Level
6th
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
5 ft.
Components
V
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Conjuration
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Teleportation
You and up to five willing creatures within 5 feet of you instantly teleport to a previously designated sanctuary. You and any creatures that teleport with you appear in the nearest unoccupied space to the spot you designated when you prepared your sanctuary (see below). If you cast this spell without first preparing a sanctuary, the spell has no effect.
You must designate a location, such as a temple, as a sanctuary by casting this spell there.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2304-word-of-recall
Does it cost a spell slot to designate the sanctuary as well as casting a spell slot to recall?
Yes. You have to cast the spell twice — once to designate the sanctuary, and once to recall — and so you need two spell slots.
However, there's no limit on how much time can pass between those two things happening. And, casting it the second time doesn't remove the designated sanctuary, so if you want to recall to the same place again, you don't need to designate the same place again first.
So now you don't have to choose a location dedicated to your deity as your sanctuary, you can just choose your home base. This is a good "panic button" spell if you and your party is in grave danger and need to escape.
Or even just a quick way home after a lengthy journey. Especially since unlike, say, Teleport, it doesn't cost anything apart from the spell slot.
Teleport doesn't cost anything either
You're right, I was getting Teleport and Gate mixed up.
It doesn't say the cleric chooses who gets to "teleport", only that up to 5 willing creatures within 5' can. Does this mean that an enemy within 5' can choose to be willing to go along for the ride?
If 7 creatures are within 5' of the caster and they all choose to go (to avoid an incoming high damage AoE), is who gets to go left up to Initiative order?
Can I have multiple designated sanctuaries.
Sure, I don't see anything in the spell that says you can't. You do have to cast the spell in each one separately to set them up.
What you're looking for is in the Rules Glossary under "Simultaneous Effects", which is here. It says that if multiple things are happening at the same time, the person whose turn it is gets to decide what order they happen in.
That said, I think what's relevant for this question is that the general rules on spellcasting say that the caster of a spell chooses the targets of a spell unless the spell says otherwise, which this one doesn't, so enemies can't become targets of the spell if the caster doesn't want them to.