Christmas and New Year pricing: a checklist for small UK hotels

Open your Christmas and New Year rates now, in October. Price New Year’s Eve as a compression night: a rate well above a normal Saturday, a two-night minimum, a deposit and firmer cancellation terms. Price Christmas around packages rather than room-only rates, and treat the quiet days between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve as nights to sell with a reason, not a discount.

The rest of this post goes night by night, then works through New Year’s Eve for a 24-room hotel, and ends with a dated checklist.

Why does this matter in October?

Because the guests who book festive stays plan early. Couples booking a New Year break, families booking Christmas lunch with a room, groups planning a reunion: many of them book in October and November. If your calendar shows nothing for those dates, or shows last year’s rates, you either lose them or sell to them too cheaply.

The lead time for New Year’s Eve is unusually long. The rooms that are left in mid-December are the ones you should be charging most for.

How does each night behave?

The calendar below is for 2026. Christmas Day falls on a Friday, so Boxing Day is a Saturday and the substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December. New Year’s Eve is a Thursday.

• 23 and 24 December (Wednesday, Thursday). Travel nights. Hotels near family homes, airports and town centres do well; rural and coastal leisure hotels are often quiet. Price close to a normal midweek and do not expect a premium.
• Christmas Day (Friday 25th). Many small hotels close, or sell only a Christmas package: a room for two or three nights with Christmas lunch or dinner included. Room-only demand is low.
• Boxing Day (Saturday 26th). Sport, walks, family visits. A reasonable Saturday at many hotels, especially near racecourses or grounds with a fixture. Price it like a good winter Saturday.
• 27 to 30 December. The dead days. Demand is thin and mostly leisure. A three-night break with a dinner included sells better than a lower room rate.
• New Year’s Eve (Thursday 31st). The festive compression night. Hotels in towns with a party, a fireworks display or a gala dinner usually fill. Price it well above a summer Saturday and protect the last rooms.
• 1 January (Friday). A check-out day. Quiet as a single night, which is why a two-night minimum on New Year’s Eve helps.
• 2 January (Saturday). In Scotland the 2 January bank holiday moves to Monday 4 January in 2027, so Scottish hotels have a long weekend that runs to the Monday. Elsewhere it is an ordinary Saturday, often the end of a short holiday weekend.

How should you set it up?

1. Set New Year’s Eve first. A room-only rate, a dinner-and-room package if you serve food, a two-night minimum for any stay that includes the 31st.
2. Decide what Christmas is at your hotel. Closed, room-only at a normal rate, or a package. If a package, two or three nights, with what included, at what price per room.
3. Build a break for the dead days. Three nights between 27 and 30 December, a dinner on one night, priced per stay.
4. Set your terms. A deposit and a cancellation date for New Year’s Eve and Christmas packages. Common practice is a non-refundable deposit of one night, or full payment four to six weeks before arrival. Write them plainly on the booking page and in the confirmation. This is common practice, not legal advice.
5. Load it everywhere at once. The same rates and restrictions on your website, your agents and your channel manager, so you keep rate parity.
6. Plan your steps. Decide now at what number of rooms left you will raise New Year’s Eve, and by how much.

A worked example: New Year’s Eve at our 24-room hotel

Our example hotel has 24 rooms on the Welsh coast, sells around £110 a night midweek in autumn and £165 on a summer Saturday, and takes about 40% of its bookings through online travel agents. These numbers are illustrative.

Last year it did what many small hotels do. It opened New Year’s Eve at £180, room-only, with no minimum stay and flexible terms. It sold out by mid-November. The 30th sold 9 rooms at £85; the 1st sold 6 rooms at £85.

Last year	Rooms	Rate	Revenue
30 December	9	£85	£765
31 December	24	£180	£4,320
1 January	6	£85	£510
Total			£5,595

Selling out six weeks early on the year’s clearest compression night meant it sold too cheaply. Three cancellations in December, on flexible terms, were then resold in a rush at the same rate.

This year it opens in October with a two-night minimum for any stay that includes the 31st, a one-night non-refundable deposit, and three price steps for the 31st: £195 for the first 8 rooms, £220 for the next 10, £245 for the last 6. The other night of each stay is priced at £95.

Say 14 rooms come for the 30th and 31st, and 10 for the 31st and 1st. Four more rooms sell the 1st on its own, at £85.

This year	Rooms	Rate	Revenue
30 December	14	£95	£1,330
31 December	8 / 10 / 6	£195 / £220 / £245	£5,230
1 January	10 / 4	£95 / £85	£1,290
Total			£7,850

That is £2,255 more over three nights, and 14 rooms sold on each of the 30th and the 1st instead of 9 and 6. About 40% of the extra arrives through the agents and pays commission; the OTA commission calculator shows what that takes off. Either way, the hotel ends well ahead.

What should you watch out for?

• Minimum stays that cannot be lifted. Review them in mid-December. Two rooms left on the 31st with a two-night minimum is worse than two rooms sold for one night at a high rate.
• Packages priced below the room. Add up what is included. A dinner, breakfast and a glass of something at the door cost more than they seem.
• Terms nobody reads. State the deposit and cancellation terms on the booking page and in the confirmation email, not only in small print.
• Different rates on different channels. A guest who finds you cheaper elsewhere books there.
• Forgetting the agents’ restrictions. A minimum stay set on your website but not passed to the agents is not a minimum stay.

The checklist, with dates

• By 31 October: New Year’s Eve rates, minimum stay and terms loaded on every channel. Christmas decision made. Dead-days break built.
• First week of November: packages on your website with photos and a clear price per stay. Email past guests who stayed last Christmas or New Year.
• Mid-November: compare New Year’s Eve pickup with the same point last year, and check what the hotels around you are charging. Take your first step up if you are ahead.
• 1 December: review every festive night. Lift Christmas package prices if they are selling, adjust the break if it is not.
• Mid-December: review minimum stays. Lift them for the last rooms on the 31st if needed. Chase outstanding deposits.
• Christmas week: sell the last rooms at the last step, not below it.

What next?

Open your calendar today and put New Year’s Eve 2026 on sale, with a minimum stay and a deposit, before the end of the month. Our guide on how to price hotel rooms covers the price steps in more detail. If you want to see what the hotels around you are charging for the 31st as the date gets closer, you can try RatePulse for 14 days.