Master Key is a publication by Anne Marie Brown of The Upgrade Weekly for paid subscribers. Master Key is an MBA-level look at the economics and mechanics of the travel and hospitality industry, from your favorite hospitality insider.
Travelers,
Festive, the week of Christmas and the week after, is the worst time to travel in the calendar year. It is also when hotels make an outsized portion of their revenue.
Most luxury travelers leave home that week because the kids are out of school, nothing much happens in the office, and the Christmas rush is over. If a school calendar does not dictate your dates, book any other week and stay home for this one. The numbers below explain why.
Demand keeps growing at an outsized pace
Legacy travel media keeps pointing to the rise of the âFallcationâ and other off-season trends, but demand for festive has kept growing at an outsized pace anyway. Here is the three-year picture from Virtuosoâs annual fall and festive reports:
Festive 2024 (vs 2023): bookings up 32%. Mexico, Hawaii, Anguilla, Costa Rica, and St. Barts led; Maui alone was up 66% as it recovered. Caribbean hotel rates were up 46%, so pricing drove some of the sales growth rather than heads in beds.4
Festive 2025 (vs 2024): bookings up 35%, sales up 38%. Same warm-weather leaders (Mexico, Costa Rica, Anguilla). Celebration travel up 23%, and 53% of respondents planned a multigenerational trip within the year.5
Festive 2026 (vs 2025): as of last monthâs Travel Week report, holiday bookings are up 65% and sales up 56%, on top of fall bookings up 59%. The âfall is the new summerâ shift has added a peak, and festive demand is still incredibly strong.6
Rates below are for Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo, for the week before Christmas week (12/12-12/19), and the week after, which includes New Years. Thereâs a 33% increase in rates to travel during Festive.
