This guide covers it all: the possible formats, a typical schedule, choosing the venue, real 2026 budgets, and the part 90% of companies forget: capture. Because a successful offsite that nobody films is a budget that evaporates in 48 hours.

Why padel became THE offsite format in 2026

Numbers first. According to the Playtomic Global Padel Report 2026, produced with PwC, padel has 19.4 million players worldwide and 20,900 clubs, with 91,000 courts projected by 2028. France is on the same curve: more than a million players and more than 4,000 courts. We have pulled all the data together in our article on the padel market in France.

Growth doesn’t explain everything. Three features of the game make padel the ideal offsite sport.

First, accessibility. Padel is played in doubles, on a glass-walled court smaller than a tennis court, with rules you pick up in ten minutes. A complete beginner enjoys their very first match. Try saying that about golf or tennis.

Second, doubles. You never win alone at padel. Communication, positioning, trust in your partner: it is literally a cohesion exercise dressed up as a sport.

Third, the tournament format. Groups, semi-finals, final: the natural drama of a tournament keeps a group hooked for a whole afternoon, including those not playing at that moment.

Add the underlying trend in business travel: in 2026 an offsite is built around a signature activity, not a PowerPoint. Padel ticks every box: accessible, mixed, spectacular on video, and still new enough to surprise your teams.

Offsite, team building, company tournament: which format for which goal?

Three formats, three budgets, three goals. Choose based on what you want to get out of it.

The padel afterwork (2 to 3 hours)

The entry point. You book 2 to 4 courts at the end of the day, a coached introduction for beginners, a mini-tournament, then drinks at the clubhouse. Ideal to bring a team of 10 to 30 people together without blocking a working day. Allow €45 to €85 excl. VAT per person. If this is your first padel event, start with our guide to padel team building: it covers the short format in detail.

The company tournament day

The format that unites. A full day, a real tournament draw, teams drawn across departments (the sales director paired with the new hire from accounting: that is where the magic happens) and a prize-giving. Works from 20 to 100+ participants.

The 2 to 3-day residential offsite

The format this guide focuses on. Plenary and workshops in the morning, padel in the afternoon, team evenings, accommodation on site. It is the choice of companies that want to mark a big moment: kicking off the year, merging teams, celebrating a target hit. Budget: €320 to €580 excl. VAT per person, all in.

How to organise your padel offsite, step by step

Choose the venue

Three options depending on your group and constraints.

The city club. The simplest for an afterwork or a day. You book the courts and the clubhouse becomes your HQ. Check a meeting room is available if you add a work session.

The hotel with courts. The best option for a residential: plenary room, food, accommodation and padel in one place. More and more hotels are adding padel courts precisely to win this market.

The resort or holiday park. For spring and summer offsites, outdoor hospitality venues are installing courts at scale. Natural setting, lodges, a relaxed feel.

The criteria that matter: number of courts (one court has 4 people playing and rotates 10 to 12 comfortably), a suitable meeting room, catering you can book privately, and easy access from the nearest station or airport.

Build the typical schedule

A typical day on a residential padel offsite:

  • 9:00-12:30: plenary or strategy workshops (minds are fresh)
  • 12:30-14:00: lunch on site
  • 14:00-17:30: 30-minute coached introduction, then group-stage tournament and finals
  • 18:00: prize-giving (plan some tongue-in-cheek trophies: best defeat, most spectacular point)
  • 20:00: dinner and team evening

Padel always goes in the afternoon. In the morning people have the headspace for real work. In the afternoon, physical energy revives a group that would switch off in front of slides.

Handle mixed levels: nobody on the bench

The classic worry: “half my team has never held a racket”. That is exactly padel’s strength. The answer comes down to three decisions: a 30-minute coached introduction at the start, mixed teams pairing a beginner with a stronger player, and an americano format where pairs rotate every round. Result: nobody sits on the bench, and the funniest points (often the beginners’) become the best moments of the day. And the best footage.

2026 budget: realistic ranges

Prices seen on the French market in 2026:

  • Padel afterwork: €45 to €85 excl. VAT per person (private courts, coaching, drinks)
  • 2-3 day residential offsite: €320 to €580 excl. VAT per person (accommodation, food, private courts, coaching, meeting room)

For a group of 30, a residential offsite therefore lands between €10,000 and €17,000 excl. VAT. What moves the bill: the standard of accommodation, the number of coaches, the season, and video capture. Which brings us to the next point.

The mistake 90% of companies make: capturing nothing

Ask yourself: what does a €15,000 offsite actually produce, a week later? Memories, and a few blurry photos lost in a WhatsApp group.

With professional capture, the same event produces a 90-second aftermovie the company posts on LinkedIn, footage you can reuse for recruitment, photos for internal comms, and content your people reshare on their own networks. Every share is free advertising for your employer brand.

Padel is perfect for it: smashes over the glass, celebrations, beginners improving before your eyes. It is a sport that looks good on camera, and we know what we are talking about: the Limova video we produced with Jules Marie passed 180,000 views on YouTube. One company, one padel event, well-planned capture: the audience follows.

The same logic works internally. What performs in padel social media content is well documented: emotion and atmosphere convert, empty courts don’t. An offsite aftermovie is exactly that: team emotion, caught at the right moment.

On budget, capture is a fraction of the total cost of the event. It is the line that turns an HR expense into a marketing asset that keeps working for months: LinkedIn posts, careers page, onboarding for new hires.

Padel offsite at a hotel: accommodation + courts

For a 2 or 3-day residential, a hotel with courts is the smoothest option: plenary in the morning, courts 50 metres away, no transfers, no dead time. The group stays together from breakfast to the evening, and that continuity is what makes the difference on cohesion.

The market has moved this way: hotels and resorts see padel as a magnet for business guests, and our work with Kyriad shows how a hotel turns hosting athletes into content and visibility.

Your checklist to validate a hotel: at least 2 courts on site or within 10 minutes, a meeting room for the whole group, private catering, and a space for the evening. Serious bonus: a local videographer or an agency that handles capture.

Padel offsite FAQ

How much does a padel offsite cost?

Allow €45 to €85 excl. VAT per person for a 2-3 hour afterwork, and €320 to €580 excl. VAT per person for a 2-3 day residential offsite with accommodation. For 30 people, a residential offsite is a €10,000 to €17,000 excl. VAT budget.

Do you need to know how to play padel?

No. It is actually the format’s number-one argument: the rules take ten minutes to learn, a 30-minute coached introduction is enough to play a match, and doubles lets you pair beginners and stronger players in the same team.

What is the maximum number of participants?

It depends on the number of courts. One court has 4 people playing and rotates 10 to 12 participants comfortably. With 4 courts, a smooth tournament takes 40 to 50 people. Beyond that, run padel and workshops in parallel to keep everyone busy.

Can you run a padel offsite with no club nearby?

In the vast majority of cases, yes: France has more than 4,000 courts and coverage grows every month. If your offsite venue has no courts, look for a club or hotel with courts within 30 to 45 minutes, or pick a venue that already has them.

An offsite your teams will still talk about in six months

The padel offsite brings together what companies want from an offsite in 2026: real work in the morning, an activity that genuinely includes everyone in the afternoon, and images that extend the event long after everyone is back at the office.

If you want a turnkey padel offsite (venue, schedule, coaching, tournament) with an aftermovie your teams will share, we handle it end to end. Book a free call with Arthur, founder of The Court: 30 minutes to frame your project, budget and dates.

It’s free, it’s concrete, and we don’t bite.

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