From Christmas Crowds to Core Customers
How to Turn Festive Bookings Into Year-Round Business
Christmas is easily one of the biggest dates on every venue’s calendar. We start prepping for it months out. From curated set menus to endless champagne orders and total venue transformations.
But if your Christmas strategy begins with “How do we fill 25th December?” and ends when the last guest leaves that Friday, you could be leaving a lot of value on the table.
Christmas shouldn’t just be a seasonal revenue push. Done properly, it can also become a customer acquisition campaign, a database-building opportunity and a pipeline for future group bookings.
Here’s how to maximise this time of year.
Start with the Customers you already know.
Before putting all your money into broad paid campaigns or blasting your entire database, start with the people who already know you.
Look at previous:
Christmas Day bookings
Corporate bookings
Large group reservations
Previous event planners
Christmas parties
Private dining enquiries
These customers have already shown you they’re willing to organise a group celebration at your venue. That’s valuable.
Create a segment specifically for these past bookers and make the message more personal: ‘‘You celebrated with us before. Here’s what we’re doing for Christmas this year.’’
That’s a much warmer starting point than hoping the right office manager sees your Instagram post.Start with the Customers you already know.Christmas is easily one of the biggest dates on every venue’s calendar. We start prepping for it months out. From curated set menus to endless champagne orders and total venue transformations.
But if your Christmas strategy begins with “How do we fill 25th December?” and ends when the last guest leaves that Friday, you could be leaving a lot of value on the table.
Christmas shouldn’t just be a seasonal revenue push. Done properly, it can also become a customer acquisition campaign, a database-building opportunity and a pipeline for future group bookings.
Here’s how to maximise this time of year.
2. Make It Easy For The Organiser To Say Yes.
When someone is booking Christmas Day for 10, 20 or 50 colleagues, or friends, they’re not simply choosing where to have lunch. They feel responsible for making sure everyone else has a good time.
So it’s up to us to make their decision easier.
A Christmas Offer should communicate the essentials at a glance.
What’s included
What it costs
Food & Beverage options
Seating options
Booking deadlines
What makes your venue worth choosing
But what else could help incentivise the decision maker?
It could be a voucher for future dining, a complimentary add-on, or a value add when the group size or qualifying spend is reached. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a discount.
3. Don’t Rely on One Instagram Post.
Christmas bookings are way too valuable to just post one organic post.
Your social media page should create desire and fear of missing out. Show your venue, full tables, drinks and groups actually enjoying themselves at your venue.
But when you want to reach high-value bookings, think in multiple touchpoints:
EDM → paid social → organic social → website → retargeting → direct outreach
Keep in mind that the channels don’t need to compete with each other. They need to work together.
4. Make Sure You’re Capturing More Than a Booking.
A table of 20 isn’t just 20 covers.
It might represent a company that books multiple events throughout the year.
Make sure your reservation platform helps you understand who these customers are.
Where you can, collect:
Company name
Organiser details
Group size
Type of event
Previous booking history
The value isn’t just knowing who’s coming on 25th December. It’s knowing who may need a venue again in February, June, or next December.
5. Don’t Disappear Like the Ghost of Christmas.
Christmas ends. Everyone takes a break. January arrives.
And for many venues, the relationship ends there.
It shouldn’t.
A simple post-event email thanking guests for celebrating with you, can become the start of the next booking cycle.
For corporate groups, the journey might look like:
Christmas party → team lunch → client dinner/event → EOFY function → Christmas party
You don’t need to bombard people with offers. You simply need to stay top of mind.
And if you know a customer booked a 25-person Christmas event, don’t treat them like someone who booked dinner for two. They’ve already shown they can organise a high-value group occasion, so your follow-up should reflect that with relevant events, functions and group-booking messaging.
Segmentation matters.
Christmas is just the beginning.
Big calendar moments are great at generating urgency, but the smartest hospitality marketing campaigns don’t treat them as stand-alone events.
Yes, use the season to fill the venue. However, grow your database, identify your best organisers, build corporate relationships, and give them reasons to come back.
The strongest campaign is the one that still generates bookings long after the Christmas decorations came down!
If you want to build something like this for your venue, get in touch →
