Booking terms.
Short, and in plain English. If anything here is unclear, ask before you book — hello@thehostingguild.com.
What you are buying
A seat at The Residency at Lakemore, 14–18 January 2027, at Lakemore Resort near Traverse City, Michigan. The price of your room covers the teaching, the filming, the photography, the one-to-one sessions, a year of the Guild’s Workshop tier, your accommodation, every meal, and the activities. Travel to and from Traverse City is not included.
Paying
You can pay in full, or pay a deposit today and the balance in equal monthly payments. If you choose the payment plan, the exact amounts and dates are shown before you pay and repeated on your receipt. The final payment is always on or before 15 December 2026.
The remaining payments are invoiced by email, one a month. We do not store your card and nothing is charged to it automatically — you pay each invoice when it arrives, or clear the balance early if you prefer. You are never billed beyond the price of your room.
Your seat is held from the moment your deposit succeeds. If an invoice goes unpaid past its due date we will contact you; a seat whose payments stop can be released.
Cancellation and refunds
Payments are non-refundable. We commit to the house, the food and the team on the strength of the seats that are booked, months before anyone arrives, and those costs do not come back to us if someone cannot come.
If you cancel, you forfeit what you have paid, and any remaining scheduled payments stop — we will not continue to charge you for a seat you are not using.
We strongly recommend travel insurance. It is inexpensive relative to the cost of the week, and it is the thing that protects you against illness, family emergencies and travel disruption. Please buy it when you book, not later.
If we cancel the Residency, you are refunded in full. Every payment you have made comes back to you. That is true whatever the reason.
Seats are transferable to another person with our agreement — write to us and we will sort it out.
What we ask of you
That you turn up, work, and treat the other hosts and the venue with respect. We reserve the right to ask someone to leave for behaviour that harms other guests or the property; no refund is given in that situation.
Changes to the programme
The itinerary is real and we intend to run it as published. Weather, illness and travel being what they are in a Michigan January, individual sessions or activities may be substituted for something of equivalent value. The artifacts you leave with are the promise — those do not change.
Photography
We film and photograph during the week, both for your own artifacts and for our marketing. Tell us if you would rather not appear in anything we publish, and we will keep you out of it.
Your details
We use your details to run the Residency and to talk to you about it. Payments are processed by Stripe — we never see or store your card number. We do not sell your details to anyone.
Who you are contracting with
The Residency at Lakemore is run by The Hosting Guild. Questions, and anything that needs a human: hello@thehostingguild.com.
Last updated 9 August 2026.