If you’ve ever been to one of our venues, you’ll be familiar with our historic buildings, well-kept grounds, comfortable bedrooms and elegant lounges. You could be mistaken for thinking that you were at a country house hotel when in fact you are at a dedicated Christian conference centre.
So how do we offer all-inclusive, quality Christian conferencing for rates that are on average, half that charged by commercial venues?*
1) We’re here solely to support the church
Christian Conference Trust was set up in 1910 to provide residential conferencing facilities at below-commercial rates to Christian organisations. This means that we must keep our prices as low as possible in order to benefit the whole church.
Unlike commercial hotels and conference venues, we do not have shareholders. As a charity, we do not make a profit. Any surplus we make is invested back into our venues, which may include refurbishing bedrooms, decorating lounges and building bigger meeting spaces so that even more Christians can benefit. We are stewards of what God has blessed us with and we understand the importance of being here for future generations of believers.
2) We provide what you need, not what you don’t need
Being away together on a residential retreat is a time for fellowship. In a recent survey, our event organisers told us that building relationships is what benefits their group most. So unlike commercial venues, we do not pad our centres out with spas, swimming pools, minibars, room service, TVs in bedrooms and trouser presses. All of these extras add cost, are rarely used and take away from the opportunity to properly fellowship and network with one another.
When being away with your church or team members there are some core elements that make every event a success. These are what we put our time and effort into.
We provide attractive hearty meals that will fill an empty stomach and set you up for a day of conferencing or provide the perfect accompaniment to break bread together after a bible study or worship session.
Our comfortable en-suite bedrooms include towels, toiletries, hair dryers and tea and coffee facilities. Our meeting spaces include all the audio and visual equipment you will need at no extra cost and our lounges have freshly ground coffee to keep everyone buzzing from breakfast in the morning to early evening. Your guests will also enjoy free high-speed WiFi throughout our centres making it easy to stream and keep in touch with the outside world.
3) We fill our venues 7 days a week, 12 months a year
We do not sit empty. From exclusive use church weekends for 400 to midweek training events for Christian charities and organisations, our venues are always busy. This means that we benefit from economies of scale and can pass these savings on to you.
We want as many Christian groups as possible to benefit from our facilities so we make sure that every meeting room and bedroom is filled all year round.
4) A warm welcome and a smile cost nothing
Whilst we strip out some of the costs that many other venues pass on, there is one thing we always include – a smile!
We invest time and resources into creating a culture amongst our team of being ‘servant-hearted’. Unlike some other venues, we don’t run on volunteers. All of our team members are employed and we want to bless them by investing in training and rewarding them for their service.
As a Christian organisation, we know the importance of being servant-hearted and we look for ways to make everyone feel at home during their stay, whether you want to worship on the lawn in the sunshine or spend time quietly reading scripture in the lounge, our team are there to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome.
5) We want everyone to benefit from residential retreats
Keeping our prices as low as possible is front of mind to everyone at Christian Conference Trust as we want as many people as possible to benefit from time spent away together.
We understand that everyone’s costs are rising and this includes our costs too, which since we reopened in 2021 have increased considerably. We need to keep investing in our historic venues, growing to meet the demand from groups and providing quality no-nonsense conferencing that everyone has come to love.
For families or individuals in your fellowship who cannot afford to join your event, you can apply for partial funding through our bursary. This is funded directly from any operating surplus we make and benefits Christians who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to be blessed through residential ministry.
If you’ve never experienced our venues before, we’d love to show you around and explain how we can support your ministry. Simply give our dedicated sales team a call on 0300 111 4444 today.
*Average saving based on analysis of the per-person midweek price quoted by 21 commercial conferencing venues located within a 90-minute drive of CCT venues on a like-for-like basis. Based on Christian group pricing for events taking place in Spring 2025. Source: Merlin Business Consultancy.
