It’s a common misnomer that hotel rooms are impossible to find over holidays. In truth, for many downtown hotels, the holiday times are enormous need periods.
Hotels are virtually empty over the major holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas. Same goes for those holidays which vary from year to year like Easter, Passover, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. For groups considering having conferences, arriving the day after any of these holidays is a surefire way to enact some immediate savings. The biggest challenge to taking advantage of the enormous savings is risking presenting as insensitive to those who find it offensive to be traveling during these times. It’s a big question that corporations, associations and government agencies have to ask themselves each year. For the individual traveler, there are also savings to be had if unlucky enough to be traveling during these times. Many hotels will offer free nights with a certain amount of purchased nights. I’ve also seen many hotels sell rooms for the outside temperature during that dead week between Christmas and New Years.
There are exceptions to every rule however – if you think you’ll be able to save money in New York City between Christmas and New Year’s, think again. Unlike in most cities, December is New York’s peak month and the week between Christmas and New Year’s is the peak week!