What BookRetreats.com does

BookRetreats.com is a global online marketplace that aggregates and distributes wellness, yoga, meditation, detox, mental health, and yoga teacher-training retreats to individual consumers, and connects retreat hosts and centers with those consumers. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Berkeley, California, the platform lists more than 6,500 yoga retreats and over 6,571 wellness retreats across 200+ countries, with 763,000+ cumulative reviews and a Trustpilot rating of 4.7 across 2,538 reviews. The core product is a self-serve search-and-booking web and mobile platform with rich filtering by location, dates, price, skill level, food type, room type, and instruction language, supplemented by a wishlists feature and a human-powered concierge recommendation service delivered through a 1-minute matching quiz.

The underlying technology is a marketplace stack combining booking and payment processing infrastructure, search/filter functionality, a host onboarding wizard, and multi-currency checkout via Wise, PayPal, and wire payouts. BookRetreats monetizes solely through a 15% commission on completed bookings plus payment processing and payout fees; there are no listing fees, monthly subscriptions, or guest booking fees. The go-to-market motion is dual-sided: a product-led growth (PLG) self-serve experience for consumers paired with an enterprise field sales motion that assigns dedicated account managers to retreat host partners.

The company is privately held with 1-10 employees, no disclosed institutional funding, no parent company, and no acquisition history. It complements its core marketplace with a content-marketing blog, SEO-led destination pages, 150M+ annual social media views, an affiliate program, and PR placements in Forbes, Yoga Journal, ABC News, CNN, Washington Post, and Lonely Planet. The platform also markets a social-impact overlay (carbon-neutral operations, meals donated to underprivileged children, and checkout-level trip emission offsetting) as a values-based differentiator.

Name

BookRetreats.com

Legal name

BookRetreats.com

Website

https://bookretreats.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

BookRetreats.com is a global online marketplace, founded in 2015 and based in Berkeley, that connects individual wellness seekers with thousands of retreat hosts across 200+ countries, monetizing via a 15% commission on bookings.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Wellness Travel Marketplace

NAICS

Tour Operators (56152), All Other Traveler Accommodation (721199)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Hotels, Rooming Houses, Camps & Other Lodging Places (7000)

akta.pro primary industry

Wellness, Spa & Retreat Travel Agencies (THAKAFAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wellness Retreats & Immersions (Multi-day, Digital Detox, Mind-Body Programs) (THAJAHAB), Wellness Retreat Centers (Yoga, Meditation & Mindfulness) (THAGAMAB)

Keywords

• Yoga retreats
• Wellness retreats
• Retreat booking
• Yoga teacher training
• Meditation retreats

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Booking Commission: BookRetreats charges a 15% commission on bookings completed through the platform. There are no monthly membership fees or listing fees for hosts. The platform processes payments securely and transfers funds to host bank or PayPal accounts minus the commission and small payout fees.
2. Payment Processing: Payment processing fees are collected on deposits. The platform processes payments on an airtight and secure platform. Small payout fees are charged when funds are sent to host accounts.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BookRetreats.com is a global online marketplace that lets individual guests discover, compare, and book yoga, wellness, meditation, and yoga teacher training retreats offered by third-party retreat hosts across 200+ countries. The platform lists 6,500+ yoga retreats and 6,571 wellness retreats with rich filters, verified reviews, a 1-minute personalised recommendation quiz, a human concierge service, and secure payment processing. Retreat hosts list their programs for free and pay a 15% commission on completed bookings.

Product overview

BookRetreats.com operates as a unified retreat booking marketplace with multiple integrated services: a core search and booking platform for consumers to discover and book retreats across 200+ countries, a personalized concierge/recommendation service staffed by experienced yogis, a wishlist feature for saving retreats, and a host portal enabling retreat owners to list properties and manage bookings. The platform aggregates yoga, wellness, meditation, and specialty retreats with over 6,500 listings, featuring search filters, verified reviews, and secure payment processing. The company earns revenue through a 15% commission on bookings made through the platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Retreat Search and Booking Marketplace Core marketplace platform for individual guests to discover, compare, and book third-party yoga, wellness, meditation, and yoga teacher training retreats worldwide, with rich filters (location, category, dates, price, skill level, atmosphere, food, room, instruction language), verified reviews, and secure checkout.
• Concierge and Personalised Retreat Recommendation Service Human-powered matching service staffed by experienced yogis, supported by a 1-minute quick quiz, that delivers personalised retreat recommendations to prospective guests typically within 24 hours, plus 24/7 concierge chat support.
• Wishlists Feature Standalone wishlist tool that lets registered users save and bookmark retreat listings via a heart icon and revisit them for later booking consideration.
• Host Partner Portal for Retreat Owners Onboarding and listing management portal for retreat hosts and retreat centres, supported by dedicated account managers and a 15% commission-based pricing model on bookings, with no monthly or listing fees.

Quantifiable outcome

• 93% of solo guests use airport pickup service
• +5 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Klook: Asia-headquartered experiences and travel activities platform with strong APAC wellness retreat supply. Overlaps with BookRetreats in destination-led discovery and host listing infrastructure, particularly across Southeast Asia.
• Plum Guide: Premium/vetted accommodation marketplace with a curated, quality-first positioning that resonates with the high-end wellness retreat traveler. Comparable trust-and-vetting narrative and best-price/value framing.
• Viator (Tripadvisor): Major tours, activities, and experiences marketplace (owned by Tripadvisor) with a growing wellness and retreat category. Provides comparable search/booking infrastructure across thousands of destinations globally.
• Booking.com: Largest global OTA increasingly adding wellness and experience inventory. While not a specialist, its brand, SEO dominance, and loyalty program (Genius) compete for the same wellness traveler search demand.
• GetYourGuide: Large-scale tours and experiences marketplace with expanding wellness content and global reach. Comparable marketplace mechanics, payment processing, and host onboarding tooling to BookRetreats.
• Airbnb (Experiences): Massive incumbent travel platform that has expanded aggressively into 'Experiences,' including wellness retreats, meditation, and yoga offerings. Competes for the same retreat-seeking consumer with much larger marketing budget and broader travel inventory.

Emerging players

• Mindful Life Institute: Smaller wellness retreat operator and aggregator with overlap in meditation, yoga, and mental-health retreat categories. Representative of niche operators that compete for retreat-seeker demand in the long tail.
• Wanderlust (events and retreats): Yoga and mindfulness festival/retreat organizer with associated event ticketing and curated retreat offerings. Competes for the same wellness-seeker audience with a more event-driven and brand-led model.

Others

• Yoga Journal (Outside Interactive): Long-running media brand in yoga and wellness, frequently cited alongside BookRetreats in earned media. Serves the same consumer intent around retreat discovery and teacher training, complementing rather than directly competing with booking.

Direct peers

• Retreat.guru: Direct competitor operating a global yoga and wellness retreat marketplace with similar search, booking, and host-listing functionality. Targets the same individual wellness-seeker customer and competes head-to-head for retreat host supply.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bookretreats
• Facebookfacebook.com/bookretreats
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bookretreats
• YouTubeyoutube.com/bookretreats

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BookRetreats.com