In short: When you do a training on multiple days in a hotel it brings a few lovely benefits:

• Time flexibility: You can start earlier or end later

• Relationships: You have time to get to know people and have more water cooler conversations that inform your training

• Vacation feel: It feels less like work for participants

• Hospitality experts: Hotel staff knows how to make people feel welcome

• Good spaces: Hotels provide multiple spaces to play with during the training

Time Flexibility

When learners commit to a multi-day training in a hotel, they’re fully present. They spend the day and night there, meaning no evening work or meetings. This allows for flexible schedules. If the training runs an hour longer, no one needs to rush for a train or meeting. It also opens up the possibility for bonus activities in the evenings.

Building Relationships

Staying overnight with participants creates magic. During meals and downtime, deeper connections form between everyone. These off-moments reveal what’s understood and how people feel about the training. Participants often share their stories in the evenings, which can become case studies or role-play scenarios the next day. This wouldn’t happen if everyone went home at night.

A Vacation Feel

Hotels are usually associated with vacations, making people relaxed just by being there. Unlike training at work where there a dozens of distractions—like running into colleagues or getting reminders of tasks—a hotel setting eliminates these interruptions. You only meet strangers who won’t add to your mental load.

Hospitality Experts

Hotels excel at hospitality. As a facilitator, you don’t need to work hard to make people comfortable; hotel staff takes care of that.

Well-Equipped Spaces

Most hotels have excellent facilities—good conference rooms, lobby spaces for small group discussions, and private rooms for solo time if needed. They offer varied spaces that traditional workshop venues might lack and you can use all these spaces to change the training atmosphere.

Written with AI help
This article is based on an audio recording I did while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.