"We had a 4-hour brainstorm-session over Zoom last week and it was amazingly engaging and productive.” - Nobody

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With a vast number of companies still not returned to their offices, these newly-remote companies are finally getting a taste of the benefits of having a remote team.

However, they are also being faced with some of the challenging realities of not being physically together with their teams.

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Some obvious and some not so obvious activities are extremely difficult to carry out remotely. All remote-first companies (Surf Office included) organize offsites at least once a year, and in many cases as often as every quarter.

Onboarding new employees, brainstorming new ideas, boosting the morale of your team...

You probably agree that the these activities as the most effectively done in-person.

How to plan an offsite in these uncertain times?

We see a very clear increase in demand by companies and teams eager to host an offsite in the upcoming months for a much needed morale boost.

However, it's still difficult to make any commitment in these uncertain times. We perfectly understand that.

As lockdowns begin easing, people are emerging from their homes with a clear desire to travel. Clear as well is the preference to either travel by car, or at least minimize as much as possible time spent flying.

Noticing these trends and taking into consideration the communication we have had from our clients, we have put together a solution for teams with employees who are (at least mostly) based in the same region.

A dreamy and SAFE offsite.

“Is it possible to guarantee a 100% secure in-person offsite?”

Well, probably nobody can guarantee 100% of anything now.

However, we deep-dived into every single aspect of the in-person offsite experience and rethought how to ensure that everything is as safe as possible:

• No other guests than you at the property (exclusivity of the hotel)
• All hotel personnel follows our Clean&Safe guidelines
• Workspaces large / diverse enough to comply with social-distancing considerations
• Outdoor facilities for meetings
• One bedroom per person
• All food and beverages catered onsite at the venue (no need to go to restaurants)

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We have pre-booked dates for full hotel buyouts in dozens of our partner properties that have the ideal infrastructure for an offsite in the current climate.

You just let us know the size of your team & location and we will send you options with possible dates for a full-buyout.

You can also count on a flexible cancellation policy.

Hybrid offsite?

For a variety of reasons, it’s likely that not everyone on the team will be able to join the offsite meeting.

This shouldn’t be a deterrent! If this is the case, we will help you set up a hybrid event in which people who aren’t present in-person will seamlessly join the offsite remotely.

We have noticed through years of setting up offsites for remote-first teams that it is often the case that not 100% of the team will be in physical attendance. We have gathered many tips and tricks to sync the team to work as smoothly as possible.

Countryside location near large cities

We started to offer this service in countryside locations near the following cities:

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Full hotel buyouts near San Francisco:

• Lake Tahoe - 2 hotels options (14 rooms & 41 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Santa Cruz - 2 hotel options (10 and 26 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Napa Valley - 2 hotel options (12 and 24 rooms)
  Request dates & prices

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Full hotel buyouts near New York

• Catskill Mountains - 2 hotel options (15 and 45 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• The Hudson Valley - 2 hotel options (9 and 22 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• The Poconos - 1 hotel option (19 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• The Berkshires - 1 hotel option (10 rooms)
  Request dates & prices

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Full hotel buyouts near Los Angeles:

• Palm Springs - 2 hotel options (15 and 48 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Big Bear Lake - 2 hotel options (8 and 22 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Mammoth Lakes - 1 hotel option (13 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Encinitas - 2 hotel options (28 and 12 rooms)
  Request dates & prices

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Full hotel buyouts near London:

• Peak District National Park - 2 hotel options (15 and 45 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Bournemouth - 1 hotel option (28 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Yarmouth - 1 hotel option (10 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Brighton - 2 hotel options (12 and 30 rooms)
  Request dates & prices

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Full hotel buyouts near Berlin:

• Sächsische Schweiz - 2 hotel options (10 and 25 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Mecklenburg - 1 hotel option (14 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Spreewald - 1 hotel option (22 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Beelitz - 1 hotel option (32 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Thuringia - 1 hotel option (10 rooms)
  Request dates & prices
  
  
• Saxony-Anhalt - 1 hotel option (9 rooms)
  Request dates & prices

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We plan on adding more cities in the near future. If your city is not on this “shortlist”, please let us know and it’s likely we will have a solution for you.

More than ever, we need to connect with our teams and work together to navigate these unprecedented times.

It is our objective to make this as safe, productive, and epic as possible given the current situation we all find ourselves in.

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Do you think that your team would benefit from connecting in-person again? Not sure how to pitch this to management?

Feel free to reach out with your preferred location and we will come back to you with available options, setups, and any other useful information to help get the ball rolling!