Retreat Registration Form Template: Every Question to Ask, and Why

The registration form is the first thing a guest does after deciding to come, and the last place most hosts think to look for trouble. Miss the allergy question and you find out at dinner. Skip the emergency contact and you find out at the worst moment. Ask forty questions and half the people who clicked Register never finish.

This is the form we see work across multi-day retreats: about twenty questions, in the order a guest expects, with a reason for each one. Copy the whole thing, cut what your retreat does not need, and put the answers where you will actually read them.

Before the questions: three rules

Ask at registration, not later. A form that goes out by email a week after payment gets answered by two thirds of guests at best. Attach it to the registration itself so the answers exist before the deposit clears.

Every answer lands on the person, not in a spreadsheet. You will need the dietary note in the kitchen, the emergency contact on the day, the rooming preference when you assign rooms, and the arrival time at the airport. If those live in one export from one form tool, someone is copying and pasting the night before.

One waiver, signed, stored. A checkbox that says "I agree" is not a signature. Get the name typed, the date stamped and the text stored with the record.

The template

1. Who you are

• Full name, as it should appear on the room list
• Preferred name or pronouns (optional)
• Email
• Mobile number, with country code
• Mailing address (only if you post anything before the retreat)
• Date of birth (only if your insurance or the venue requires it)

Why: the name and mobile are what the day runs on. Everything else is optional unless something downstream needs it; every optional question you cut raises completion.

2. Emergency contact

• Name
• Relationship
• Phone number

Why: this is the question hosts most often forget and most regret forgetting. Make it required.

3. Health and access

• Any medical conditions, injuries or medications the facilitators should know about
• Any accessibility needs (stairs, mobility, hearing, sight)
• Are you currently pregnant? (only where the practice makes it relevant)
• Anything else you would like the facilitators to know

Why: somatic, breathwork and movement practices carry real contraindications. A free-text box invites the answers a tick list would miss. Store these where only the facilitators can see them.

4. Food

• Dietary requirements (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, other)
• Allergies, with severity
• Strong dislikes (optional, and the kitchen will thank you)

Why: the kitchen needs a count per requirement, not twenty emails. Ask allergies separately from preferences, and ask for severity.

5. Accommodation and rooming

• Room type chosen (shared, twin, private, if you price them differently)
• Anyone you would like to share with, by name
• Anyone you would prefer not to share with (kept private)
• Snoring, light sleeper, early riser: anything that helps the rooming

Why: rooming is the single biggest source of on-site friction. Two questions now save an hour of diplomacy on arrival day.

6. Travel

• Arrival date and time, and how (flight number if flying)
• Departure date and time
• Do you need the shuttle from the airport or station?
• Will you have a car on site?

Why: the shuttle list and the arrival window come straight from this. Ask it on the form and update it two weeks out.

7. Experience and intention

• Have you attended a retreat or worked with this practice before?
• What are you hoping for from these days?
• Is there anything you are nervous about?

Why: these three answers are the facilitator's briefing. Read them the week before, not on the drive in.

8. Agreement and consent

• I have read the cancellation and refund terms (link them)
• Waiver and release, with full text, name typed as signature, date
• Photo and video consent: yes, no, or ask me on the day
• May we email you about future retreats and workshops? (a separate, unticked box)

Why: the cancellation terms belong here because this is when people read them. Marketing consent must be its own unticked box; bundling it with the waiver is the fastest way to a spam complaint later.

9. Payment

• Deposit now, balance by a stated date, or pay in full
• Card, PayPal, or bank transfer with instructions

Why: a retreat with a $300 deposit and the balance six weeks before arrival fills earlier than one asking for the full amount up front. Say the balance date on the form and in the confirmation.

The mistakes that cost the most

Asking everything up front. Keep the registration to sections 1, 2, 8 and 9 if you must, and send sections 3 to 7 as an intake form the guest completes from the confirmation email. The deposit is secured; the details follow.

Storing answers in the form tool. Forms tools are built to collect, not to run a day. The answers need to sit on the guest's record next to their payments and emails, where the kitchen list, the rooming list and the shuttle list can be pulled from them.

No way to change an answer. Flights change. Give guests a link to update their travel details, and ask once, two weeks out, whether anything has changed.

Skipping the emergency contact. Required, every time.

Where the answers should live

In ColibriOS, a registration form is attached to the retreat itself. Guests answer it as part of registering, before or after paying the deposit as you choose, and every answer lands on their contact record. The dietary count, the rooming list, the shuttle list and the facilitator briefing are views of those records, not exports. Waivers are signed with a typed name and stored with the record, and the marketing consent box writes to the contact's consent so the next invitation only goes to people who said yes.

The retreat pages, deposit and balance schedule, capacity and waitlist, attendee portal and door check-in are on retreat booking software; rooms and the rooming list are on retreat management software. The pricing side is worked through in how to price a wellness retreat, and the whole year from a retreat host's view is on the retreats page.

Start a 30-day free trial, attach this form to your next retreat, and delete the spreadsheet.