You often ask us how we can afford to offer dark retreats in instalments. Some of you are now starting to think about running dark retreats yourselves, and you ask about the financial side, the costs and the income.
The price of a dark retreat
From the very start of our centre near Kutná Hora, the contribution was voluntary, because we believe that providing dark retreats is a service to society, a service to you, the participants, and that this kind of work is in keeping with our mission. Covid in 2021 threw a bit of a spanner into the voluntary price, so we introduced at least instalments from 500 CZK a month.
We carry a huge passion for fulfilling our vision, which can be summed up in the motto:
“We don’t need to help people; people help themselves best”
That is, when they have the right conditions, space and time, and perhaps someone at hand who knows what they are going through and lends a helping hand when it’s needed.
So we thought about how to create the conditions for the widest possible group of people practising dark retreats. We decided on wooden cabins, because of the pleasant environment and, compared with brick-built cabins, the favourable price and speed of construction. Building one cabin takes two people about 4 months.
A breakdown of the costs of a dark retreat
Here we show you the model financial costs of running a darkness therapy centre. The costs are calculated at an occupancy of 45 weeks a year.
Building a dark retreat centre
A dark retreat cabin, including the price of professional labour, costs 800,000 CZK. The lifespan of a cabin is 10 years, and cabin maintenance (painting, repairs to doors, locks and drains) accounts for 500 CZK of the daily costs. The cabin also needs upkeep: painting once a year, replacing the shower enclosure when someone breaks its door off, or when the door handle comes away in someone’s hand 🙂 We budget maintenance at 5,000 CZK a month per cabin.
The wastewater treatment plant, sewerage and laying the water main cost 200,000 CZK and have a lifespan of 20 years, which is a daily cost of 30 CZK).
Energy
One cabin uses on average 3 MW a year for heating and air conditioning and 3 MW for hot water. Heating therefore accounts for a daily sum of 120 CZK and hot water for 120 CZK. Water and sewerage charges are calculated from the average lifespan of the pump and treatment plant and a volume of 150 litres of water a day, which is 20 CZK a day.
Meals
Providing food for a participant for one day costs on average 300 CZK. For a raw food diet the price rises to about 500 CZK, but in the calculation we’ll use an average of 350 CZK.
Cleaning and hygiene supplies
Cleaning products, toiletries, toilet paper, tissues and the like cost 6,000 CZK a year, which is a daily sum of 25 CZK.
Mattresses, bedding and laundry
In this kind of use a mattress, bedding, pillow and blanket last one to 2 years, so we put the daily cost, including laundry, at 30 CZK,
Running the Léčba tmou website, phone, computer
Web hosting and the domain cost 3,000 CZK a year. The computer is switched on daily for about 2 hours to deal with e-mails and enquiries and to work on the website, so the total cost is 30 CZK.
The time it takes to run a darkness therapy centre
Settling someone into the dark takes about an hour. (weekly)
Coming out of the dark and the farewell conversation, about an hour. (weekly)
Cleaning and changing the bed in one cabin, 2 hours (weekly)
Maintenance of one cabin, 1 hour (weekly)
Daily sharing and conversation, 0.5–1 hour per person.
Sourcing and delivering meals (for all cabins), 2 hours
Administration, e-mails, phone calls, enquiries, managing dates and writing articles like this one, about 2 hours a day.
The total daily workload is therefore on average 8 hours a day. Taking the average wage into account, this comes to 500 CZK per cabin per day.
Total daily cost of running one dark retreat cabin
Cabin – 500 CZK
Heating – 120 CZK
Hot water – 120 CZK
Water – 30 CZK
Meals – 350 CZK
Hygiene – 25 CZK
Mattress and bedding – 30 CZK
Administration – 50 CZK
Including labour, the total daily cost is therefore about 1,700 CZK, bearing in mind that this is calculated for 4 cabins. If you had only one cabin at your centre, the cost per cabin would be higher (e.g. the treatment plant or water main).
So if the contribution for a dark retreat is around 1,715 CZK per night, all costs are covered.
We stress that efficiency is important here, so the costs of other dark retreat providers may be higher, which is why their prices for a dark retreat can be as much as 2,500 CZK per night.
