In Brief: The article outlines methods for hotel sales teams to attract and secure holiday group business before formal RFPs are issued, emphasizing early outreach, targeted marketing, and relationship-building to maximize occupancy and revenue during the competitive holiday period.
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Win More Holiday Business Before the RFP Hits Your Inbox – Image Credit Cendyn
Corporate holiday parties don’t work like other group business. Planners start later, decide faster, and book on tighter windows than almost any other segment. Nearly half of all meetings bookings now happen for events within the same calendar year, according to Cendyn and ConferenceDirect’s 2025 State of the Meetings Industry report. For a December event, that means the RFP could land in your inbox in October and be signed by November.
The upside: budgets are there. The FCM Meetings & Events 2026 Trends Report found 92% of organizations expect their meetings and events budgets to hold steady or grow this year, with 35% planning increases north of 10%. But winning that business takes more than a good holiday package. It takes knowing where demand is forming, which accounts are most likely to book, and how to get in front of planners before the short list is already set.
Here’s how to get there.
#1 Stop waiting for the RFP to find you
By the time a holiday party lead hits your inbox, three other properties already have it too. The fix is finding the account before it becomes an RFP at all.
Knowland’s AI-powered search helps sales teams find accounts that match the opportunity they’re chasing, using plain language prompts like: “corporate holiday events in [market] over the past two years.” Save the search, schedule it, and let new matches surface automatically instead of hoping the right lead lands on your desk at the right time.
#2 Focus on the industries most likely to book
Not every industry treats the holiday party the same way, and the mix shifts year to year. Rather than guessing who’s likely to book, use Market Snapshot to understand which Top 10 industries are driving demand for the quarter. If Financial Services and Technology are trending up in your market and Retail is trending down, that tells you exactly where to point your prospecting list, instead of sending the same generic pitch to every account in your CRM.
#3 See which competitors are winning the business
If a competitor down the street booked five holiday parties last week and you booked zero, that points to a visibility gap worth investigating. Knowland’s Weekly Calendar shows what’s booking across your competitive set , so you can see which accounts chose another property, and decide where follow-up is needed. Sometimes it’s rate. Sometimes it’s availability. And sometimes it’s simply that another property got in front of the planner first.
#4 Personalize the pitch, because generic loses
A holiday party planner juggling five venues at once isn’t reading a form email twice. Before you send anything, look at the account’s booking history: which brands, venues, and locations they’ve chosen before, the size of events they typically run, and whether your property or competitive set has intersected with their business before. That’s the difference between “we’d love to host your event” and “we noticed you’ve hosted your last three holiday parties in ballrooms our size, and we have three dates open in your window.” Only one of those earns a callback.
#5 Give every lead an owner, before the calendar fills up
Holiday season moves fast enough that an unassigned lead is a lost lead. Assign every prospective account to a specific seller as soon as it surfaces, and use Knowland’s Account Alerts to get notified when that account shows new meeting activity in your market. The longer a lead sits unowned, the more time another property has to win the business.
#6 Bonus: don’t let the party end when the music does
A holiday party can be the first signal of a bigger account opportunity. The same company may also host trainings, team-building events, leadership meetings, or larger conferences throughout the year. Use Knowland to understand the account’s meeting history, spot potential crossover business, and build offers that make it easy to come back, whether that means multi-event incentives, planner rewards, or packaging the holiday party with a future meeting need. The goal is to turn one seasonal booking into the start of the next conversation.
The properties that win holiday party season aren’t scrambling at the last minute. They see the demand early, focus on the right accounts, and get in front of planners before the competition does.
About Cendyn
Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to Find, Book, Grow – driving revenue, maximizing profitability, and creating deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions.
Serving hoteliers for nearly 30 years, Cendyn has over 32,000 customers in more than 150 countries including brands Outrigger Hospitality, Hyatt, IHG, Aman Resorts & Hotels, Relais & Châteaux, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Coraltree Hospitality, and Onyx Hospitality Group – generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base with offices across the globe.
To find out more, visit cendyn.com.
