! So are we 💥

@rob thanks Rob!

@yahor_shchyhelski Thanks!

@michal_kuchta Thank you Michal! 😀

@fintula High-five 🖐

@breslin Thanks, we will be looking forward! Love the work you guys are doing with Uplisting!

@mikhail_bogdanovich Thanks 🙏

@jan_koscelansky Thanks a lot, Jan! We really appreciate this!