Somewhere right now, a group chat is trying to pin down a date for the Christmas catch-up. One person suggested the 28th, another can’t do anything until New Year, and nobody has mentioned where everyone’s actually staying (yet).
That’s the moment hotels want to be part of. Christmas gives people more reasons than almost any other time of year to book a night away, and those plans take shape long before anyone opens a booking page.
When the festive posts roll out, most hotels reach for the same tinsel, the same twinkly lights and the same “book your festive stay” graphic. The hotels that stand out give people a specific, personal reason to choose them, and the sooner they start, the more festive plans they become part of.
If you’re marketing a hotel or hostel this Christmas, here are eight ideas to help you do just that, each with practical steps and a quick win you can act on. Together they cover the guest journey from that first message in the group chat through to the quiet weeks in January, along with the festive revenue that sits beyond the bedroom.
1. Make the group chat organiser’s life easier
Every Christmas get-together has one person doing all the work. They set up the group chat, chased everyone for dates and are now trying to find somewhere that suits eight people and their very different budgets (plus at least one strong opinion about parking).
Win them over and you’ve won the whole group. Christmas group bookings, from friends’ reunions to the office party, usually come down to this one person, and they have two jobs: finding the right place, then persuading everyone else to say yes. Most hotel content only helps with the first.
Put it into practice
- Make it screenshot-able. Put the dates, price per person (which is how groups split the cost), which rooms sleep four and whether you can seat twelve for dinner into one post or image the organiser can drop straight into the chat.
- Add the proof. Include a photo of the actual room or a table set for a group, and a short review from a previous group, so the organiser doesn’t have to vouch for you on their own.
- Make the next step obvious. Explain how to hold rooms or pay a deposit, and who to message. A named person feels far easier to contact than a form.
- Tell the same story everywhere. Use a saveable Instagram post, a group bookings page on your website that answers the same questions and a ready-to-send DM reply for when someone asks.
Quick win: write your group booking DM reply now, with dates, prices and a photo, so your team can send it in seconds when the festive enquiries start. Not sure what to say? Ask the person who handles group enquiries which questions they answer most often and build your messaging around that.
2. Write for the person being gifted
Hotel gift vouchers are a Christmas staple, and most are sold with some variation of the same “treat someone special” line. But anyone buying a gift already has a particular person in mind, like the friend who hosts every year and deserves a night off or the parents who haven’t had a lie-in since 2019.
A lot of that gift hunting now happens on social media. Sprout Social’s latest consumer survey found that 46% of people turn to social for gift ideas, the same share as those who head to the shops. Speak to the specific person they’re buying for, and your stay becomes the obvious present.
There’s a commercial bonus too. A stay gifted at Christmas is often enjoyed weeks or months later, so festive gifting can help fill dates in the quieter months.
Put it into practice
- Write for one recipient at a time. Build each gift post around a specific person, such as “for the friend who always hosts” or “for the couple who never get a night to themselves”, so buyers instantly picture someone they know.
- Give the gift a moment. Half the fun of giving is watching someone open it. A beautifully designed card, a photo of the room or a handwritten note from your team gives the recipient something to open on Christmas Day.
- Gift an experience people can picture. Build the gift around what your hotel does best, like the room with the roll-top bath, a table by the fire and a nightcap of the cocktail your bar is known for. Details like these are far easier to picture than a voucher for £150.
- Suggest when to use it. Highlight January to March as a lovely time to visit, so the gift is easy to redeem and the bookings land when you need them most.
Quick win: pick two or three people your guests are most likely to buy for, and plan one gift post for each.
3. Show up where plans are being made
When people start planning a festive trip, the hotel usually comes quite late in the process. First they work out what they want to do, whether that’s a Christmas market weekend or fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and then they look for somewhere to stay nearby.
People make those plans across Google, TikTok, Instagram and, increasingly, AI tools like ChatGPT, asking questions like “where should we stay for a Christmas market weekend in York?” If your hotel isn’t part of the answer at that early stage, you’re entering the journey too late. Good Christmas marketing for hotels makes sure you show up wherever those questions are being asked.
Put it into practice
- Use actual search terms. Put phrases like “Christmas markets near [your city]” or “New Year’s Eve in [your location]” in your captions, on-screen text and website copy, so your content matches what people type.
- Be the local festive guide. Create content about what’s on nearby, such as markets, light trails, pantos and festive menus, with your hotel as the natural base for all of it.
- Get your listings festive-ready. Update your Google Business Profile and website with festive opening hours, menus, events and packages, so both search engines and guests find the right information.
- Answer the questions AI gets asked. AI tools tend to draw on clear, up-to-date information from websites, listings and reviews. A festive page that spells out dates, prices, what’s included and how far you are from the main attractions makes you much easier to recommend.
Quick win: add one specific festive search phrase, like “Christmas markets near [your city]”, to the caption and on-screen text of your next post.
4. Create a Christmas only your hotel could have
Every hotel can put up a tree and bake some mince pies, and most will. The festive ideas people remember come from something only you could do, rooted in your neighbourhood or the kind of guests you attract.
That’s what makes a hotel feel like it has real personality, and it gives you a festive story to tell from November through to New Year (and one you can come back to each year, too).
Put it into practice
- Start with your brand, then add the festive bit. A hostel might host a Christmas dinner for travellers who are far from home, while a design-led hotel could commission a local artist to create its tree.
- Collaborate with your neighbourhood. Partner with a local brewery on a festive beer for your bar or a nearby bakery on your Christmas treats, and use Instagram’s collab posts so the content reaches both audiences.
- Let your followers shape it. Ask your audience to name the festive cocktail or vote on the window theme, then show them the result. People who helped create something will want to come and see it.
- Turn it into a series. Follow your idea from first sketch to finished piece, so your festive content builds over the season and keeps people checking in.
Quick win: complete the sentence: “People choose us because _____” and use the answer as the starting point for one festive experience.
5. Sell the escape from Christmas
By the 27th of December, most of us have eaten our body weight in cheese and completely lost track of what day it is. That’s exactly when a night away starts to look very appealing.
For some people, the escape is the best part of Christmas. Friends who celebrate on the 28th once family duties are done, couples who’ve survived the in-law rounds and solo travellers who’d rather spend the holidays somewhere new are all looking for an excuse to get away. Many of them feel a little guilty admitting it (we see you), so the hotels that win these bookings give them permission.
That makes the days between Christmas and New Year a real opportunity. If those dates tend to be quieter for you, this is where a focused campaign can make the biggest difference to occupancy.
Put it into practice
- Make skipping Christmas feel like a treat. Name what people are craving a break from, with lines like “no Secret Santa, no small talk, just a very big bath”, so booking feels like a well-earned treat. You could even go further with a carol-free spa afternoon or a tinsel-free room for anyone who’s simply had their fill of the festivities.
- Give it a name people can picture. A “Twixmas reset” with a lie-in, a late breakfast and a late checkout is far easier to imagine, and to book, than “availability from 27 December”.
- Catch the spur-of-the-moment bookers. Some of these escapes will be booked on a whim, possibly from the sofa on Boxing Day, so have your offer live, your availability clear and your DMs staffed for quick replies.
- Run it as its own campaign. Twixmas messaging gets lost among Christmas Day lunch posts, so give it its own content, timing and ads.
Quick win: search your reviews and DMs for guests who mention getting away, switching off or escaping the chaos, and use their exact words as the hook for your escape posts.
6. Turn your restaurant and bar into a local favourite
For plenty of people who live nearby, the first time they set foot in your hotel is for a festive drink or the office Christmas party. Your restaurant and bar are what turn a building they walk past every day into somewhere they know and like.
That matters well beyond December. The local who enjoys your Christmas menu could become next year’s staycation, wedding enquiry or corporate booking. Food and drink content can travel a long way on social, too. When we created a food and beverage TikTok for a new F&B brand under TFE Hotels, it reached 120k views, 3.5k shares and 2,000 saves within days of launch, and brought in several large group booking enquiries.
Put it into practice
- Give your restaurant and bar their own voice. If they have their own name, they deserve their own personality online, with content made for diners and drinkers rather than a festive menu tucked between room posts.
- Speak to the people who live nearby. Think festive lunches with colleagues or a table for the whole family on Christmas Eve, and show up where locals look, such as neighbourhood accounts and local creators.
- Make Christmas party bookings effortless. Set out packages, minimum numbers and deposit details clearly, because whoever is booking for the office is usually doing it between other jobs.
- Keep in touch after the party. Think January supper clubs, a first look at the new menu or a sign-up for future events – all these things can keep guests coming back after the decorations come down.
Quick win: ask your restaurant team which local businesses booked Christmas parties last year, and get in touch with them this week.
7. Invite last year’s festive guests back
Your booking system already holds your warmest festive audience: the people who spent last Christmas with you. They know what your hotel is like, they’ve already said yes once, and – for some – a festive break in the same place might be well on its way to becoming a tradition.
They’re worth more than their own booking, too. Their photos and reviews give new guests the reassurance they look for before booking, and when a past guest books directly with you, there’s no commission to pay.
Put it into practice
- Remind them of their stay. For guests who’ve opted in, a personal note referencing what they did last year (“the same room by the fire?”) lands far better than a general festive newsletter.
- Give them first dibs. Open festive dates to past guests before anyone else, so they feel recognised and you secure bookings early.
- Invite them to bring the group. The couple who stayed last December might be this year’s group chat organiser, so give them everything they need to bring friends or family along.
- Share their memories, with permission. Reshare last year’s guest photos and festive reviews, so new guests can see real people enjoying the festive season at your place.
- Plant the seed for next year. A “same time next year?” note at checkout, with an easy way to hold dates, can turn one festive stay into an annual booking.
Quick win: segment last year’s festive guests who’ve opted in to marketing by what they booked (a Twixmas break or a family Christmas, say), then send each group a first-look email that mentions it. It feels personal without anyone writing hundreds of emails.
8. Plan for January now
January doesn’t have the best reputation in our industry. The decorations come down, the next bank holiday feels a very long way off and for many hotels it’s one of the quietest months of the year.
December gives you a head start on filling it. All the attention you’ve built over the festive season, from gift buyers to new followers, is the warmest audience you’ll have for January bookings, as long as you’ve planned how to bring them back before the season ends.
Put it into practice
- Help vouchers turn into stays. Follow up with gift buyers in early January with dates that are still available, so the stays they bought for someone else actually get booked.
- Follow up the festive enquiries that didn’t convert. Someone who couldn’t get a room for New Year’s Eve might be delighted with a quiet weekend in January.
- Lean into what January is good for. Quieter spas, long lunches and walks without the crowds are exactly what many people want after a busy Christmas, so sell the slower pace as part of the appeal.
- Retarget your festive audience. Use paid social to reach people who engaged with your festive content or visited your festive pages, and show them your January offer.
Quick win: put a date in the diary now to brief your January campaign, so it’s ready to launch by Boxing Day.
Want help planning your festive campaigns?
At Stay the Night, we help hotels, hostels and hybrid brands drive direct bookings through the festive season, from the very first post to the January follow-up. Drop us a message at hello@staythenight.net, tell us what you’ve got planned and we’ll share a few ideas on where to focus first. Or tap here to book a call with our specialist team.
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