Christmas and New Year’s Eve offer

Summer is almost over, everyone is getting ready for cold autumn evenings, and nobody wants to think about the wintertime. This is a big mistake! Guests are looking for an idea to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the early autumn. September is the best time to start promoting your Christmas and New Year’s Eve offer.

Data from Google Trends 2018 shows that people start searching for holidays in September. It is the time when people are looking for a way to spend their Christmas. More often we decide to spend holidays outdoors or visit the distant family. Follow these trends and start selling the Christmas offer right now!

• These are the global data:

How should Christmas offer look like?

Offer configuration

• Give a choice. Not everybody will use your Christmas package. Make sure you have the basic package with breakfast, for guests who only need accommodation, because they spend time with their relatives.
• Don’t limit the length of stay. This year, Christmas begins on Tuesday. Guests can want to arrive earlier - during the weekend. Make the online booking easier by extending the Christmas offer.
• Optimal dates are: 20/12/19 - 29/12/19

Set the restrictions:

• sales management - offers - holiday offer - availability

Set growing restrictions:

• sales management - restrictions - Booking Engine - holiday offer - restrictions rising after dates

Check your room settings:

• settings - your facility - rooms - standard room - details and advanced

Remember about the valuation of additional people, in which you can add price each of the days at a different price. Due to Christmas Eve, 24 December may be more expensive than other days on offer

• days of the week:

You can also create seasons, i.e.price out your stays during Christmas:

1. season for dates 24 - 25 December - higher price
2. season for December 20 - 23 and December 26 - 29 - lower price

• seasons:

You can also combine both methods of valuation, i.e., as part of one offer you can use prices depending on the days of the week and season.

Payments

Remember to divide payment into installments. Guests are now after the holidays, so they may not be able to pay the whole. Don’t require 100% prepayment. All you need is a 30 - 50% rate to make you feel safe. Also, make sure that your guests can pay online, it will help guests to complete the booking process. Online payments are additional transaction security for guests.

How to reach guests?

• Don’t forget to insert good pictures and description. Find out what attract guests to your property and highlight it in the description. Also, make sure you translate the website so that the language barrier does not block guests from making reservation. 
• Reach guests from mailing databases - remind them that you have a new Christmas offer. Reward your loyal customers with personalized service - you will show that you care about them. 
• Plan your advertising campaign. Show your new offer on social media: Facebook, Instagram etc. Take care of your website’s good positioning in the Google search engine. Remember about using keywords and SEO.

Post Christmas offer

The holidays are just the beginning …. Most of us cannot imagine Christmas far away from home. However, this involves extensive preparation. Just after Christmas, many of us are tired and want to relax. Therefore, it is worth thinking about a “break” between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and invite guests to your hotel for relaxation. The SPA offer will be an interesting proposition. 

This offer concludes:

• Date range: 27/12/19 - 30/12/19. Attractive prices comparing to Christmas prices.  
• Flexible offer - accommodation from 2 nights
• Full board
• Involving description and photos, which attract guests to rest after intense holidays.

New Year’s Eve offer

The same situation applies to New Year’s Eve, which is on Tuesday this year. It is a great opportunity to encourage guests for longer stay in your object. Find out what attract guests to adjust your offer even better. Make sure your New year’s offer is flexible and includes more than 2 nights. The proposed date is: 28/12/2019 - 02/01/2020

Summary

• Make your offer flexible. Encourage guests for a longer stay as part of the offer. The suggested date is 20/12/19 - 29/12/19.
• Be open to families - check if you can offer accommodation 2+2.
• Create a package in response to the needs of the guest - find out what your guests like most, ask for opinion of other departments in your hotel. 
• Give your guests a choice - show two offers - the basic offer and the package offer.
• Invite guests using CRM tools. Inform them about the new offer using the marketing activities.