Team offsite planning checklist: a 90-day timeline

Plan a team offsite in three stages over about 90 days. In the first 30 days, agree what the offsite is for, set the budget and dates, and book the venue. Between days 60 and 30, book travel and rooms and draft the agenda. In the last 30 days, finalize the agenda, send logistics, confirm headcounts and prepare for the things that go wrong. The checklist below is dated by days before the offsite, with a budget table and an agenda template for a two-day offsite of 10 to 40 people.

The lead times are our guidance. For a larger group, an international destination or a peak-season week, start at 120 days instead.

Day 90: decide what it's for

Every other decision follows from the purpose, so write it down first, in one or two sentences. Common purposes:

• Planning: setting next year's or next half's goals together.
• Repair or reset: after a reorg, a merger or a rough stretch.
• Connection: a distributed team meeting in person, often for the first time.

Most offsites are a mix, but pick a lead purpose. A planning offsite needs good meeting rooms and a facilitator. A connection offsite needs long meals and free time. Trying to do everything produces a schedule nobody can keep.

Then, in the first week:

• Name one owner, plus a backup.
• Agree who decides on budget and agenda, and how quickly.
• Set a headcount range, and decide whether partners, contractors or new hires starting soon are included.
• Pick two or three candidate date ranges, checking holidays, fiscal deadlines and product launches.
• Decide on a rough location: within driving distance, a short flight, or a destination.

Day 85: build the budget

List every line before you look at venues, so a beautiful venue doesn't eat the whole number. These are the lines most offsites need:

Budget line	What it covers	How to estimate
Venue and meeting space	Rooms, room rental, food and beverage minimum	Venue quotes
Lodging	Rooms per night, taxes and resort fees	Quotes or a per diem benchmark (below)
Travel	Flights or train, mileage, airport transfers, parking	Fare searches for each origin city
Meals	Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, coffee	Catering quotes or a per diem benchmark
Activities	Outings, guides, equipment, tickets	Vendor quotes
Facilitation	Outside facilitator or speaker, if any	Quotes
AV and materials	Screens, microphones, printing, supplies	Venue quote
Ground transport	Group shuttles between hotel, venue and activities	Quotes
Gratuities and service charges	Service charges on catering, tips for guides and drivers	Line items on quotes
Contingency	Price changes, extra guests, rebooked travel	Our guidance: 10% of the total

A useful benchmark for lodging and meals is the federal per diem. Under GSA's per diem rates for fiscal 2027, the standard lodging rate in the continental US is $113 a night and the standard meals and incidentals rate is $68 a day, for travel from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. Many cities have higher rates, so look up your destination. Per diem isn't what your hotel will charge; it's a sanity check on whether your numbers are realistic.

The 10% contingency is our own rule of thumb, not a standard. Raise it if you're booking late, traveling internationally or have many unknowns. If you need to make the case for the spend, the guide to building a business case for a team event budget has a one-page format.

Days 80 to 60: book the venue

Shortlist three venues that fit the purpose and budget. Ask each one:

• What's the room rate for our dates, and what is the food and beverage minimum?
• How many meeting rooms are included, and can we keep the main room set up overnight?
• When is the final headcount due, and what does it cost to reduce it?
• For a room block: how many rooms can we release without penalty, and by what date?
• Is there step-free access to every room we'll use, and accessible guest rooms?
• How fast is the Wi-Fi, and is there a quiet room for calls?

The ADA National Network's planning guide for accessible temporary events has a checklist for routes, entrances, restrooms and seating that works well as a site-visit list.

Before day 60:

• Sign the venue contract and note every deadline in it.
• Reserve the room block.
• Send a save-the-date with the dates and location, and ask people to flag conflicts now.
• Ask privately about access needs, dietary needs and room-sharing preferences.

Days 60 to 45: travel

• Book or approve flights. Set a booking deadline and a policy on fare class, layovers and arrival times.
• Check IDs. Since May 7, 2025, US travelers need a REAL ID-compliant license or another accepted ID such as a passport to fly domestically, according to TSA's REAL ID guidance. Since February 1, 2026, travelers without one can pay a $45 fee to go through TSA's ConfirmID process instead, according to a December 2025 TSA announcement. Remind people to check before they book.
• For international offsites, check passport expiry and visa rules for every traveler's nationality now, not in week 11.
• Arrange ground transport from the airport or station to the venue.

Days 45 to 30: draft the agenda

Start from the purpose and work backward. Our guidance for a two-day offsite:

Time	Day 1	Day 2
Morning	Arrivals; opening: purpose, agenda, what success looks like	Working session 3: decisions and owners
Late morning	Working session 1	Working session 4 or a free block
Lunch	Long lunch, mixed seating	Lunch
Afternoon	Working session 2	Wrap-up: decisions, owners, what we tell everyone else
Late afternoon	Free time, at least 90 minutes	Departures
Evening	Group dinner and an optional activity

Rules of thumb (our guidance): no working session longer than 90 minutes without a break; no more than two working sessions in a row; at least one long, unscheduled block; one group dinner, with the second evening optional. Before you finalize, share the draft and ask each person what they want to leave with.

If the main goal is connection rather than planning, swap half the working sessions for an activity. The guide to team activities for groups of 20 or more has options with costs and lead times.

Days 30 to 14: lock it down

• Finalize the agenda and assign a facilitator for each session.
• Book activities and dinner reservations.
• Send pre-reading, if any, with a clear note on how long it takes.
• Give the venue your provisional headcount and dietary list.
• Send a logistics email: arrival times, addresses, transport, what to pack, dress, the agenda, the emergency contact, and how expenses work.
• Check the weather pattern for the season and plan an indoor alternative for any outdoor activity.

The last two weeks

• Day 10: Confirm the final headcount with the venue, caterer and activity vendors.
• Day 7: Reconfirm every booking by phone or email. Share a contact sheet with the venue, vendors and the owner's number.
• Day 3: Print the agenda and room signs; pack supplies (sticky notes, markers, adapters, a first-aid kit).
• Day 1: Arrive early; walk the rooms; test the AV and Wi-Fi.

After the offsite

Within a week, send the decisions and owners in writing, along with photos. Run a short debrief with a few attendees and write down what to change next time; the post-event debrief guide has four questions that work. Reconcile the budget against actuals while the invoices are fresh, so the next offsite starts with real numbers.

If your offsite is company-wide rather than one team, the company kickoff planning guide covers agendas and venue questions for 50 to 500 people. For a distributed team deciding how often to meet at all, see why remote teams need in-person outings.

Where TeamOutings fits

In TeamOutings, you can set up the offsite and each dinner or activity as separate outings, with place, time and cost per person, and see Yes, No and Maybe replies with a live headcount. Polls help settle the dates, the location or the evening activity, and each outing's chat keeps logistics questions in one place. Afterward, everyone can add photos to the shared album.

TeamOutings doesn't book travel, track budgets, send reminders or collect dietary needs, so keep those in your travel tool and a shared spreadsheet.