Do you have any decor tips for special holidays?

[Johanna652]

Hello, I'm Johanna. Looking for special holiday tips by month or holiday. Any ideas for November,  December and Februrary? I would like to keep it general. 

[Title updated by Community Manager for relevancy]

[Bettye6]

Hi Johanna!

I have been off on vacation for the past week and just getting to my emails.

In reading the responses I'm the have a different perspective.

Great question! I personally LOVE decorating for the holidays though I meet more and more people that say they just see it too much!

I see I live about 1 hour from you and in our big box stores just 3 weeks ago Christmas decorations were starting to accumulate up on store shelves!!! UGH!

I do not decorate for the seasons with the exception of the front door, and that is a wreath or some type of decoration for the 4 seasons, possibly as I have hung just a pretty 'Welcome' accent piece.

I have had several comments in my guest book appreciating that my place looks like my pictures and that includes not having it decorated. I had a guest who was very appreciative of that during the Valentine season. My personal take on it was to be completely neutral as not everyone gets into the Holiday vibe. If you go to a hotel the lobby my be decorated but the actual room you rent does not.

Don't want to sound like a Grinch but I am firm of not pushing any on my favorite holidays agendas of any form. With that said in talking to my guests they seem to appreciate it more than disapprove.

[Johanna652]

Hello Betty, thank you for your response. 

[Oscar973]

My clientele are hunters and fishermen, so their interest is not about decorations.  I would keep it to a minimum to recognize it, however time and expense should be considered when you do this.

[Michelle3398]

Hello Johanna,

In the past 3 years of hosting, in our experience, we've found it best to just reach out to our guests that are booked during specific holidays at least 2 weeks prior to their arrival, to determine whether or not they prefer holiday decorations. Only 5% of our guests don't have a preference either way.

At our property in Glendale, AZ, we had permanent exterior lighting installed that we control with an app. The lighting provides us with hundreds of themes and colors that allow us to change it by season, holidays, favorite football team colors, etc. 100% of our guests mention this as being their favorite decoration. The only other item we change out is the front door entrance wreath. We change these out by the season and/or holidays. Christmas is the only holiday that we provide more decorations and only when the scheduled guest requests it. We provide a list of decorations we have available and that guest picks from the list.

Good luck to you.

[Bhumika]

@Michelle3398 , thank you so much for your reply and the insights about holiday decorations. I love the idea of offering a list of available decorations for guests to choose from, creating a personalized touch without overwhelming anyone with unwanted decor.

Regarding favourite football team colors, have you noticed any particular demand? 😉

[Bhumika]

Hi everyone, @Johanna652 @Oscar973 @James3814 @Michele1682 @Tairada-Boutique-Hotel0 @Kelly-L1 @Kim3668 @Cheri354 @Kim3668 @Karen3589 @Phil-and-Lacy0 @Roberto2387 @Gwen386 , 

I saw that host @Michelle3398  recently added a new comment to this thread, and with Christmas around the corner, I’m curious if you have any plans for special holiday decorations this year or are you thinking of creating something new for the season?

It would be interesting to hear if your decoration strategies changed since 2023! 😉

[Elise43]

@Johanna652 I like to focus on my outdoor spaces, and decorating with natural materials from the property-- handmade wreaths decorated with flowers I dried during the year, and pretty grasses and pine cones. i made swags with evergreen branches to hand on windows. I definitely don't want to decorate with plastic and store-bought items-- I try to keep the decorations secular, and aligned with the narrative of the space.

I will do a little bit inside-- I have a forest of small vintage trees I put in a window ledge that I added my own spin to, and I'll tie make the flower arrangements feel more seasonally celebratory.

Garlands of pinecones and dried orange slices are nice too! And we have brought an evergreen tree in and left popcorn and cranberries for guests to pop and string themselves to decorate-- they loved that!