Should I invite my employees to my parents' cottage for a retreaet?

Have your parents check with their insurance provider before you make any decisions.

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

I know that it would probably be far cheaper than organising it at some suitable resort, conference venue. But if you are trying to show them "who's boss" by having a lake side cottage, etc - then I would be concerned whether you are going to create some resentment, etc.

One of the big difficulties in being a boss is that you need to be friendly, but not too friendly. Hard to decide where that line is.

Having internet access and being able to work seems to confuse the issue of whether you guys are having a retreat or just working in a different environment.

Personally, I would consider that there is far less downside in going for affordable and novel venue followed up by a top notch restaurant dinner.

no

Is this going to be a working retreat, or will you let them have fun too?

How close are your team members? A nice dinner might be more appropriate, especially if most of them have relationships, or have kids or other obligations at home.

Company I used to work for did company ski trips once a season or so. It was always quite fun and good to just hang out and get to know folks who were new. It was, of course, optional and we did it over a weekend and invited spouses/SOs.

Since we did consulting work and were always on basically 24/7 we made an effort to make it about relaxing tried our best to leave the work behind. I'd recommend that approach and just see what people do - usually some good ideas came out of it despite not trying to produce anything.

I'm a little confused about the "We have internet access so we can work there." part. If you search for teambuilding I would not expect that any work is done there. In my experience teambuilding means "do something with your colleagues, and get to know each other better". That's pretty hard if everyone is working on their pc/laptop.

I like the idea of a one day trip to the cottage. You can spend a nice day on the lake. Maybe do some fishing, hiking, barbeque and of course drive the cruiser.

The company I work for does team events four times a year: a Christmas party, a summer party at a random beach and 2 activity events (like paintball, ski trip, laser tag, zumba etc.).

We're a consulting company. Most employees are on customer company site, so we don't see each other that often. These Events are a perfect opportunity to get together with everyone and just have a fun day.

I'd say a company retreat to some resort would be fine but to your parents place, no, unless your employees hang out with you as friends outside work.