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The holiday season has always been one of the busiest times for hospitality. From Thanksgiving in November through Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, right up to the New Year, occupancy rates reach an all-time high, restaurants get fully booked, and resorts prepare to welcome guests planning their special year-end vacations. Beyond strategising to create the ultimate holiday displays and special menus, the season also expects the industry to prepare for the increased demand and competition of holiday hospitality.
But the charm of the season also brings added responsibilities. As the hospitality industry increasingly turns to innovative solutions to overcome the challenges of high-demand seasons, this blog explores the best strategies to utilise the tools at hand to create the ultimate guest experiences for the holidays.
01Optimise booking and reservation management
Holiday gatherings, vacations and celebrations bring in a host of extra guests your way. This also means last-minute restaurant bookings and sudden cancellations, compelling properties to stay alert and proactive in reservation management. In F&B, table booking tools, such as FX Book Your Table by IDS Next, provide quick updates on pre-booked or walk-in diners, helping manage floor plans effectively for uninterrupted dining experiences.
Cloud-native, AI-powered reservation platforms help hotels stay on top of guests’ plans. These can capture and monitor booking activity around the clock, coordinate across multiple platforms in the distribution network, and help hotels increase conversions. High-visibility booking calendars that sync across departments and regions let properties update room inventory in real time, helping staff avoid overbookings, prepare alternative stays, and manage cancellations.
02Increase guest autonomy, decrease wait times
of hoteliers say driving guest loyalty remains their priority.Source: HotelTechReport
According to studies by HotelTechReport, driving guest loyalty remains the priority for 77% of hoteliers. With the increased seasonal demand that creates long queues at the front desk, and multiple requests coming in, hoteliers need to be innovative in order to scale operations with zero bottlenecks. Cloud guest engagement applications help properties overcome this challenge by building an effective line of communication and data flow between the guests and staff and between the front and back-end of hospitality properties.
When demand is high, customer-facing tools, apps, kiosks, and AI agents let guests take control of their experience, giving them autonomy while taking additional responsibilities off hotel and restaurant staff. Robotic concierges and other AI tools, in particular, can help your properties deliver faster, frictionless guest service.
03Be smart about your resources
Fluctuating demand is inevitable during the holiday season. When requests for special menus and dietary restrictions come through, or when guests prefer extra amenities to complement their stay, hospitality teams need dynamic tools to track and manage demand changes.
Technological solutions that monitor and manage the supply chain effectively help properties avoid understocking and overstocking. This includes smart inventory management systems that provide real-time data, reduce the risk of supply disruptions, and ensure adequate stock levels. Point-of-sale systems that integrate with material management solutions provide even better control over your stock levels, ensuring items are replenished on time and preventing shortages during high-demand periods.
04Complementing human labour with modern tools
Your employees are likely to be affected during the holiday season, especially if you still rely on legacy systems or face staff shortages. In turn, it will not just impact the quality of service but also employee wellbeing within an organisation. This can be easily mitigated with technology.
Contactless services such as digital check-in and -out ease the front desk workload. Mobile applications specifically allow staff to track reservations, check-ins, and check-outs on the go. Employee management and HR systems can help your property allocate staff across your F&B, wellness, and leisure outlets, manage rosters effectively, allocate specialised staff skills for the right jobs, and support employee wellbeing behind the scenes. Be it a spa, hotel or a diner, effectively managing your human resources ensures seamless experiences, before and behind the counters.
05Marketing beyond the season
One of the biggest mistakes hospitality professionals should avoid is running marketing campaigns that end with the season. In the age of data, your hospitality marketing can go beyond seasonal emails and festive packages and extend into post- and pre-season marketing.
In season, be sure to leverage your ERP data to segment and tailor marketing campaigns for your guests. Beyond the service, properties can use PMS and POS data as well as reporting tools to maintain comprehensive guest profiles, record preferences, and reach guests with offers that match their exact interests. With a cloud-native ERP, properties can see the full guest profile across outlets with a unified data layer. As a result, your teams get a complete view of a guest stay, from dietary preferences and room choices to spa treatments and previous stay details, so you can be ready with the right offer to entice guests to convert, book, and even accept upgrades long after the bill is paid.
Deck the halls with the right tools
The hospitality industry always relies on heartfelt, personalised service, and it matters even more during the holiday season. So, when demand runs high, technology is not simply a tool to meet seasonal needs. It helps create better service quality and a workforce that is empowered to take on the challenges and focus on the guests. Selecting the right hospitality technology this holiday season can help your property entice guests from pre-arrival to post-check-out engagement, building not just strong service quality but also lasting guest loyalty.
Author
Jacob K I
Vice President - Business Development
He is responsible for developing growth strategy focused both on financial gain and customer satisfaction. He is also responsible for conducting research to identify new markets and customer needs.
