Build it from components, not from a per-person guess
Most offsite budgets are built by taking a per-person figure from somewhere and multiplying. That method fails at exactly the moment it matters, because several of the largest components do not scale per person at all.
The component shares
| Component | Typical share | Scales per person? |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | 35 – 45% | Yes — the cleanest lever you have |
| Food and beverage | 18 – 25% | Yes |
| Ground transport | 8 – 14% | No — steps at each vehicle |
| Activities and excursions | 8 – 15% | Partly — falls per head as the group grows |
| Gala and production | 6 – 18% | No — largely fixed regardless of headcount |
| Staffing and coordination | 4 – 7% | No — steps at ratio thresholds |
| Permits, fees, admin | 3 – 6% | Partly |
| Contingency | 10% minimum | Held, not spent |
Gala production, staffing and transport are steps or fixed costs. A budget built by multiplying a per-person figure from a group of 40 by 90 people will be wrong in both directions at once — it overstates the fixed components and understates the steps.
Where cost steps rather than scales
- Guest 46. A coach seats 45. With a guide on board that is 44 guests. Guest 46 adds a whole second vehicle for the whole programme.
- Ballroom capacity. Venue-specific. Crossing it means a different venue or splitting the group, and the second is usually worse than paying for the first.
- Vessel capacity, if the programme is on water. Roughly 44 guests per overnight vessel on Ha Long Bay. Guest 45 adds a ship, and cost per person rises 20–30% at that point.
- Deck or outdoor seating capacity. About 70 for a deck dinner. Above it the evening moves to a different venue with its own cost.
- Staffing ratios. One guide per 28, a medic from 100, scorers above 60. Each threshold adds a person for the whole programme.
Practical consequence: before you finalise the invitation list, ask your supplier where the steps fall for your specific programme. Trimming two optional attendees is occasionally worth more than any negotiation on rate.
Three lines almost everyone forgets
- Alcohol beyond the welcome service. The single largest variable in a gala budget, routinely excluded from quotes and routinely assumed by the client to be included. Ask explicitly.
- The wet-weather alternative. A held indoor venue costs money whether or not it rains. A quote that does not include it is not cheaper — it is incomplete, and the difference lands on you at D-1.
- Airport transfers for staggered arrivals. A group arriving on one flight is one transfer. A group arriving across six flights is six, and it is charged as such.
Hold 10% minimum, unspent, until the programme ends. Its purpose is that a decision on day two — moving the gala indoors, adding a vehicle, extending a venue hire — can be made on operational grounds rather than referred to your finance function overnight.
A method that works
- Fix the headcount band first. Not a range. A committed minimum you will actually hit.
- Get the accommodation grade decided early. It is the largest component and the difference between four and five star will move the total more than any other single decision.
- Ask where the steps fall at your headcount, in your destination.
- Price the gala separately from the per-person programme. It does not scale and mixing it in distorts everything.
- Add the three forgotten lines explicitly rather than hoping.
- Hold 10% and do not allocate it.
- Then, and only then, divide by headcount to get the per-person figure your board will ask for.
Questions clients ask most
What per-person figure should we start with?
For Vietnam at a good four to five-star grade, four days and three nights, somewhere between 260 and 540 USD depending on destination, group size and season. Use it to sanity-check a component build rather than as the basis for one. Indicative ranges by band.
How much should the gala be?
Six to eighteen percent of the programme. Below that it will not carry a recognition moment. Above it, the money usually does more in the accommodation grade, which every delegate experiences for the entire programme.
Should we budget in USD or VND?
Whichever your finance function reports in. Ask the supplier to hold the quoted currency for the life of the booking so exchange movement after confirmation is not passed on — that is a reasonable request and a supplier who refuses it is telling you something.
What is a realistic contingency?
Ten percent minimum, fifteen for a programme in a weather-risk window or above 150 delegates. Unspent contingency is a good outcome, not a planning error.
Where to go next
Four fields and you can send
Send the outline and you get a free feasibility reply within eight working hours — whether your dates hold at that headcount, what constrains them, and an indicative price range. No payment and no commitment at this stage.