Demand is high-but profitability isn’t guaranteed. Here’s how to make peak season work harder for your hotel.
December is peak season across the Middle East and Africa-and not just for travel. It’s when guest demand surges and the opportunity to drive profit is highest. But in 2025, full rooms alone won’t cut it. Rising costs mean hoteliers need to focus on more than occupancy-they need to focus on return.
With rising costs across labor, energy, and distribution, hoteliers across MEA are shifting focus from revenue to return. The question isn’t how full your hotel is, it’s how profitable each guest is.
Hotels that succeed this season won’t just fill rooms. They’ll create meaningful guest experiences that drive measurable business outcomes. That starts with understanding guest motivation and knowing how to act on it at the right time.
1. Guest Intent Shifts Before Arrival
Most guests don’t make all their spending decisions when they book.At first, they’re focused on price. But about three weeks before arrival, priorities change. That’s when they start thinking about how to make the stay more comfortable, convenient, or memorable.
This window of intent is especially valuable in December, when many guests are traveling for special occasions, family gatherings, or milestone holidays.
Signals like loyalty status, previous upgrades, or even just opening an upsell email can indicate a shift from saving to spending. Hotels that recognize and act on these cues can turn interest into incremental revenue.
2. Timing Matters: Send the Right Offer at the Right Time
Guest motivation evolves before, during, and after check-in. Your upsell strategy should follow the same arc:Before arrival: The planning stage. Offers like dining packages, room upgrades, and spa services perform well. Email is effective here, especially when backed by behavioral data.
At check-in: Confidence peaks. This is the time for comfort-focused offers-better views, higher floors, or quieter rooms.
During the stay: Convenience takes over. Think late check-outs, private dining, or on-demand amenities. Surface these via SMS or app.
Plusgrade’s 2024 guest survey found upsell conversion jumps by 20-48% depending on the upsell type when timed closer to arrival (Plusgrade Global Hospitality (& Rail) Ancillary Study, 2024). This is where a layered strategy pays off.
3. Personalization Pays Off-Even in Peak Season
Personalization doesn’t have to be complex.A loyalty member who prefers suites? Offer a layout upgrade before they ask. A family arriving early? Suggest bundled early check-in with breakfast. A solo business traveler? Highlight a quiet room and flexible check-out.
The strongest programs don’t rely on assumptions. They use booking data, travel context, and guest behavior to make offers feel timely and personalized. This kind of targeting isn’t just nice to have-it drives action.
But it requires automation. In fact, 37% of hoteliers say they struggle to personalize guest communications (Plusgrade Hotelier Research Report, May 2025).
Attribute-based selling (ABS) makes it easier to match offers to preferences without adding work for staff.
Technology doesn’t dilute the personal touch. In reality, automation handles the logic, matching the right offer to the right guest, so your staff can focus on delivering the hospitality.
4. Look Beyond Revenue: Track What Drives Performance
Top-performing hotels in MEA don’t just track upsell revenue. They monitor:TRevPAR and GOPPAR
Guest engagement: opens, conversions, repeat purchases
Operational impact: staff load, inventory usage
These insights inform staffing, inventory planning, and guest communications.
If a specific offer consistently drives volume, teams can adjust housekeeping schedules or inventory accordingly. Upselling isn’t separate from the guest experience; it’s part of delivering it.
5. Frictionless Offers Perform Best
Peak season is demanding. Complexity slows teams down.It's telling that 38% of hoteliers struggle with integrating ancillary revenue tools into their existing systems (Plusgrade Hotelier Research, May 2025). The most effective offers are those that integrate easily into existing workflows and don’t require added effort from staff or guests.
Hotels seeing the strongest results prioritize offers that are operationally light but guest-relevant.
That could mean promoting underutilized inventory, offering paid amenities during high-demand time slots, or packaging high-margin services into simple, one-click options in the guest journey.
Look for patterns in your data: which offers convert smoothly, without guest hesitation? Those are your low-friction wins. Build on them.
December delivers demand. But demand alone doesn’t drive profit.
This season, the real gains will come from hotels that align with guest intent, layer their timing, and personalize their approach. Not by pushing more offers, but by making every interaction count.
When guests feel seen, service feels intuitive. And when upsells are built into the journey, not bolted on, everyone wins.
December is just the beginning. As hoteliers plan for 2026, these guest-centered strategies offer more than seasonal upside-they build a more resilient, experience-led revenue model for the long term.
Explore how guest-centered strategies can boost returns this season and beyond at plusgrade.com.
