The festive season is full of challenges for hoteliers. They can be anything from do you have enough staff, or have you sort your sourcing well enough and what will your margins be this season? There are so many things to consider as part of hotel management and it’s difficult to know where to start. Therefore, for us, Christmas and New Year is a welcome challenge for us to grow expertise and try out new strategies in our hotels.

2019 is going to is shaping up to be a jam-packed Christmas season full of parties events and other guest centred activities like themed dinners and launching new products.

This Christmas will show off some festive offers like two for one cocktails, 40% off certain drinks and beverages, free upgrade on rooms and excellent value tickets to events. We encourage hotels to go all out and get their slice of the Christmas and New Year market by attracting new customers.

Here are some last minute tips from us about how to make this Christmas and New Year successful:

• Advertise well and advertise everywhere. Make sure your new year and Christmas party have signage all over the hotel and local area. You want to make a great impact with bright colours and great text letting people know that your hotel or restaurant is ready to host an excellent Christmas events.
• Make sure you document everything. Perspective guess we love to see photos videos and reviews available on your social media. Getting lots of snaps of these events and special menus will show off what your hotel has to offer for future and appeal to people wanting to book parties or spend their time with you next year. It is an invaluable marketing tool to have a good stockpile of images at your fingertips.
• Plug extra products and services in your hotel in this busy this season. When the hotel is teaming with guests that are staying the night or enjoying the events make sure you show them what other products you have. For example, in some of our hotels we are introducing a Loyalty Program that allows people to earn points and they spend money in a variety of our businesses. We also doing things like discounts for booking in advance for 2020. These add-ons are being showcased throughout this season while footfall is high.
• Hold a competition. Really simple competitions that will hopefully get the get people involved and connect with your brand. Keep things simple and offer a prize that your hotel already has for example afternoon or a spa treatment.

Finally, good luck with the festive season as we know hoteliers will be spinning about ten dozen plates in the air. We look forward to seeing everyone’s pictures and highlights of the festive season.