What AED 300, 550 and 900 a person actually buys
A per-person budget is the first number anyone asks for and the hardest to sanity-check. What each of the three common tiers actually buys for a UAE company offsite.
You have been asked to organise something for the team, and you have been given a number per person. The number is usually AED 300, AED 500-ish, or AED 900-ish, because those are the numbers finance departments think in.
What follows is what each of those three actually buys, using real prices from our catalog rather than ranges invented for an article.
Two things to know before the numbers. All prices are per person and exclude 5% VAT. And per-person prices fall as the group grows — the fixed costs of a coach, a coordinator and a venue spread across more people — so the same package can be AED 420 for 20 people and AED 260 for 60.
Around AED 300 a person
What you get: a well-run activity of three to five hours, one venue, transfer included, light catering. No frills, and nothing that needs a production crew.
Real examples at this level: a short evening desert programme at AED 280 a person for 10–29 people, falling to AED 190 above 60. A heritage walking and abra route at AED 330 for 15–29. An indoor charity packing session at AED 290 for 30–59, down to AED 210 above 100.
What you do not get: a full meal service, a photographer producing an edited gallery, branded production, or a facilitator. This tier buys one good thing done properly, not a day with several parts.
Where it goes wrong: trying to make this tier stretch to a full day. Five hours at AED 300 works. Nine hours at AED 300 means a long gap in the middle that people will notice and remember.
Around AED 550 a person
What you get: a produced half day or a light full day. A venue with some claim on being interesting, a real meal, a photographer, branded welcome, and a programme with more than one movement in it.
Real examples: an indoor competition day at AED 420 for 15–29, or AED 300 at 30–59. A competitive kitchen format at AED 510 for 20–29, AED 430 above 30. A structured facilitated session at AED 530 for 16–29. A city itinerary across two emirates at AED 530 for 15–29, AED 450 above 30. A private boat evening at AED 620 for 10–29 and AED 520 once you pass 30.
What you do not get: an overnight, an international destination, or a named senior facilitator with pre-work.
Where it goes wrong: underestimating group size. This tier is where the group-size bands bite hardest. Twenty-eight people and thirty-two people are often two different prices, and the difference across a company can be five figures. Confirm the group size before you confirm the budget.
Around AED 900 a person
What you get: a full day, properly resourced. An overnight retreat, a large-scale event, or a facilitated day with a named practitioner and structured preparation.
Real examples: a full-day facilitated leadership session at AED 890 a person for 12–19, falling to AED 650 above 40 — including one-to-one pre-work interviews before the day and a written outputs pack afterwards. An overnight retreat in the northern emirates at AED 700 for 15–29, AED 520 above 60. An end-of-year event for 80–149 people at AED 860, dropping to AED 620 above 300.
What you do not get: a European incentive trip. Those start several times higher, and it is better to hear that now than in week three.
Where it goes wrong: spending it on production rather than outcome. At this tier the temptation is a bigger stage and a better dinner. If the reason for the day is that the leadership team has stopped agreeing with itself, a facilitator and pre-work will do more than a venue upgrade.
The one number nobody budgets for
Group size drift.
You budget for 60, 52 turn up, and you have paid for 60 — because the caterer, the coach and the venue were all confirmed against 60. Our terms lock the group size seven days before the event for exactly this reason, and most reputable suppliers work the same way.
Plan against the number you can defend seven days out, not the number on the invite list. The gap between those two is usually between 10 and 15 per cent.
A working sequence
- Fix the month first. It decides what is available at all.
- Fix the group size band, not the group size. Knowing you are in “30–59” is worth more than a precise guess.
- Then set the per-person number, and let it choose the tier.
- Add 5% VAT before you take the figure to finance, not after.
- Confirm eight weeks out. The same budget buys visibly more at eight weeks than at three.
- Budgets
- Planning
- Playbooks
Common questions
- What is a reasonable per-person budget for a company offsite in the UAE?
- Finance departments generally think in three numbers: around AED 300, around AED 550 and around AED 900 per person excluding 5% VAT. AED 300 buys one well-run activity of three to five hours. AED 550 buys a produced half day or a light full day. AED 900 buys a properly resourced full day, an overnight retreat or a facilitated session.
- Why does the same package have different prices?
- Because per-person prices fall as the group grows — the fixed costs of a coach, a coordinator and a venue spread across more people. The same package can be AED 420 for 20 people and AED 260 for 60. This is why knowing your group-size band matters more than a precise group size guess.
- How much should be added to an offsite budget for group size drift?
- Between 10 and 15 per cent. You budget for 60, 52 attend, and you pay for 60 because the caterer, the coach and the venue were confirmed against 60. Plan against the number you can defend seven days out, which is when most reputable suppliers lock group size, rather than the invite list.
