Things looking up for hospitality over Christmas period

 New figures from leading hospitality technology supplier Zonal reveal that reservations for the month of December are already up by over 40% on 2022 and that bookings for Christmas Day itself are up a whopping 59%.The data suggests that, despite the cost-of-living-crisis, the crucial festive season is looking positive for the hospitality sector.

Commenting, Olivia FitzGerald, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Zonal, said: “The increase in Christmas Day bookings is very welcome news for the industry and it’s great that people are keen to spend time in their favourite venues to celebrate. Whilst bookings are up, we’re conscious that people’s plans change and we’re keen to ensure that people can easily amend or cancel their bookings so that hospitality venues don’t suffer no-shows, especially at this important time of the year. The impact of no-shows could be costly but we hope that our #ShowUpForHospitality campaign raises awareness amongst consumers about the importance of honouring a booking and supports the industry in helping them to mitigate the impact of this occurring.”

No-shows doubled in the last year so it’s imperative that operators have booking systems in place that make it easy for customers to cancel if their plans change. The latest figures from Zonal’s #ShowUpForHospitality campaign, show no-shows creeping up from 6% to 12% over the last 12-months – at a cost of £17.59bn a year to the industry.

Operators that have implemented booking systems that send out automatic reminders and confirmation communications and which make it easy for customers to cancel or amend their bookings will be best placed to minimise the risk of people simply not turning up for reservations, during this key sales period.

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