How to get more Christmas, Valentine's and occasion bookings

Start selling your big occasions earlier than feels natural, and sell them as fixed things: a set menu, set sittings, a price per head and a deposit on the large tables. Then use the December rush to sell gift vouchers that fill January and February, the weeks when those same customers stay at home.

That is the whole plan. The rest of this guide is how to run it without discounting nights that were going to be full anyway.

When should you start taking Christmas bookings?

Earlier than you think. The people who organise work parties and family get-togethers decide weeks in advance, and they book the places that already have a menu, a price and a way to say yes. The places still working out their festive menu in late November get whatever is left.

A workable order of things:

• Late summer: decide your festive set menu, the price per head, and how many sittings you can run on a Friday and Saturday in December.
• Early autumn: write your terms once (deposit, final numbers deadline, cancellation policy) and put your booking link everywhere people see you.
• Six to eight weeks out: follow up the groups that enquired and never confirmed.
• The fortnight before: confirm numbers and pre-orders, and remind everybody.

The deadline that matters most is final numbers. A party of fourteen that becomes nine on the night has cost you five covers you could have sold to somebody else.

Sell the night as a set thing, not a menu

On your busiest nights an à la carte menu works against you. Tickets land on the pass all at once, and the table you meant to turn twice turns once.

A set menu fixes the kitchen and the money at the same time. You know what to buy, you know what each cover is worth, and the price reads as an occasion rather than being compared dish by dish with your normal menu.

For Christmas, that usually means a festive set menu with a pre-order for large groups. For Valentine's Day on 14 February, it means two fixed sittings, an early one and a late one, so the room fills twice rather than once and a half. Make the early sitting worth choosing: a glass on arrival or a dessert to share does more than a discount, and it does not teach people to wait for one.

If the night is one shared experience, such as a tasting menu that every table eats at the same time, sell it as a ticket rather than a booking. A ticket is paid for when it is bought, the capacity is fixed, and the evening is costed before you shop for it. Event tickets on Mosey carry 4% commission, and the money goes to your own Stripe account as people buy.

Protect the big tables with a deposit

The most expensive no-show of the year is a big table on a Friday in December. You turned other people away for it, rostered for it, and may have bought for its pre-order.

As an example, take a table of 12 on a set menu at €50 a head. If they do not turn up, that is €600 of takings gone on a night you could have filled twice. A deposit does not need to cover the lot. It needs to make cancelling properly the easier choice. Our guide to reducing no-shows goes through where deposits earn their keep and where they only add friction.

Large bookings rarely fit a booking form, because they start as a conversation. Gatherings on Mosey runs that conversation: the customer sends the date, numbers and occasion, you reply with a quote and your terms, and when they accept, the booking lands on your floor. A gathering deposit carries 4.5% commission. The organiser can split it across the group, and each guest fills in their own dietary requirements through one shared link, so the coeliac in the party is not relayed from memory.

For ordinary reservations, the Starter plan lets you ask for a deposit on large parties or peak nights only. Reservation deposits carry no Mosey fee and reach you in full.

How do you get Valentine's bookings without discounting?

You do not need to discount Valentine's Day. The demand is there. Your job is to catch it early and protect it.

• Open bookings in January, while couples are still deciding, not the week before.
• Sell fixed sittings with a set menu, priced as an evening.
• Take a deposit or sell tickets. A two-top that does not show on Valentine's night is a table you could have sold several times.
• Lay the room out for twos. Your usual four-tops are the wrong shape for the night.
• Keep a waitlist. Somebody always cancels, and on this night somebody always wants their table.

The occasions most places forget

Christmas and Valentine's get the attention. The family occasions in spring can be worth as much, and far fewer places go after them.

Mother's Day. Here it falls in spring, well before the American date that fills social media in May. It is a lunch and brunch occasion, often for three generations at one table. A set lunch with a children's option, open for booking a month ahead, is usually all it takes.

Communions and confirmations. Communion season in late spring brings weekend family lunches for a dozen or more. These groups want a private area, a children's menu and a fixed price per head, and they book with whoever answers the enquiry first.

Christenings, graduations and big birthdays. The same shape every time: a group, a date and a budget. Have a group menu and your terms ready, and answer with a quote rather than a list of questions.

Turn December's rush into a busier January

The weeks after Christmas are quiet for most places, and the customers who packed your room in December are the ones who can fill it again in January, if you give them a reason.

Gift vouchers are the strongest tool here, because they are bought in the busy weeks and spent in the quiet ones. Put the voucher link in your posts, on your receipts and in your booking confirmations from late November, and have staff say the words when somebody asks whether you do gift cards.

As an example: sell 40 vouchers at an average of €60 and you have €2,400 in December for meals served in the new year. Bonus credit, such as pay €50 and get €60, moves people to buy now, and it costs you the food cost of the extra credit rather than its face value. Gift vouchers on Mosey carry 4.5% commission, and the customer pays the booking fee on top.

For January itself, a capped promotion on your quietest days (4.5% commission) or a Deal Hour on a few dishes with healthy margins (free to run) gives people a reason to come back before payday.

What should your occasion booking policy say?

Write it once, before the first enquiry, and attach it to every quote and confirmation. It should answer:

• How much the deposit is, and whether it comes off the bill
• When final numbers are due, and what happens if fewer people come
• How late somebody can cancel and still get the deposit back
• When dietary requirements and pre-orders are due
• Whether there is a time limit on the table

Clear terms are not unfriendly. They are what lets a customer cancel properly, and a proper cancellation is a table you can sell again.

Get your festive menu, your terms and your voucher link ready before the enquiries start. Claim your business free or See pricing.