The holiday season is the perfect opportunity to boost your revenue during winter. But to maximise bookings, you need to refresh your branding and create a magical festive experience for your guests.
With less than a month to go, your preparations are probably already in full swing. To make sure you’re fully prepared, we’ve curated our essential tips for the festivities – from decking the halls to sprucing up your pricing strategy.
In this blog post, you’ll discover our 10 ways to make the most of Christmas, New Year, and the holiday season.
1. Set up seasonal promotions
Attract more guests to your property by running seasonal promotions and discounts.
To ensure your properties don’t stay empty, create a Christmas promotion and also set up last-minute discounts to avoid vacant days in the calendar.
Promotions will make your properties more attractive to guests and help you increase visibility and stay competitive on booking sites.
2. Consider increasing your minimum stay
To reduce complications over the holiday season, you might want to consider increasing your minimum stay to encourage guests to book for longer.
By doing this, you’ll prevent having a high turnover of guests during the Christmas or New Year period when cleaning services might be harder to arrange.
3. Upsell services
It’s not always easy to get out during Christmas, and if the weather is freezing, your guests might be keen to stay home.
This is the perfect opportunity to increase your income by offering upsell services like food delivery, private chefs, transportation services, and more.
4. Offer holiday-themed welcome packs
Update your welcome pack to include seasonal items – think mince pies, boxes of chocolates, biscuits, Christmas cake, mulled wine, and anything else to ensure your guests have a merry time.
You can even wrap up a small gift to welcome your guests and build excitement for their stay.
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Surprise with Welcome Gifts.
5. Put up decorations
Add some sparkle to your properties to get guests into the Christmas spirit during their stay.
You can add outside and inside lights, a Christmas tree, and table decorations around the home.
There’s no need to go overboard with the decorations, keep it simple and choose a style that fits your branding – i.e. natural, sustainable decorations may complement a countryside property.
6. Refresh your photos
Once you’ve decorated your vacation rental home, take some new photos that will entice guests to book during this time of year.
As guests browse your listings on booking sites, they’ll see that your property is a perfect choice for their holiday break, and they won’t have to think about bringing their own decorations.
7. Equip the property for winter
You may be more used to hosting during the warmer seasons. But if the weather gets cold in your location, make sure the home is well equipped for winter.
This could include checking all your heaters are working properly, stocking up on logs for the fire, checking for drafts, and fixing insulation around windows and patio doors.
Provide extra blankets for the bedrooms and sofa so guests are cosy and warm throughout their stay.
Keep guests safe with Vacation Rental Safety Tips.
8. Promote special events
There are probably plenty of festive events happening in and around your local area.
Make sure to do your research and give guests information about Christmas markets, Santa’s grotto, New Year parties, seasonal offers at local restaurants, and New Year parties so your guests can celebrate in style.
9. Provide plenty of games
Your guests are enjoying quality time together at your property. Providing a selection of games can make sure everyone has a great vacation.
Providing board games, playing cards, or even a gaming console will keep your guests entertained.
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10. Inform guests about seasonal changes
Over the holidays, many local shops and restaurants may be closed, and public transport can be affected.
Provide relevant information about closures and seasonal transport timetables so your guests know what to expect and avoid unpleasant surprises.