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No time, no budget? Christmas is exactly when training matters most

There are two things we hear more than anything else when talking to hospitality businesses about training.

“We don’t have the budget.”

And:

“We don’t have the time to take people out of the business.”

Both are understandable. Labour budgets are tight. Teams are lean. Operators are protecting every hour and every pound. But heading into the most commercially valuable trading period of the year, I would argue that the bigger question is:

Can you afford not to invest in the people responsible for converting the opportunity?

Because Christmas is not simply about filling the diary. It is about converting more enquiries. Increasing spend-per-head. Selling the right packages. Pre-selling drinks. Making relevant recommendations. Proactively contacting previous bookers and local businesses. And turning a festive visit into a reason to come back in January. Guest expectations are at their highest for us to deliver a memorable experience – get it right at Christmas and the all-year-round loyalty pays dividends.

That is a lot of cash still sitting on the table. And October and November remain hugely important.

Office Christmas’s 2025 market research found that more than half of confirmed Christmas party bookings were still being made during October and November, despite many organisers starting their research earlier. The report also described later booking as increasingly becoming part of the planning strategy itself, with customers waiting for confirmed numbers, budgets and internal approval before committing.

So, October is not “too late”. It is one of the most valuable points in the festive sales cycle. And importantly, the opportunity is much bigger than pre-booked Christmas parties alone.

Every festive enquiry that comes in is an opportunity to improve conversion. Every booking is an opportunity to increase SPH through drinks packages, pre-orders, premium upgrades and relevant recommendations. Every full venue is an opportunity to create an experience that brings people back.

This is where the “we don’t have budget for training” argument starts to look very different. Good sales training should deliver ROI – particularly when it is focused on maximising one of the biggest sales opportunities of the year.

If one manager comes back from a workshop and converts one additional Christmas party, increases average spend across several festive bookings or gets the team proactively contacting customers they would otherwise have waited to hear from, the investment starts paying back very quickly.

The same applies to time.

If we are so tight on labour that development is constantly pushed aside, we risk creating another false economy. Less confident teams, weaker enquiry handling, inconsistent upselling, missed opportunities – and potentially poorer retention too.

We know development matters more than ever to the people we are trying to retain. Deloitte found that 70% of Gen Z are actively developing skills to progress their careers at least weekly, with a whopping 67% doing so outside working hours.

So, heading into Christmas, I think the question needs to change.

Not:

“Can we spare the labour for a day”

But:

“What could that person bring back that helps us sell more over the next three months?”

That is exactly how we have built our Christmas Sales Growth Workshop: around proactive sales activity, stronger enquiry conversion, increasing spend, local marketing, loyalty and a practical venue action plan that can be implemented immediately.

Because in Q4, training should not be seen as time away from the business.

It should be seen as an investment in maximising the biggest sales opportunity sitting in front of it.

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