You've decided to find the perfect vendor for your offsites. That’s a big commitment, and you want to ensure the vendor is reliable and provides good value for money.
We’ve been part of many tenders, and our experience has often been negative—many were not managed in the best interest of the customer.
Here are a few things to consider when running a tender:
1. Be Transparent About Selection Criteria
Almost every tender we’ve participated in has shared its selection criteria only after we explicitly requested it via email.
I highly recommend being fully transparent about the criteria from the start. This saves time and helps vendors provide better proposals.
2. Prioritize Selection Criteria
You want the best price, white-glove event planning, a vendor that understands your culture, coverage in specific regions, a track record with at least 20 Fortune 500 companies—the list goes on.
Of course, you want to cover everything.
But take a moment to decide which criteria matter most. Share your priorities with potential vendors. You’ll get much better results from the tender process.
3. Start with a Small Project
When you invite all your friends to your birthday party, you probably wouldn’t book a restaurant you’ve never been to. You’d want to try it first, right?
Now, imagine selecting a vendor to organize dozens or even hundreds of your company’s events without ever working with them before.
Choosing based on a nice PowerPoint presentation, a spreadsheet comparison, some due diligence, and gut feeling is risky.
The best approach? Test vendors on a small event first.
Organize a leadership offsite or a team retreat with them. See how they operate.
This will give you clarity on whether to trust them with a larger volume of events. Many of our biggest clients started with just a tiny event.
4. Select a Shortlist of Top Vendors
Being invited to a tender with 10+ competing vendors almost always convinces me not to participate.
It’s not that we lack confidence—we just see it as a sign that you haven’t done your homework. And that’s not a good look.
Do an initial round of interviews and narrow it down to your top 3-4 candidates. Then, work with them individually to get a sense of how they operate. That’s the way.
5. Don’t Make It Too Structured
Tenders need structure—I get it. When selecting software, for example, it makes sense to compare features and pricing in a standardized format.
But organizing company offsites is different. It’s about experiences, and different vendors have different approaches, business models, and venue selection strategies.
Let them show you their “soul.” Don’t reduce the process to a school project by dictating how many pages their proposal should have or standardizing their business model.
Give vendors some creative freedom—it’s a great indicator of what you can expect from them during the offsite.
6. When Time is Working Against You
Once, we were invited to a tender for a large, full-buyout retreat with 800 attendees. The event had fixed dates just four months away.
The company set a strict 40-day decision timeline and required vendors to prepare proposals for specific venues. There strict location restrictions.
The problem? The few available venues wouldn’t hold dates for an entire month. By the time the final decision was made, no venues were left, and the selected vendor had to start from scratch.
This isn’t rare. Don’t do this. You waste everyone’s time—especially your own.
7. The Importance of Venues
When companies contact us outside of a tender process, the venue is by far their biggest priority. But in tenders, venues are often an afterthought.
Some key questions to ask:
- Does the vendor work with independent hotels or only major chains?
- Do they have relationships with venues, or are they blindly booking through a GDS tool?
- Do they work with unique venues, such as glamping sites?
Clarity on this will have a major impact on the retreat experience.
Nothing is sadder than being locked into a contract with a vendor that only books boring chain hotels because they get the best commissions.
8. Address Conflicts of Interest
Just as you conduct due diligence on vendors, vendors are doing due diligence on you.
Is there a potential conflict of interest? Be upfront about it—don’t leave any room for doubt.
Otherwise, you risk losing high-quality vendors who choose not to participate, or you may create tension among those who do.
A good example is a bidding vendor having a personal connection with someone on the selection team. Transparency is key.
9. Provide Feedback
There’s nothing more frustrating than spending countless hours on a tender, only to receive a generic rejection email that starts with:"After careful consideration..."
I get it—you’ve picked your winner and don’t want to waste time on the others. But remember, you invited these vendors to participate. Give them at least a bit of constructive feedback, especially if they ask for it. Don’t be generic.
PS:
If you’re looking for a scalable solution to streamline your company offsites and team retreats, Surf Office offers expert planning, a curated selection of unique venues, and a seamless experience from start to finish.
With years of experience organizing retreats for teams of all sizes, we help companies create memorable and hassle-free offsites that truly deliver value.
You've decided to find the perfect vendor for your offsites. That’s a big commitment, and you want to ensure the vendor is reliable and provides good value for money.
We’ve been part of many tenders, and our experience has often been negative—many were not managed in the best interest of the customer.
Here are a few things to consider when running a tender:
1. Be Transparent About Selection Criteria
Almost every tender we’ve participated in has shared its selection criteria only after we explicitly requested it via email.
I highly recommend being fully transparent about the criteria from the start. This saves time and helps vendors provide better proposals.
2. Prioritize Selection Criteria
You want the best price, white-glove event planning, a vendor that understands your culture, coverage in specific regions, a track record with at least 20 Fortune 500 companies—the list goes on.
Of course, you want to cover everything.
But take a moment to decide which criteria matter most. Share your priorities with potential vendors. You’ll get much better results from the tender process.
3. Start with a Small Project
When you invite all your friends to your birthday party, you probably wouldn’t book a restaurant you’ve never been to. You’d want to try it first, right?
Now, imagine selecting a vendor to organize dozens or even hundreds of your company’s events without ever working with them before.
Choosing based on a nice PowerPoint presentation, a spreadsheet comparison, some due diligence, and gut feeling is risky.
The best approach? Test vendors on a small event first.
Organize a leadership offsite or a team retreat with them. See how they operate.
This will give you clarity on whether to trust them with a larger volume of events. Many of our biggest clients started with just a tiny event.
4. Select a Shortlist of Top Vendors
Being invited to a tender with 10+ competing vendors almost always convinces me not to participate.
It’s not that we lack confidence—we just see it as a sign that you haven’t done your homework. And that’s not a good look.
Do an initial round of interviews and narrow it down to your top 3-4 candidates. Then, work with them individually to get a sense of how they operate. That’s the way.
5. Don’t Make It Too Structured
Tenders need structure—I get it. When selecting software, for example, it makes sense to compare features and pricing in a standardized format.
But organizing company offsites is different. It’s about experiences, and different vendors have different approaches, business models, and venue selection strategies.
Let them show you their “soul.” Don’t reduce the process to a school project by dictating how many pages their proposal should have or standardizing their business model.
Give vendors some creative freedom—it’s a great indicator of what you can expect from them during the offsite.
6. When Time is Working Against You
Once, we were invited to a tender for a large, full-buyout retreat with 800 attendees. The event had fixed dates just four months away.
The company set a strict 40-day decision timeline and required vendors to prepare proposals for specific venues. There strict location restrictions.
The problem? The few available venues wouldn’t hold dates for an entire month. By the time the final decision was made, no venues were left, and the selected vendor had to start from scratch.
This isn’t rare. Don’t do this. You waste everyone’s time—especially your own.
7. The Importance of Venues
When companies contact us outside of a tender process, the venue is by far their biggest priority. But in tenders, venues are often an afterthought.
Some key questions to ask:
- Does the vendor work with independent hotels or only major chains?
- Do they have relationships with venues, or are they blindly booking through a GDS tool?
- Do they work with unique venues, such as glamping sites?
Clarity on this will have a major impact on the retreat experience.
Nothing is sadder than being locked into a contract with a vendor that only books boring chain hotels because they get the best commissions.
8. Address Conflicts of Interest
Just as you conduct due diligence on vendors, vendors are doing due diligence on you.
Is there a potential conflict of interest? Be upfront about it—don’t leave any room for doubt.
Otherwise, you risk losing high-quality vendors who choose not to participate, or you may create tension among those who do.
A good example is a bidding vendor having a personal connection with someone on the selection team. Transparency is key.
9. Provide Feedback
There’s nothing more frustrating than spending countless hours on a tender, only to receive a generic rejection email that starts with:"After careful consideration..."
I get it—you’ve picked your winner and don’t want to waste time on the others. But remember, you invited these vendors to participate. Give them at least a bit of constructive feedback, especially if they ask for it. Don’t be generic.
PS:
If you’re looking for a scalable solution to streamline your company offsites and team retreats, Surf Office offers expert planning, a curated selection of unique venues, and a seamless experience from start to finish.
With years of experience organizing retreats for teams of all sizes, we help companies create memorable and hassle-free offsites that truly deliver value.
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