Ho Ho How to attract early planners and boost bookings for your 2025 Christmas experiences

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How to attract early planners this Christmas and increase advance bookings in the UK

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Learn when UK visitors start booking festive experiences and how to publish availability by August to capture early planners. Boost bookings, stay visible, reduce admin.

Broad industry data shows that UK consumers begin searching terms like “Santa’s Grotto” in early July!

⏰Early planners matter more in this sector than any other

According to our Visitor Attraction Trends report, visitors book events as early as 12 weeks before the experience date. We know that early planners start searching long before most people switch into festive mode.

Give your attraction a head start by capturing the growing demographic that book weeks (and often months) in advance.

If a family go ahead and book with your competitor in August, you’ve lost that customer (and potentially all their friends)!

In this blog, we explore how to attract early planners, unlock more advance bookings, and streamline operations to reduce admin.

🎄Planning ahead

The core holiday period for this year, when UK families are available for activities, will be December 21st, 2025 through January 5th, 2026.

When you publish early, incentivise wisely, and automate effectively, you:

✅ Gain predictable cash flow well before peak season

✅ Increase opportunities to upsell extras and stay visible in search

✅ Spend less on advertising, as word of mouth will have time to build

✅ Free your team to focus on experience delivery, not admin

✅ Keep your event in the spotlight and on your audience’s radar

🏆Optimise your listings for early decision‑makers

Those booking early often are social leaders making group decisions, whether for family, corporate, or community groups. They need clarity and confidence to commit months in advance. What you need is an intuitive, user-friendly booking platform that is easy for both customers and staff to navigate. Here is what we recommend:

Visual storytelling with high-quality images that evoke a visitor experience. Beyonk knows that Video works (uplift of 21% of experiences with video compared to non-video shop fronts.

A front and centre ‘Book now’ button on your website

Full transparency around pricing, availability windows, FAQs, and group policies

Mobile-optimised checkout for planners researching on the go

Links to book from your social pages and email campaigns

Clear cancellation or rescheduling policies to reduce booking friction

Use price variations to highlight peak and off peak days - a great way to fill slots before the school holidays

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Top tip: make sure you test your customer journey as well as the information in the backend

🦃Use early-bird incentives to create urgency

Offers that reward advance booking can be highly effective:

Set up limited early-bird pricing available for guests committing 8–12 weeks ahead

Value add-ons (now with images), such as complimentary upgrades or festive extras for early bookings - (think hot chocolate, reindeer food, letter from Santa)

Tiered packages that layer benefits as the booking window closes

Adjust capacity per timeslot if you want to sell certain dates first

If strict capacity limits are not a concern for your experience then consider selling an amount of any-day tickets (great for ice rinks, light shows, Christmas markets)

Use limited validity discount codes to bring a flurry of bookings - an effective way to get the booking ball rolling

These strategies can take a bit more time to implement, but with Christmas offering one of the highest revenue opportunities of the year it's worth the time investment.

Once you have a certain batch of confirmed bookings, you have more time to engage with guests with pre-arrival communication, which boosts revenue and reduces last-minute admin.

🥳 Promote early availability across your socials and community

Publishing early is only half the battle; now you need to spread the words, and the words are “book now!”

Announce opening dates across social media and email campaigns (“Now booking for November and December!” include a booking link with UTM for tracking

Launch a competition to win free tickets on your FB page, ping all your followers by using @followers in your post

Give a family ticket as a prize to local schools/group (using a fixed amount discount code)

Feature early availability messaging prominently on your homepage or banners

Leverage your existing community, use email to reach early planners searching far in advance, include a booking link with UTM and track sales in Beyonk

Once your tickets are launched, add a booking link to your general admission custom emails to promote (free of charge!) to customers who already know you

Some of our largest providers have seen great success by inviting influencers to a soft / VIP launch in return for great content - start building those relationships now

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Top tip: Not ready to publish just yet? You can still get the word out! Have your lead graphic up with a ‘Tickets Coming Soon’ banner before you publish your schedule. But don’t wait too long, Beyonk’s biggest providers are already selling!!

✍🏻Automate your comms to reduce admin and scale ahead

Handling early bookings shouldn't mean more spreadsheets or phone queries. Our partners consistently report reduced admin by up to 75% thanks to automatic reminders, guest self‑serve tools, clear booking policies and integrated availability across platforms. The goal is to ensure your early bookers stay informed without extra workload.

Set up self-serve by experience for your guests to manage their own bookings

Automated confirmations and reminders that keep both guests and teams aligned

🧑🏽‍🎄Be inspired

Destination at Lakeside

Magical Woodland - live since July

Lancaster Animal Park & Farm - live since July

Ready to capture the early‑planner audience?

Just ask Arnie if you need help with setting up, or request a call with your account manager via support@beyonk.com