Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, which gives hotels a natural three-night festive break from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 December. Guests are already searching: “christmas hotel breaks” gets about 480 UK searches a month and “hotel christmas packages” about 390. The hotels that win those bookings usually have a clear package, a priced offer, and a page guests can book from.
This guide shows how to build a hotel Christmas package, price it so it makes money, follow the UK rules, and promote it from now until Boxing Day. It builds on our guides to increasing direct hotel bookings, hotel email marketing and Google Business Profile for hotels.
Quick answer
A good hotel Christmas package is easy to understand, priced above your floor cost, and sold from its own page on your website. Include the room, one or two festive meals, breakfast, and one small extra. Show the total price from the start, check whether any spa or ticket element makes it a regulated package, and promote it to past guests first. Launch this week, then keep a fresh late offer running through December.
1. What guests are searching for, and when they book
How to build, price and promote hotel Christmas packages that fill rooms from now until Boxing Day. |
Festive searches are mostly for breaks, packages, and a meal at the hotel. Demand for hotel stays in the UK is real, but the volumes are modest, so every well-presented page counts.
| Search term (UK) | Monthly searches | Difficulty | What the guest wants |
|---|---|---|---|
| christmas hotel breaks | 480 | 4 | A stay over Christmas, often 2 or 3 nights |
| hotel christmas packages | 390 | 5 | A priced bundle with meals included |
| christmas hotel deals | 140 | 12 | A discount or a clear added extra |
| hotel christmas lunch | 90 | 15 | A meal at the hotel, with or without a room |
| christmas break uk hotel | 70 | 14 | A UK break, usually comparing destinations |
Late booking is common. Dojo Bookings data for UK restaurants and pubs, reported in December 2025, showed Christmas Day bookings made before December up 4% on the year, Christmas party bookings (made in December) down 1%, and the week starting 8 December taking 34% of festive bookings. Dojo’s head of insights said many customers may still be booking late (Morning Advertiser, 11 December 2025). Two limits apply: the data covers last year and venues that use Dojo, not hotels as a group.
What this means for a hotel: do not wait for a perfect package. Publish a clear one now and keep adding offers as December gets closer.
2. Six hotel Christmas packages that work
Pick two or three, not all six. A small number of clear packages sells better than a long menu of options.
| Package | What is in it | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Christmas break (2 to 3 nights) | Room, Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day lunch, breakfast | Couples, families and guests travelling alone | Kitchen capacity and staffing on 25 December |
| Christmas lunch at the hotel (no room) | Hotel christmas lunch with a welcome drink | Local residents and families | Table turns and seating times |
| Boxing Day and between-the-years break (26 to 30 December) | Room, breakfast, one dinner, late checkout | Guests who want a quieter stay | A cut-off date and minimum nights |
| New Year’s Eve stay | Room, gala dinner or live music, breakfast on 1 January | Couples and friend groups | Licensing, entertainment cost and late checkout |
| Christmas party and overnight | Party menu, room and breakfast for a group | Local firms and friend groups | Set minimum numbers and a deposit |
| Festive gift: stay voucher | A voucher for a stay or package, valid to a set date | Gift buyers | Expiry, terms and redemption rules |
For restaurant-led offers such as party menus, use our Christmas playbook for restaurants and pubs, and for events enquiries see LinkedIn Ads for hospitality.
3. How to price a Christmas package so it makes money
Start from the lowest price you can accept, then price to the market. The example below is an illustration to show the method, not a benchmark. Use your own costs.
| Step | What to work out | Illustration only |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Food and drink cost | Cost to you of the festive meals included, for two guests | £38 |
| 2. Room cost | Cleaning, laundry, breakfast and utilities, per night, times nights | £22 x 2 nights = £44 |
| 3. Extra staffing | Extra shifts or premium pay linked to this package, per booking | £20 |
| 4. Floor price | Add steps 1 to 3 | £38 + £44 + £20 = £102 |
| 5. Market price | Check what similar local hotels charge for the same dates, then price to the value you offer | Your own figure |
- Do not discount below your floor price to fill a room. A full room that loses money is not a win.
- Price per room or per person, not both. Mixed pricing confuses guests and causes disputes.
- Add supplements as options only if guests choose them, such as a sea-view room. Do not add them later in the booking.
- Set minimum nights, deposits and a clear cut-off date, and write them on the package page.
To see whether the effort pays back, follow the approach in our guide to analysing your marketing ROI.
4. What to include and what to leave out
- Include: the number of nights, exact dates, check-in and check-out times, the festive meals, what each meal includes, and the total price.
- Include one small extra that costs little and is easy to explain, such as a welcome drink, late checkout, or a Christmas morning treat in the room.
- Say what is extra: drinks with dinner, parking, spa treatments, and dogs.
- Say who it suits: families, couples, guests travelling alone, and dogs, if you welcome them.
- Give accessibility details: step-free access, lift, accessible rooms, and dietary options.
- Leave out anything you cannot deliver on 25 December. Short staffing turns a promise into a bad review.
Reviews decide many festive bookings, so plan how you will ask happy guests for one on 27 December. Our guide to hotel reputation management shows how.
Want your hotel to fill December without discounting?
ThisRapt works exclusively with UK hospitality SMEs on search, AI visibility and direct bookings. Book a free consultation to see where your hotel stands today.
5. UK rules to check before you publish
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Take advice for your own offers.
Show the full price. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act bans drip pricing, which means adding compulsory charges late in the booking process. The CMA can fine up to £300,000 or 10% of global turnover, whichever is higher (Taylor Wessing summary). Show the total price from the first price you display.
Check whether it is a regulated package. Government guidance says meals are usually part of the accommodation. A stay can count as a package if it includes another service, such as spa treatments or tickets, that is advertised as essential or is a significant part of the value (the guidance gives about 25% as a rule of thumb). Extra duties then apply (Package Travel Regulations 2018 guidance).
- Make deposits and cancellation terms clear before the guest pays. Unclear or one-sided terms cause complaints and disputes.
- Give allergen information for festive menus, and train staff to answer allergy questions accurately.
- Check availability honestly. Do not say that rooms are nearly sold out unless that is true.
- Describe the offer accurately. Photos, rooms, and menus should match what the guest receives.
6. How to promote hotel Christmas packages
Direct bookings keep more margin, so make your own website the easiest place to book.
- Give every package its own page with the price, dates, what is included, availability, and a booking button.
- Email past guests first. They already know you, and the first two weeks matter most.
- Update your Google Business Profile with the offer, festive photos, and opening times for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
- Post real photos and short videos of rooms, the dining room, and the tree. Guests book places they can picture.
- Add a small direct-booking benefit, such as late checkout or a welcome drink, so guests have a reason to book with you rather than a booking site.
- Consider a small local ad budget aimed at nearby towns for “Christmas hotel deals”. UK click prices for these terms are about 50p, so a test is affordable.
Write the package page so AI tools can quote it: a clear first paragraph, a price table, and an FAQ. Our guides to GEO for hotels and ChatGPT prompts for hotels show how, including prompts to draft the page and emails.
7. A week-by-week plan to Boxing Day
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Week of 26 October | Choose two or three packages, work out the floor price, set terms. Publish the package pages and a booking button. |
| Week of 2 November | Email past guests. Update your Google Business Profile. Add the packages to your homepage. |
| Week of 9 November | Post photos and video. Start a small local ad test. Ask for local press or blog listings. |
| Week of 23 November | Promote stay vouchers as gifts for Black Friday week (27 November). Review the first bookings and adjust. |
| December | Replace sold-out packages with short, specific late offers. Keep availability honest and update daily. |
| 26 to 31 December | Promote the between-the-years break and New Year’s Eve stay. Ask guests for reviews as they leave. |
8. Common mistakes to avoid
- Launching too many packages, so guests cannot choose and staff cannot deliver.
- Hiding the total price until checkout.
- Selling Christmas Day without checking kitchen and staff capacity.
- Discounting below cost to fill rooms.
- Relying only on booking sites, so margin goes to commission.
- Forgetting to track bookings by channel, so you cannot tell what worked.
Key takeaways
- Guests search for festive stays now: about 480 UK searches a month for “Christmas hotel breaks” and 390 for “hotel Christmas packages”.
- Launch this week and keep promoting. Late booking is common in December.
- Pick two or three packages and price from your floor cost, not from a discount.
- Show the total price from the start, and check whether spa or ticket extras make it a regulated package.
- Sell direct first: a package page, an email to past guests, and an updated Google Business Profile.
- Track bookings by channel and compare with last year.
Sources:
Dojo Bookings data in Morning Advertiser (11 December 2025);
Package Travel Regulations 2018 guidance, GOV.UK;
Taylor Wessing on drip pricing under the DMCC Act; keyword volumes from SE Ranking (UK, October 2026).
Turn festive demand into direct bookings
Your package page, emails and Google Business Profile can work together to bring guests straight to you. ThisRapt can help you plan and run it.
9. Frequently asked questions
Keep it simple and easy to price: the room, one or two festive meals (such as Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas Day lunch), breakfast, and one small extra such as an arrival drink or late checkout. Say clearly what is not included, such as drinks with dinner, and state the number of nights and the dates.
As early as possible, and it is not too late now. Late demand is common: Dojo Bookings data for UK venues in December 2025 showed Christmas party bookings, which are made in December, down 1% on the year while Christmas Day bookings made before December were up 4%, and Dojo’s head of insights said many guests may still be booking late. Launch the page now, then keep promoting through December with the rooms that remain.
Start from your floor price: the food and drink cost, the extra cost of selling the room, and any extra staffing. Then price to what guests in your market will pay, and compare with local hotels for the same dates. Do not discount below your floor just to fill rooms. Show one total price per room or per person, with everything compulsory included.
Yes. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act bans drip pricing, which means adding compulsory fees late in the booking process. Show the total price that a guest must pay, including any mandatory service charge or supplement, from the first price you display. This is general information, not legal advice.
Often not, but check. Government guidance says meals are usually part of the accommodation. A stay can become a package if it includes another travel service, such as spa treatments or tickets to an event, that is advertised as an essential feature or is a significant share of the value (the guidance gives about 25% as a rule of thumb). If it does, extra duties apply. This is general information, so take advice for your own packages.
Give each package its own page on your website with the price, dates and a booking button. Email past guests, update your Google Business Profile with the offer, and post photos of the real rooms and menus. Add a small direct-booking benefit such as late checkout or a welcome drink, so guests have a reason to book with you.
Create a short, specific late offer, such as a Boxing Day or between-Christmas-and-New-Year stay, and promote it to past guests and local residents. Use short booking windows, a clear cut-off date and honest availability. Do not claim that rooms are almost sold out unless that is true.
Track the number of package bookings, the direct share of them, average revenue per booking, food and drink spend per room, and the cost of the marketing behind them. Use a different tracking link for each channel so you can see which one produced bookings, and compare with the same weeks last year.
