Christmas is one of the busiest — and most unpredictable — periods for hotels. Demand spikes suddenly, guests compare more aggressively across OTAs, and small operational delays can quickly snowball into lost revenue. This year, the surge is even more noticeable: hotel bookings for the days leading up to Christmas (Dec 21–25) are up 22% year-over-year, according to SiteMinder data shared with Hotel Dive.
With so many travellers searching for festive stays, hotels have a tremendous opportunity — but only if their distribution, pricing, and policies are aligned. In this guide, we’ll break down how hotels can increase holiday bookings using smarter technology, dynamic festive pricing, and strategies that keep you visible and competitive across all channels.
Key Takeaways
- Real-Time Sync Over Manual Updates: Manual OTA updates increase the risk of overbookings, while real-time syncing ensures accurate availability across all channels during peak demand.
- Dynamic Pricing Over Static Rates: Static pricing falls short during volatile festive periods; automated dynamic pricing helps hotels stay competitive and maximise revenue based on real-time demand.
- Consistent Packages Over Fragmented Offers: Festive deals convert best when displayed uniformly across OTAs, and the booking engine — something manual workflows often fail to maintain.
- Data-Driven Decisions Over Guesswork: Holiday booking patterns shift rapidly, making demand forecasting and performance analytics essential for confident pricing and distribution decisions.
- Tech-Enabled Control Over Seasonal Chaos: A channel manager like AxisRooms gives hotels centralised visibility, faster updates, and stronger festive performance — reducing the operational strain of Christmas week.
Why Hotels Struggle to Increase Holiday Bookings During Christmas
Even with rising demand, Christmas brings a unique set of challenges. Global hotel occupancy for the Christmas and New Year period is up 4% year over year, according to Amadeus Demand360. Higher demand attracts more guests — but also creates intense pressure across distribution and pricing.
Here’s what makes December difficult:
• Overbookings from rapid OTA activity - Guests book faster, OTAs run aggressive promotions, and manual updates can’t keep up. Even a few minutes of delay can cause duplicate reservations.
• High cancellation rates - Festive plans change frequently — especially with group travellers and families — leaving unpredictable gaps in your inventory.
• Rate mismatches across channels - If teams update every OTA manually, festive rates become inconsistent, affecting both visibility and conversion.
• Limited visibility during peak searches - Competitors push Christmas deals faster, making hotels with slower updates appear lower in OTA search results.
• Packages not displaying correctly across channels - Holiday bundles tend to break when distributed manually, causing confusion for guests and teams.
These challenges make it harder for hotels to maximise festive bookings — unless their technology automates distribution and pricing in real time.
How Technology Helps Hotels Increase Festive Bookings
Technology is the single biggest differentiator for hotels trying to keep up with Christmas demand. With automated distribution, dynamic pricing, and real-time syncing, hotels can respond to festive spikes without rushing behind the scenes.
Manual Christmas Operations vs Tech-Enabled Operations
A quick comparison shows how drastically technology improves festive performance:
Automation doesn’t just simplify workloads — it directly increases festive bookings by maintaining visibility, accuracy, and competitiveness.
What Is Dynamic Festive Pricing?
Dynamic festive pricing helps hotels adjust room rates in real time based on Christmas demand, booking pace, competitor pricing, and occupancy forecasts. Instead of manually changing rates across OTAs, hotels rely on automated pricing rules to stay competitive during fast-moving holiday periods.
Industry experts highlight how powerful this approach is for peak seasons. As Michael McCartan notes: “With dynamic pricing, hotels can lay down the long stays to establish a solid base of business, then start plugging the gaps with the more expensive, one-night stays. It’s like playing Tetris, but with the advantage that you can see what size blocks of demand are coming through beforehand.”
Why Dynamic Pricing Improves Festive Bookings
Dynamic pricing isn’t optional during Christmas — it’s essential for maximising festive revenue.
How AxisRooms Helps Hotels Manage Christmas Demand
AxisRooms gives hotels full control over their festive distribution, pricing, and channel performance. With real-time automation, teams can respond instantly to Christmas demand spikes without manual intervention.
- Channel Manager with real-time OTA integrations: Syncs rates and availability instantly across all OTAs to prevent overbookings and improve festive visibility.
- Web Booking Engine for higher direct conversions: Offers a fast, mobile-friendly path for guests to book Christmas packages and add-ons directly.
- PMS Integration for consistent festive packages: Ensures Christmas rate plans and inclusions stay uniform across your website, OTAs, and internal systems.
- Revenue Management Service for dynamic festive pricing: Automates rate adjustments based on demand spikes, competitor shifts, and booking pace during Christmas week.
- Forecasting & analytics for confident decisions: Provides demand trends and pacing insights to help hotels optimise festive pricing and distribution.
AxisRooms ensures hotels remain competitive, visible, and profitable — even when festive booking patterns shift hour by hour.
Marketing Strategies That Increase Festive Bookings
While technology strengthens your backend, marketing builds demand on the front end. These strategies help hotels drive more visibility during Christmas:
- Festive landing pages featuring limited-time offers
- Geo-targeted ads for couples, families, or travellers
- Social media reels and festive visuals
- Email promotions with personalised Christmas deals
- Retargeting ads for bounced searchers
- Gift voucher promotions for stays or guest experiences
Packages & Add-Ons That Boost Conversions
Guests book faster when offers feel warm, clear, and experience-led. High-performing festive packages include:
- Family Christmas Bundles: stays + brunch + kids’ activities
- Couple Packages: dinner + late checkout + décor upgrades
- Staycation Bundles: 2–3 night stays + festive dinners
- Dinner + Stay Packages: ideal for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve
- Local Experience Add-ons: market tickets, live music, winter experiences
Clear inclusions and consistent pricing across all channels help these travel packages convert more effectively.
Operational Enhancements to Increase Holiday Bookings
To support your festive strategy, ensure your operational setup is ready:
- Flexible festive cancellation policies
- Smooth mobile-friendly direct booking experience
- Consistent rate parity across channels
- Upselling prompts during booking
- Instant confirmation emails
- Accurate room mapping across OTAs
These changes help hotels convert more guests while delivering a pleasant holiday experience.
FAQs
Q1-How can hotels increase holiday bookings during the Christmas season?
A-Hotels can increase festive bookings by improving OTA visibility, enabling real-time inventory updates, using dynamic pricing, and maintaining consistent festive packages across channels. Technology-driven distribution ensures faster updates and higher ranking on OTAs during peak searches.
Q2-Why do overbookings happen more frequently during Christmas?
A-During Christmas week, OTAs experience rapid booking spikes, and manual updates cannot keep up. When room availability isn’t synced instantly across platforms, duplicate bookings occur. A channel manager eliminates this by updating inventory in real time on all connected OTAs.
Q3-What is dynamic festive pricing, and why is it important?
A-Dynamic festive pricing adjusts room rates automatically based on demand, competitor rates, booking pace, and occupancy forecasts. It helps hotels maximise revenue on high-demand dates and stay competitive during slower festive periods — without manual intervention.
Q4-How do festive packages impact Christmas booking conversions?
A-Packages outperform standard rates because Christmas travellers look for bundled experiences: dinner, décor, activities, early check-ins, and added value. When packages are clearly displayed across OTAs and the booking engine, they significantly boost click-through and conversion rates.
Q5-How can hotels reduce cancellations during the holiday season?
A-Hotels can reduce cancellations by using automated reminders, offering flexible policies, applying festive-specific rules, and monitoring booking pace to anticipate cancellation trends. With a channel manager, any reopened rooms become instantly available across all channels.
Q6-How does AxisRooms help hotels increase Christmas bookings?
A-AxisRooms supports hotels with real-time OTA syncing, dynamic pricing automation, package distribution, cancellation management, and performance insights. These capabilities help hotels stay competitive, visible, and profitable throughout the Christmas season — even during unpredictable demand spikes.
Way Forward
Christmas offers hotels a powerful opportunity — but only if distribution, pricing, and operations move as fast as guest demand. With dynamic pricing, real-time OTA syncing, and consistent festive packages, hotels can increase holiday bookings while reducing chaos behind the scenes.
Want to increase your festive bookings with confidence? Book a free demo today to explore how AxisRooms’ Channel Manager keeps your Christmas distribution fast, accurate, and holiday-ready.