Holidays in hostels

What does your hostel do for holidays?

Full House or Empty Nest?
For some hostels holidays are busy times with celebrating guests. For other hostels holidays are almost empty because all of the guests are home with their families. What’s the situation in your hostel? If your occupancy is traditionally low, do you stay open for just a few guests or do you close?

Staff Vacations
Frequently the busiest times in hostels are when everyone else is on a break. How do you handle it when your staff wants to be on vacation too? How do you determine who works the shifts?

Special Events
Do you plan any special holiday activities? (Maybe a big dinner? Do you throw a party? Do you give your staff and guests gifts?)

How do you market your activity so that people know what’s going on and to ensure that you have enough people to be a successful event? How far in advance do you organize and arrange the activities?

Have you ever had any problems with guests being offended with holiday celebrations? (For example religious or cultural objections to particular events?)