Corporate

An offsite that earns the trip.

A four-day offsite that doesn't burn a Friday on travel. Twelve people, one house, one dock, zero hotel hallways. Most teams stop checking Slack by Tuesday afternoon.

What is Shawnigan Retreats for corporate offsites?

Shawnigan Retreats hosts corporate offsites for 2-50 guests with a 3-night minimum, priced from $4,500/night for the Lakeside House (sleeps 14) and $5,500/night for the whole 18-bed property. The entire estate is private — no other guests, no shared meeting rooms, no hotel hallways. Twelve people, one house, one dock. See the glossary for the booking terms below.

Land at YYJ at 9am, in the great room with whiteboards by 10:30. Sauna at five, dinner on the dock at seven. Most teams stop checking Slack by Tuesday afternoon.

Capacity and format

The great room — open to the rafters, lake-facing, fireplace and the dining table that runs the offsite

Up to 50 guests when utilizing our partner properties.
Boardroom-style for 12 around the dining table.
Theater seating for 16 in the great room.
Two breakout zones: the games room and the cottage living room.
Whiteboards and markers in the closet by the front door.

What you tell your CFO

The one-pager for finance, in case procurement asks why this and not the Marriott downtown.

Aerial view of the lakefront estate — the whole property is yours for the week

A three-night offsite for twelve here costs roughly the same as flying the same group to a downtown Vancouver or Victoria hotel for two nights — with a full extra working day, no commute, and no dispersed evenings.

Downtown Victoria, three nights, twelve people: twelve hotel rooms at the Fairmont Empress or Magnolia run roughly $400-$500/night in shoulder season ($14,400-$18,000 in rooms alone), plus a private meeting room at $1,200/day ($3,600), plus catered breakfast and lunch for twelve at $90/person/day ($3,240). Subtotal before dinners: $21,000-$25,000. Dinners out for twelve add another $3,000-$5,000.

Downtown Vancouver, same shape: rooms at the Fairmont Pacific Rim or Shangri-La run $450-$650/night ($16,200-$23,400), meeting room $1,500/day ($4,500), catering $100/person/day ($3,600). Subtotal: $24,300-$31,500. Plus flights, plus the team scattering across hotel floors at night.

Shawnigan Retreats, three nights, whole property (sleeps 18): $5,500/night ($16,500) plus $650 cleaning. Add a private chef at roughly $900/day for breakfast, lunch, dinner ($2,700) and you're at $19,850 all-in. The team sleeps in one house. The board room is the dining table. The breakout space is the dock.

The math gets better at higher headcounts. We're cheaper at twelve and meaningfully cheaper at sixteen — and your team comes home with three actual working days instead of two.

Still benchmarking? See our roundup of the best corporate retreat venues near Victoria, BC for an honest read on the alternatives.

The agenda we've watched work for leadership teams of 8-14 people running annual planning. Forward this to your team — it's a planning email in disguise.

Sample 3-day strategy offsite agenda

Hour-by-hour. Skip whatever doesn't fit; the agenda is yours.

The 60-foot cedar dock and sandy beach — where most teams take their breaks

Day 1 — Arrival and reset (Monday)

9am — Team lands at Victoria International (YYJ). 14-passenger Sprinter via Wilson's Group meets the flight.
10:15am — Arrive at the property. Coffee, room assignments, twenty-minute walk-around.
11am — Kickoff in the great room. Set the week's outcomes on the whiteboard. Stop by 12:30.
12:30pm — Working lunch on the deck. Chef-prepared, served family style.
2pm — Two-hour deep-work block. No agenda; pairs and small groups in the cottage, games room, and quiet booths.
4:30pm — Sauna and dock. The lake hits 24°C in late August; in May it's 14°C and the cold plunge is the point.
7pm — Kickoff dinner. No work talk. The chef serves halibut from Cowichan Bay or duck from True Grain.
9pm — Firepit, optional, until whenever.

Day 2 — Strategy and decisions (Tuesday)

7am — Coffee on the dock for the early risers. Yoga on the deck if you've booked the Cobble Hill instructor.
9am — Strategy session, full team, around the dining table. 85-inch screen with HDMI and AirPlay. Three hours, two ten-minute breaks.
12pm — Lunch. Walk it after.
1:30pm — Breakouts in two or three groups: cottage living room, games room, and the master suite balcony.
4pm — Optional: pickleball bracket, paddleboard, or a Cowichan Valley winery run (Unsworth, Blue Grouse, Merridale, all under fifteen minutes).
6:30pm — Vision dinner. Long-form conversation, one prompt: where do we want this in three years.
9pm — Hot tub. Or sleep.

Day 3 — Decisions, action items, depart (Wednesday)

8am — Breakfast on the deck.
9am — Decisions session. What did we agree on, who owns what, by when. Two hours, hard stop.
11am — Pack, walk-through, group photo on the dock.
11:30am — Sprinter back to YYJ for early-afternoon flights.

Things to NOT schedule: early-morning meetings before 9am (people travel jet-lagged); parallel tracks above twelve people (you stop being one team); fewer than two hours unscheduled per day (you'll resent it). Build in slack and the work happens in the slack.

The boring questions teams email us before they book. Here are the answers we usually paste back.

What technology and meeting infrastructure does the property have?

The boring questions, answered before you ask them.

The great room — fireplace, lake-facing sectional, dining table that doubles as the boardroom

Infrastructure for executive offsites at Shawnigan Retreats includes 300 Mbps fibre WiFi, an 85-inch screen with HDMI and AirPlay, boardroom-style seating for 12 around the dining table, theater seating for 16, and dedicated workspace with lake views.

Wi-Fi at 300 Mbps over fibre — we pay for fast because we work from here. Backup 5G hotspot if your CFO needs redundancy.
85-inch screen with HDMI and AirPlay.
Conference cam and Yeti mic available — Brianna will set up before you arrive.
Whiteboards (3) and markers in the front closet — we keep a flip-chart easel folded behind the coats too, ask if you need it.
Quiet booths for individual calls: the master suite balcony, the lake bedroom, the cottage living room.
GST receipts. Corporate billing. We'll invoice however your finance team prefers — we've seen most of them.

The chef kitchen with the Lacanche range — coffee, breaks, breakouts all happen around it

Executive offsites and strategy weeks

The great room sits twelve around one table. Boards and leadership teams use us when they need three days to argue, not three days to look at slides.

Quiet weekdays, no weddings overlapping, no other guests on the lake side of the property.

Talk to Brianna

Pickleball court for team building activities

What teams actually do here

Pickleball after lunch. A swim before dinner. The Kinsol Trestle hike, twenty minutes south, takes ninety minutes round-trip. Wakesurfing in July when the lake hits twenty-four degrees. None of it is mandatory; most of it happens anyway.

Cell signal is strong across the property — reliable enough for video calls from the deck.

Plan a weekday block

A long catered dinner table set for the group, lavender beds and the lakeside house behind it

How does catering work for corporate retreats?

We work with private chefs based in Victoria who cook out of our kitchen. Halibut from Cowichan Bay in summer, Cowichan duck and root vegetables in winter. Most groups skip the in-and-out lunch debate and let us run the menu.

If you'd rather cook, the kitchen has two ovens, a Lacanche induction range, and enough cookware for sixteen. Costco run on request.

Ask about chefs

Corporate wellness and retreat facilities

What wellness amenities are on the property?

The sauna seats six (holds eight) and reaches 90°C in forty minutes from cold. The lake is fifteen feet away. Most teams figure out the rhythm by day two: session, sauna, swim, dinner — yes, even in February.

Yoga instructors come in from Cobble Hill if you'd like a Saturday morning class. Two days' notice.

Add to your weekend

Private dock, beach, and lawn at Shawnigan Retreats

Pricing

Corporate weekday pricing (Mon–Thu, off-peak): from $4,500/night for the Lakeside House (plus $450 cleaning). From $5,500/night for the whole property (plus $650 cleaning). Three-night minimum. Catering and AV add-ons are separate; Brianna will price them with the proposal.

50% deposit confirms the booking; balance due 30 days before arrival. Fully refundable up to 30 days out; cancellations within 30 days are non-refundable.

Most teams book Monday to Thursday in the shoulder months and pay roughly the same as a downtown Victoria conference room — with better coffee and a lake.

See all pricing — vacation rentals, weddings, and corporate retreats in one table →

Request a corporate proposal — Brianna replies within 4 hours

What's on the property

None of it is required. All of it is here.

Pickleball

One court, paddles in the bin, balls in the basket. Most groups end up with a bracket by Saturday afternoon.

1-2 hours

Hikes nearby

Mt. Baldy is twenty minutes; Kinsol Trestle is fifteen. We'll point you at the right one for the weather.

2-4 hours

On the lake

Two paddleboards, two kayaks, one wakesurf boat (chartered through a local skipper from June to September).

2-3 hours

Private gym for wellness and fitness sessions

Yoga and sauna

Yoga instructors come in from Cobble Hill on two days' notice. Sauna runs every evening from five.

1-2 hours

Cook together

The kitchen handles sixteen comfortably. Halibut from Cowichan Bay or Cowichan duck from True Grain. We'll do the grocery run.

2-3 hours

Indoors after dark

Home theater seats eight. Ping-pong table in the games room. Catan, Codenames, and three decks of cards in the cabinet.

2-4 hours

What's included

The basics, with no surprise line items.

Private dock and beach

Sixty feet of waterfront. The water is warm enough to swim from late June through September.

Sauna and hot tub

Finnish sauna seats six. Hot tub stays at 39°C year-round.

Pickleball court

One court, paddles and balls in the bin courtside.

Full kitchen

Lacanche induction range, two ovens, cookware for sixteen.

Wi-Fi at about 300 Mbps

Over fibre — we pay for fast because we work from here. Backup 5G hotspot if your CFO needs redundancy.

Hiking trails

Mt. Baldy, Cobble Hill, Kinsol Trestle — all under twenty-five minutes by car.

Ping-pong table

In the games room. Two paddles in the drawer underneath.

Indoor and outdoor dining

One table for twelve indoors. One for sixteen on the deck.

Gym

Treadmill, rower, dumbbells to fifty pounds, yoga mats.

Meeting spaces

Great room, home theater, cottage living room, plus two quiet booths.

Optional add-ons

Tell Brianna what you want; she'll line it up.

Private chef

Private chefs based in Victoria. Halibut, duck, root vegetables in season.

Yoga instructors

From Cobble Hill, two days' notice. Mats provided.

Facilitators

Two we've used a dozen times each. Both run strategy and offsite design.

Hiking guides

For Mt. Baldy or longer Cowichan Valley routes.

Paddleboard and kayak lessons

Mornings or evenings, group sizes up to twelve.

Waterskiing

Boat and skipper through a local charter, June through September.

E-foiling lessons

Two boards on site. Most beginners are riding by hour two.

Wakesurfing

Boat and coach through the same charter that runs the ski lessons.

Meditation and breathwork

One instructor in Mill Bay does morning sessions on the deck.

Custom team building

Whatever you've done before that worked, we'll line it up here.

Fully managed packages

You send the headcount and the dates. We handle the rest. Package options include:

Private chef for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Facilitator for strategy sessions.
Yoga or breathwork instructor.
Guided hikes and outdoor sessions.
Paddleboard and kayak time.
Wine tour transport to Unsworth, Blue Grouse, and Merridale.

Most of our recent corporate groups have come from Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle.

Hold a weekday block

Tell Brianna the headcount and the week you're aiming at. She'll come back within four hours with rates, a sample agenda, and a hold for forty-eight hours so you can poll the team.

Request a corporate proposal Call (236) 638-1478