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Business Blasphemy
Business Blasphemy
EP86: Plan Luxury Retreats that Transform Your Business with Sarah Magnoni
This week, I’m chatting with Sarah Magnoni, a travel advisor and retreat expert who helps coaches and entrepreneurs craft luxury retreats and VIP experiences for their clients.
We get into the rising trend of retreats, unpack the differences between traditional setups and truly immersive experiences, and dig into what it really takes to pull off a successful event.
From building the right audience to handling legalities and logistics, Sarah shares her insights on how to create unforgettable, high-touch experiences that go beyond just offering a high-ticket service. Tune in to find out why retreats can be game-changers for your business and your clients’ lives.
Guest Bio:
Sarah Magnoni is a Luxe Retreat Advisor and Retreat Host. Owner of Harmony Travel Collective, Sarah works with coaches and entrepreneurs who want to create luxury experiences for their clients which deepens their relationships and increases their revenue. Travel has been a part of Sarah's life since she was 5 and has continued on with her family by marrying a commercial airline pilot. Combining her marketing experience, ICF coaching certification, and love of travel, Sarah started hosting retreats and instantly fell in love with the whole process. Now she takes her passions to help her clients by offering do-it-for-you options or do-it-with-you options.
Connect with Sarah:
Connect with Sarah:
- Ready to be seen, heard and paid like the thought leader you are? Sign up for weekly insights into all things impact, influence, and income. Head to https://connect.getcorporaterehab.com/signup
- Follow Sarah on Instagram (instagram.com/corporate.rehab)
- Learn how to work with her HERE (getcorporaterehab.com/services)
The Business Blasphemy Podcast is sponsored by Corporate Rehab® Strategic Consulting.
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast, where we question the sacred truths of the online business space and the reverence with which they're held. I'm your host, sarah Khan speaker, strategic consultant and BS busting badass. Join me each week as we challenge the norms, trends and overall bullshit status quo of entrepreneurship to uncover what it really takes to build the business that you want to build in a way that honors you, your life and your vision for what's possible, and maybe piss off a few gurus along the way. So if you're ready to commit business blasphemy, let's do it. Hello, hello blasphemers, welcome back. I'm delighted today because we are going to be talking travel and retreat. I am so excited to introduce you to my friend, sarah Magnoni. She's here, she's going to introduce herself and then we're going to get right into it. Welcome, sarah.
Speaker 2:Hey, yeah, thanks. I'm so glad to be here. I am Sarah Magnoni and I am a travel advisor and retreat professional, and I help coaches and entrepreneurs create exciting and luxury experiences for their clients through retreats or VIP days.
Speaker 1:I love that and I'm so excited, like I said, to talk to you about this because there are so many people doing retreats and things right now pivoting into that space, or I'm just seeing more people offering it as part of their service package Because, you know, over the last year there's been a lot of talk around higher ticket offers, because people want higher ticket. It's interesting to me to see how many people have opted now to do things like retreats. So tell me first a little bit about how you help your clients. Like what specifically are you offering as someone who does what you do?
Speaker 2:I am a licensed seller of travel, so I offer planning and then booking. As far as it relates to any kind of villas or hotels boutique hotels, luxury hotels I don't really do the retreat spaces that you might see for yoga retreats, those kinds of things. I'm not familiar with that. These are more geared towards coaches that maybe want to have an intimate, immersive experience. So I do that. I also consult with my clients as well, as you know, helping them plan budget, and I'm getting ready to launch a membership that folks can join. It's it's kind of like a do it yourself, but then they'll still have some support there. And then I also host retreats, of course, that people can come on.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell me a little bit about the difference, cause I think this is this is important to know the difference between a retreat space, like one that is dedicated to retreats, like you talked about, versus a venue for an immersive experience that you help with, like where's the line?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So retreat spaces and of course, because the industry is shifting so much, it can change. I might say this and somebody might be like that's not true. But to me a retreat space is when you think about like a traditional yoga retreat, where it's kind of picture everyone that like sitting in this round room and it's beautiful outside and people are doing yoga, and then maybe there's like some buildings on site where they have I mean, they can still be luxury, but maybe they have bunk beds or like they're literally like maybe staying in cabin, type of things, whereas what I focus on are more destinations where you are renting a luxury villa or a luxury home, a boutique hotel, like something just very quaint and a little bit more off the beaten path. That doesn't mean you still can't do yoga. You can have somebody come in and do yoga, but it is it's a little bit. I mean it's it's different, it's a different plant base, I guess you would say.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so it would be more people who are looking to add a really exclusive high touch experience as part of their coaching. Yes, okay, all right, okay, how did you fall into this? Before we get into like the really juicy questions how did you like? What's your villain origin story? How did you get to this point of your business?
Speaker 2:I've been a coach since 2018 and what you know ICF certified because I thought I was going to be coaching in corporate and all these things and um, and had left corporate and was like really just didn't want to be paid by anyone in corporate. I, you know, I wanted to help people but by the same token I didn't want to be a part of corporate. But so I went down this path of more of like a spiritual life coach, business coach and my background's actually in marketing MarTech to be so very technical but also creative, and I really love social media. So we're kind of transitioned from spiritual to more helping coaches with their social media and, of course, a lot of spiritual coaches. And then I started hosting retreats and I would say, you know, the first time I hosted my first retreat, I thought it was great, I liked it. I only had two people signed up, but it still went. I was like, no, we're going to do this, make the best out of it. And then by the time I hosted one in Europe when I went to France, I mean I can't say the first day I was all in, because by the second day I was calling my husband saying I don't ever want to do this again. It's a little overwhelming. But then the next day I was like this is the best thing in the world. Oh my gosh, this is life changing and I knew that from there on out.
Speaker 2:I really wanted to focus on retreats. But even more than that, I have wanted to be a travel agent. My whole my husband's a commercial airline pilot, so our whole life has been traveling around. You know wherever he's going. Maybe I would come along, the kids would come along and it just never seemed like the right time to do any kind of licensing for you know travel agent. The beginning of this year I was like I feel like it's time. I feel like it's time to start doing that. And so just combining that license of you know travel along with helping coaches host retreats, because I just saw a gap there. I hired a travel agent to help me when I went to France because I didn't want to end up taking a group of nine women showing up and finding out that the Airbnb that I rented was not there.
Speaker 2:And I wanted to make sure that I had some protection there. So I hired a travel agent and she was great. She did what she needed to do. But I could definitely see some touch points that when it's a retreat there could have been some additional help and different things, so I thought I could really serve that aspect for coaches.
Speaker 1:Tell me a little bit about why retreats are becoming more popular. For a while I thought you're just seeing it more, you're just hearing it more, but no like really, over the last little while I've noticed more of an increase in people opting to do this as part of an experience. What do you think the reason is for that?
Speaker 2:I think, 2020. I mean, I think all the time period of being at home right, the craving of community, of being face-to-face, of connecting energetically even you know the energy changes when you're around. You know other people, primarily serving women, and even seeing in my own experience the friendships that have been created through my retreats, and these are lifelong friends. These are people that remain friends. I'm getting ready to go to Ireland in October and this is more of just a kind of a scouting opportunity for me to go and look at some spots there, and one of my friends from one of my previous retreats is going along with.
Speaker 1:So, it's.
Speaker 2:You know, I think I realized as well in France the importance of female relationships, of having relationships with other women.
Speaker 2:I think I had downplayed it most of my life, to be honest, and being a mom to four who are now all adults and finding myself alone more and going through things in life that my husband can be supportive of but not really understand, and then to be in, you know, spending a week in a brand new location. That's beautiful and experiencing things that we never did, and sharing secrets and sharing things that maybe we wouldn't normally talk about. There was just something incredibly empowering about that and I I really hope that anyone listening to this is on the fence. I hope that for themselves, they'll go at least attend a retreat or host one, just to experience that, because it really is life-changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went on my first retreat. I mean you know this, so one of my first in when was it? June, july, july, july, time is a flat circle and, honestly, like I'd never. I mean, I've traveled for business before, I've traveled a lot, but the retreat experience was completely different and it was very, I mean, like you said, people say life-changing. They throw that around a lot, but this it really was, because I mean we've talked about it on the show before.
Speaker 1:Just making friends when you're an adult is really hard and it's funny because you know people say, well, you've got kids. I'm sure there's like mom friends. You can no listen. When my older girl was young and she was in school, I had nothing in common with the moms in her circle and so I made like maybe one friend and we're still kind of friends, you know, to this day but there was no group of supportive women. And now that my younger one's going through school, I'm doing my second tour of the school, like from start to finish, and you know all the moms are like 10 years younger than I am, so we have nothing in common. Again, right, and it's. It's really hard. There's no sort of default group and yet when you are able to experience a room full of of women other women who, who do things similar to you, and it's been curated so intentionally Right. You know the connection piece. Like I, I left that experience feeling so filled up and so connected in a way that I hadn't been connected before. It was really, really wonderful, so I can totally understand where that would fit in.
Speaker 1:What do you think, though, needs to be in place in a business Like? Where do they have to be before hosting a retreat makes sense? Cause I've seen some people they're just selling retreats and it's like I don't know the coach, I don't know any of the people in the program, but they're selling this high ticket, you know, luxury getaway, and I'm like, for me that would be hard. Like. One of the real driving factors for me going to the retreat in July was that I had spent three months getting to know the women who are going to be there. Yeah Right, I mean, I'm an introvert. I'm terrified of people. I could not see myself paying money to go somewhere that I didn't know a single human being Interesting. So is that a me thing? Like what?
Speaker 2:where does the business have to be for this to make sense? So I think that it depends on your personality. I also think you know I really like data and statistics like I said, marketing tech geek here. But even statistically it shows millennials, younger millennials are the generation that are traveling alone. So women that are out there traveling alone. I think that the other larger group tends to be I'm Gen X, I think you're Gen X as well.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm very Gen X yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think the other larger group actually tends to be either older, generation X or, like, younger, boomer. You know, if you think about, you see statistics too around women that maybe have lost a spouse and so then they're out traveling, or kids are older, those kinds of things. So I do think that it just depends. But I think, as far as your question about, like, what does a business have to have in place, they need an audience. You know it might sound just like, oh, of course they need an audience, but they do Because, like what you're saying, I mean you are committing to investing in an experience and going maybe to another country, which is primarily where I focus on in Europe and the Mediterranean. You're going to another country and what if nobody gets along? What if you don't like anybody? What you know, all these things? So, no, like and trust factor is huge when having a retreat. But if you already have clients, if you're a coach and you're already working with a group or you already have one-on-one clients, you've built that know, like and trust. And I think that within some groups again, it depends where people opt in Somebody might bring a friend.
Speaker 2:I mean I would say for my France retreat that I had last year. Everyone knew each other in some capacity, except one person who I'd never talked to. They'd never talked to me. They knew somebody that was going from college but they hadn't talked to them in years. And they, they went, you know, also, like what's your?
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm an introvert too, which might that was probably my biggest fear when I started hosting retreats but also like what's your adventure level? I mean, and what right and what? But what does the zero, what does the agenda say you're doing? Like, yeah, I like to create a lot of space so that people can go and if they want to go shopping, if they want to. You know, I had a rental car there. We got somebody approved to drive it. She took it for with her, you know a few other people for the day and they went shopping. Some people stayed by the pool. I think I took a nap. You know, like there's so many things. But yeah, if you're going to be inside all week, you're going to want to like the people you're with.
Speaker 1:That's interesting, I think, for I think I would absolutely not enjoy being around people I did not know if there were not some kind of experience to like help us get to know each other, because I am very much that person who would sit on the periphery of the room and watch everybody else have a good time because I just it wouldn't be comfortable for me to like interject myself. But that is a me thing, we're not gonna go down that road.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just chuckling because, if you remember, at the retreat that we were at, I was literally in the corner.
Speaker 2:I was in the corner because I was like, ah, I need you know to be back here. But I mean I think the other thing too, if you're hosting retreat and you have people joining, like have opportunities for people to get to know each other, so have calls, have you know. And another thing like having a membership or something where people can understand it's. But I agree, I mean I think I see people all the time in some of the retreat groups saying like hey, are there any retreats in Florida in October? And I'm like what? You're going to go on a retreat, somebody you've never met, and go? You know, so there are people that do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, good for them. I just I like to think that it also depends on the coach that's hosting the retreat, because we've all been in situations like, just from a group program perspective, not even a retreat where the coach will focus on the people they know or they will pay more attention to the people who've been in the program before, which is a normal thing. Like I'm not calling anybody out, but it's hard for new people, yeah, to insert themselves into something that already exists, right, and so I can't imagine taking something that you experienced like that online into the in real life space and think it's going to be any difference.
Speaker 2:I think the host makes a huge difference too, yes, yeah, and I think too that's why, like, safety is so important. Yeah, safety, legal aspects, all of those things because you're you're responsible as a retreat host for everyone that is traveling to the location and while they're at that location, to in my mind, it's hospitality. Right, I'm a cancer. I'm extremely nurturing. This for me is almost like my kids grew up and left and I'm like, okay, I'm going to nurture all my clients, I'm going to go on retreats, I'm going to, like, create these surprises and food and like, have all these things that feel very nurturing that I can share with other people, because that part's important.
Speaker 1:What do you feel like, then? Are some like red flags in the industry that people don't know about, because they just they don't know that, but they don't know, like, if they're looking to host a retreat like what's going on in that particular industry, that sector that you're like? Okay, here's some things you should kind of maybe probably know, because hosting a retreat is not as easy as, like, I'm going to host a retreat, right?
Speaker 2:What's the crack? Yeah yeah, there's definitely scams out there. I've seen them in the retreat. You know some of those retreat groups, so some of the things that you definitely want to look for is does the coach or the host offer an opportunity to have a consult with them? Is it video, the location that you're going? Does it look safe? And I mean, I mean to tell you some of the stuff that I see sometimes that's posted. I think I don't know that that's safe and they're actually in the news. There have been a few.
Speaker 2:There was just one in Haiti where I was like, oh my gosh, you shouldn't have gone to Haiti. I think there was one in the Bahamas, there was one in Costa Rica not that long. These were all people that had gone to retreat centers. Now they had gone to retreat centers, they ultimately ended up being hurt, and then there's, you know, then there's the complete other side, where you send all your money to somebody and you show up this also happened not that long ago. Everybody shows up in the location and nobody's there. The retreat host isn't there. So so you do have to. You know, yeah, the retreat host got all the money. So you do definitely have to look out. I think, some things that are really important is, you know, do they have a history of hosting retreats? Do they have maybe some people that you could even talk to, like, hey, can I reach out, because anybody can put up a testimonial, right? Do they have insurance?
Speaker 2:I'm the dreamer, and so when I was playing in the French, the retreat in France, which was to hike the mountain to go up to the caves of Mary Magdalene, my husband's like what happens if somebody falls? I was like I don't know. He's like I think you should probably ask somebody. Ok, so? So those are the things I've learned along the way that I try to help people with. But yeah, I mean, you know, do they have insurance? Also, side note, I would always get insurance. If I was going on somebody's I would I always get insurance. You should always get insurance if you travel period. But yeah, I mean, are they reputable? To go with your intuition, if something feels really off, like if somebody is offering something that looks amazing and it's really inexpensive, there's something wrong.
Speaker 1:So it's good to be. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Speaker 2:And don't travel to places that, especially if you're in the US, and I'm sure you have the same in Canada. But you know, if there's a travel alert, listen to the travel alerts. Don't go someplace just because somebody says, oh, it's in a safe area, you don't know.
Speaker 1:Right, what would you say? Is a good ROI on a retreat, or is there an ROI? Is this more of like a? Is the? Is the goal for hosting a retreat different?
Speaker 2:That is such a great question and I'm thinking, oh how many cans of worms do I want to open with this? All of them. This is like I, coming from being a coach, I feel like the retreat space is somewhat new, like I'm coming into this and being like oh because I think and maybe not new, but evolving. So where it used to be more of like those retreat centers that were, you know, focused on yoga, those kinds of things, and they probably did run relatively inexpensive, like $350 or something for a weekend, the types of retreats that I'm talking about more probably start at $5,000. And it's a different experience, kind of like we talked about earlier.
Speaker 2:But the ROI can be what your clients are going to get out of it and how that's going to come back and support you in your business. It can be money, you know, it's kind of like. It's like twofold, I mean there. So there is a big discussion call it discussion, but I mean some women that really like were very heated in one of the Facebook groups because somebody had posted how much they make on their retreats and they were saying that they make 25 to $50,000 every time they host a retreat, and so then you had some women in there that were probably a little bit more on the you know original side of like the yoga, that was like, oh my gosh, retreats aren't about making money. Which you know original side of like the yoga, that was like, oh my gosh, retreats aren't about making money, um, which I know because I was in, you know, a spiritual coach as well. So I understand, like that kind of mentality.
Speaker 2:But, but it can be both and really what I got, cause I just kind of sat back and thought this is fascinating. People are really upset and I think it can be. It can be both. Right, you can make a profit and you can also have it be about the experience that your clients get. I think it depends, you know again, on your business model, right, what's your goal of the retreat? Is it the goal of your retreat because you want to have this immersive in-person experience so that your clients can learn the content that you're teaching them? Is it because everybody gets along so well and they just want to get together? Right, like, what is what is the goal? So I think that that's really where where you have to start.
Speaker 2:Would you say that it's easy to have a big monetary ROI on a retreat, or is that what I say? It's easy, I say it's not easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I only ask because I see so many people who are like um, cause I mean, I, I talk to people in a variety of different industries and I'm hearing a lot of like you know what? I'm just going to host a retreat, because that's and I they say it so cavalierly yeah, and, and having done events in my past, I'm like, um, you might want to think about that a little more before you like put it out there and commit to it. So yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times people think, oh, it's just kind of like a girl's trip. We're just, you know, five of my clients want to go, we're going to go, we're going to go to Italy, I'm going to stay in this really cool villa. But again, what happens if somebody trips? Like, do you have the coverage? Do you have business insurance? Do you have, you know, you know insurance, which is there's an operation, like, if you make a mistake on something you know, are you legally protected? Did you have, like, a contract from an attorney that everyone was required to sign? Did you completely spell out what happens if it cancels? What I mean?
Speaker 2:My contract actually says that it's non-refundable, and the reason is is that you can't be planning a retreat, expecting, like everybody's just going to keep paying and then, and then somebody can't go, you still owe for the villa, like, you still like they require deposits that are non-refundable. So so you know, like my contract states that it's non-refundable, whether I cancel it or they cancel it. But here's the caveat to that, before anybody's listening to this and it's like, oh my gosh, that's horrible. My policy is that if you find somebody else to go on the retreat, then that's fine, you're going to get your money back. The point's not to keep your money, and if I have to cancel it, something would have to be horribly wrong, and my you know I horribly wrong, and my you know, I think it even says in the contract that can be used for a future event or something like that.
Speaker 2:So I think about some of the retreat hosts that have retreats planned during the pandemic and they and that's what a lot of them did and that came that protected them, because then they were able to say okay to the villa owner, I'm going to reschedule this for two years or whatever and they could let their clients know, like, obviously I'm not, you're not getting your money back, I already paid the bill, but we can go in two years, yeah. So all that to say. I don't know if I answered your question, but I think I would like to bring some legitimacy.
Speaker 2:I think there's quite a few other people in the industry that's working towards that as well, that they're trying to bring some legitimacy. That this isn't, you know, just like gathering a friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you said, it's not just a girl's trip. We're all just going to go hang out and there's a lot of like you said.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of details Eating, do people have allergies? What happens if somebody gets sick? Who's picking up from the airport? If you're picking a location like Sedona as an example, everybody's going to fly into Phoenix Awesome. But if you didn't budget $1,200 limo or bus ride to Sedona, you just lost a bunch of money.
Speaker 1:And that's assuming everybody comes at the same time, right? Not everyone's going to arrive at the same time?
Speaker 2:Right, so you have to have that organized, or like what if somebody has to leave early, are you paying for them to leave early, or is that so? There's so many details that I think people just forget about. They tend to be more focused on what does the villa look like and are they going to have their own room, and that is important. But there's all these other pieces.
Speaker 1:So I know that a lot of coaches are starting to lean into retreats for their programs, and if the online business space has taught me anything, it's that once people do a thing one time, they suddenly feel like they're experts in it and they can offer it themselves. So what does the retreat space look like right now in terms of what's the overall feel Like? What is that particular niche? How is it operating right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question and I do think I do want to start by saying like, I do actually think like if you host a successful retreat in a location that you vetted and that you know it ended up being this really great experience, I do think you can take that model and share it or teach it or, you know, use it again and again. I think that, as far as the retreat space goes, you know, in coaching I feel like so many of my friends were coaches and a lot of us did the same types of things and we shared and we is very collaborative because we recognize there were so many other people doing what we do. What I do feel like and being just a lot of this is just based on being involved in some of these retreat groups and stuff. It feels a little bit more closer to the chest, like maybe a little bit less trusting or a feeling of competition, definitely a lot of rules, and I fell into this too.
Speaker 2:So someone in the group said that they were hosting a retreat for $350. And I was like whoa, because in my mind I'm thinking what are you going to get for $350? Like I don't even know that's going to cover a peanut butter sandwich. And what I understood then was oh, they have a retreat space for two days and it's easy to get to. People are coming in on their own, it can hold a lot of people and essentially what they're offering were the classes, the place to sleep and then the yoga classes. So I was like, okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:And then you have the opposite, where someone comes in and they say I make 25 to 50 thousand dollars and then everybody's mad about that, and so it's like oh and so then it was like well, how do you define? You define a retreat. You know people call retreats I'm not saying this, but this is what I saw in the group Like, well, people are calling retreats on things that aren't even retreats, they're like conferences. And I'm like, okay, well, who gate keeps the name of retreats? Like, I feel like you can call it whatever you want.
Speaker 2:Same thing with kind of with luxury. Actually, just how do you define luxury? Because it's kind of become overused. But it feels, even though most of the retreat leaders tend to be more on a spiritual journey, there does still feel like there's a lot of scarcity mindset or this feeling of not sharing. It feels very small and it could be. Maybe it's because this new level of retreats that are outside the retreat space, like you know, like a yoga retreat is is coming more into play and that's kind of shaking some things up.
Speaker 1:So are you talking like this feeling of there's like a limited amount of work to be had and so if someone's doing it, they're taking it from someone else?
Speaker 2:I don't know about that. I would say so. If we's doing it, they're taking it from someone else. I don't know about that. I would say so. If we talk about like collaborating, right, um, my best friend locally she is she's a spiritual coach. That was exactly where I was. We would meet once a week and we would talk about what we were doing. I would show up in her lives, she would show up in mine. We would do different things. Never once did I ever worry about anything Like I, we were collaborating openly.
Speaker 2:Some of the things that I've seen when it comes to the retreat space, right now, I feel like people you know are like well, we can collaborate if you go on my retreat with me, or you know, come on my retreat, if you work for me while you're there, or like different things that really, to me, feel like pay to play, yeah, and also are not a good idea. Like I wouldn't recommend just having somebody come in and not paying them, but I'm sure there's laws against that. Yeah, I would think so too, but yeah, it just it is. It does not feel as welcoming as it did starting my coaching business in 2018 where it's like oh my gosh you're a coach, come on, you got to be in this group.
Speaker 2:You got to meet my friends, right yeah?
Speaker 1:So still very gatekept. Yeah, you think that's because it's it's still relatively new, or is this I?
Speaker 2:think so. Yeah, I do think. I think that's it, and I think that the types of retreats that I'm talking about are pretty different than what many people are historically been hosting Right.
Speaker 1:So what are you seeing in terms of trends right now, or where, where? What do you think the next thing is in this particular niche? That's a really good question.
Speaker 2:You know, travel itself has just exploded. I think people were so tired of being at home. So people are traveling. I think people will continue to travel and be part of retreats. I do you know, in looking at Canada as an example I think it's called TECO like when it comes to selling travel, they have some really strict laws.
Speaker 2:Florida actually also has a really strict seller of travel law. I think that that over time, could continue to get a little more strict, maybe even outside of like Canada or outside of Florida, especially if there are deaths or injuries or scans or things happening that get reported. So anytime something continues to get reported, I feel like some legislation or something gets passed. And I think that's why it's really important to make sure that you're legal right, that you have an attorney, you have everything mapped out, you understand the seller of travel laws.
Speaker 2:I would recommend that everyone get an attorney, because my understanding is is that if you accept money so if I were to accept money living in Florida for a retreat and I were to, you know, take everybody's money then I were to pay all the like, the villa, the food, all the things that I'm doing, that I am legally considered a tour operator and a tour operator has different stipulations and laws that they have to follow, and a tour operator has different stipulations and laws that they have to follow. Now, I'm not an attorney, so if that is wrong which it could be, but that is my understanding, which is why, actually, I have two different businesses. I have a consulting business and then I have a travel agency. But, yeah, I think that those are things that have been a little bit loose, where people could just do it and it was no big deal.
Speaker 1:And sure, I think it's no big deal until something bad happens. Yeah, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Yeah, right, yeah I mean.
Speaker 2:Someone said they were hosting their retreats in their house. No one's insurance isn't going to cover that if somebody gets hurt.
Speaker 1:What about like something like an Airbnb?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's a good question. So I'm kind of anti-Airbnb.
Speaker 2:And the reason is is that you just don't know what you're getting. Now I would say my very first retreat I hosted in an Airbnb and I want to be clear too. Like I haven't, I'm not. This is not like 20 years for me. This is, I'd say, the last few years, probably before the pandemic. I guess you know going on retreats hosting my own, but my first one I did host an Airbnb. I talked to the host directly, let them know what I was doing and it worked out.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of nightmares from a travel agent perspective because I also book travel for my clients, for non-retreat clients. I usually try to steer clear of VRBO or Airbnb, and the reason is number one. They have a lot of laws you have to make sure, especially in this day and age with influencing content creation. Do they allow any professional photography? Do they allow their home to have photography in it? They can cancel at any time. I can't tell you how many people I've seen that have a family vacation planned, even college graduation. Not long ago, at FSU, a family of eight had planned to rent an Airbnb. They had already paid for it and it got canceled a few days before, so they had all these people flying in.
Speaker 1:This happened to my husband. He booked an Airbnb for a recent trip and it was canceled like two days before he was due to fly out. Yeah, that does happen a lot.
Speaker 2:And so you have to think about, like, what are you going to tell your clients that are in route, because, know, because sometimes they'll go early and they'll stay in a hotel or something. So, yeah, I mean, and this is why I think using a travel advisor to book your travel is really important. And the reason is is because and of course, I'm a travel advisor, so I do say that but we have the network, like if there's a problem, like I have connections within the city that you're going, or even you know the company that may be hosting your villa. So we have so many connections that we can easily send out an SOS and be like you know, what can we do here that you just don't have if you're traveling to a place by yourself that you've never been?
Speaker 1:Well, if my own travel fiasco from last year is any indication, I I will not book any more excursions like that without the aid of a travel agent. Just because having to be on the phone, having to find alternate flights and hotels when it's canceled, when I spent it for the third time, it's like it's. It's a lot. And it is it just me? Or is this happening more and more with the airlines?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's happening more and more. I mean, like I said, my husband's a commercial airline pilot. We've been married for 24 years. We've been together. 26 years is nine day different than what it used to be, which is why I tell everyone you need travel insurance, yeah, you need travel insurance period. I mean you're covered. Then if there's a problem with the airline and it doesn't even matter that in the U S they say, oh well, you can get. You have to get a refund or different things like that to get travel insurance. It's just. I mean, I just looked at the travel insurance that I have for Ireland and I'm completely covered all the way up to, I think, over a million for medical, because I've heard stories of someone becoming injured and not being able to take a plane home and so they've had to be medevaced out. There's just a lot of things that can happen that I don't know, that people realize they're just not covered on.
Speaker 1:But yeah, what would you say is like the minimum in terms of travel insurance, because, like, we have travel insurance with our credit card. Is that good enough, or should you be getting travel insurance on top of that? Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I think it depends. I do think that there's some cards out there that have really good travel insurance. I mean, the things that I would look at would be medical, to understand you know what's going to happen if you're in another country, right. And then the reimbursement aspects, like what happens if, I mean, I think the travel insurance I just got is that if my bag doesn't show up for 12 hours, I get reimbursed up to $600 for clothes and necessities.
Speaker 2:So those are the kinds of things I'm looking at Right, because, yeah, air travel is a lot more complicated than it used to be.
Speaker 1:And from an insurance perspective, if somebody is hosting a retreat, we're talking about like third party liability, not personal travel insurance, right?
Speaker 2:So if you're yeah, if you're hosting a retreat, I mean my recommendation is to get, yeah, liability insurance, errors and omissions. And then I mean you can get travel insurance for yourself. I would look more into that, because you have to make sure that they know that it's for business.
Speaker 1:I actually didn't when I went to France. To be honest, I didn't. This is fascinating. I'm learning so much because it's like I said, I talked to a lot of people and a lot of them are like I'm going to host a retreat and I'm like, oh okay, cool, but there's so much to think about that people don't think about. I think yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there is a lot to think about it. It's not as much fun to think about all the other details, but that's why I do what I do, because I see the need being able to like oh cool, like, here's your checklist, let's go through this, let's make sure you have everything that you need.
Speaker 1:And I mean, you know what, if you can have someone worrying about that stuff on your behalf, you get to worry about how beautiful it is and how wonderful it's going to be and all the friendships you're going to cultivate, right? So it's a good idea to have somebody in your corner to do that. Sarah, thank you so much for being here. Where can people find you? And you should run and find her if you're going to be hosting a retreat or thinking about it. Where can people find you.
Speaker 2:I'm on Instagram Sarah Magnoni, my name. Facebook I tend to post more freely on Facebook. I'm on TikTok and LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Okay, and we'll have those all those links in the show notes. Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. Like we say every week, you can have success without the BS. Just got to know where the BS is. We'll talk to you next week. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Business Blasphemy Podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode, but in the meantime, help a sister out by subscribing and, if you're feeling extra sassy, rating this podcast, and don't forget to share the podcast with others. Head over to businessblasphemypodcastcom to connect with us and learn more. Thanks for listening and remember you can have success without the BS.