Black Friday lands on 27 November, and the gifting season is already under way. For hotel spas, resorts and leisure venues, vouchers are one of the few products that practically sell themselves, as long as the buying journey is ready for them.
Why vouchers win at gifting time
Voucher shoppers start browsing in the autumn, but most of them buy late. In the UK, December alone accounts for 22% of the year's searches for hospitality gift vouchers, and November and December together make up 35%, according to Lekker Marketing.
Vouchers are also the gift people want to give. In a November 2024 survey by LINK and YouGov, 45% of UK adults said a gift card or voucher was the financial gift they’d most like to give, ahead of cash at 35%. And a spa voucher does something cash can’t: it gives the recipient permission to take some time out for themselves.
That’s good news for operators. Vouchers bought in December fill quieter January and February slots, recipients are often first-time guests, and every redemption is a chance to upsell a longer treatment, an add-on or something from your retail shelf.
Offer more than a cash value
A monetary voucher is the simplest, most popular, and also the most flexible option. They’re available in any amount the buyer chooses, and can be delivered as an e-voucher, a gift card or a gift box. At Trybe, we see the strongest seasonal offers go further:
Bonus value: “Buy a £50 voucher, get £60 to spend” rewards the buyer without discounting your treatments. To protect your margin, make the bonus valid in quieter months like January to March, when you most need to fill slots.
Added extras: "Spend £100 on a voucher and receive a free retail product or mini treatment" gets your products into guests' hands.
Experience packages: bundle treatments, wet facilities, dining and products into one gift, like “a Winter Spa Day voucher with a 60-minute treatment, thermal suite access and lunch”.
Packages work because they match how guests already book. Across Trybe's platform, 93% of bookings come through packages such as spa days and breaks, according to our State of Spa 2026 report, so a package voucher matches how recipients will want to redeem it. The same report puts the average incremental upsell value at £266 where relevant add-ons sit inside the booking flow. We cover the thinking behind that in The Power of Effective Upselling.
Make it easy to buy at 11pm
Picture it: it’s 11pm on 22 December, someone’s on the sofa with their phone, and they’ve just remembered they still need a present for their sister. If your vouchers can only be bought when the front desk is open, that sale goes somewhere else. It’s how guests behave in general, too. In Trybe’s data, 51% of bookings happen outside traditional office hours.
With Trybe, you can sell vouchers 24/7 through the Trybe booking engine, and guests can buy one in as few as five clicks. Selling online also takes the pressure off your team during peak weeks and keeps sales coming in all year round, for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays and anniversaries, not just Christmas. Manage vouchers, packages, memberships and retail in one system with our hotel spa and leisure software.
Get your team and system ready
Before the rush, run through a short checklist that covers both the selling and the redemptions that follow in the new year:
Buy a voucher yourself on a mobile, start to finish, and fix anything that slows you down.
Set your seasonal offers and end dates now, so nothing is decided mid-peak.
Check the small print. Confirm expiry dates, blackout dates and any limits on when bonus value can be used, and make them clear at checkout.
Brief front desk, concierge and therapists on every offer, so they can sell with confidence in person and online.
Decide your delivery options: e-vouchers for last-minute buyers, gift boxes for those who want something to wrap. If you offer gift boxes, set a last order date for Christmas delivery and show it clearly on your site. Missed postage cut-offs are one of the most common causes of voucher complaints.
Plan for January. Every voucher sold in December becomes a booking request between January and March, so check therapist rotas and treatment availability for those months now. Otherwise the goodwill you built at Christmas turns into “no availability” complaints.
Promote it, don't hide it
Once your offers are live, tell people, and not just by email. Add a banner to your website, share the offers on your social channels, and put them where guests already are: reception, room cards and the bill at checkout. Guests who are already on site are the easiest sale.
For email, focus on past voucher buyers and guests who haven’t visited in a while rather than your whole list, and plan your timings. Launch in late November around Black Friday, send a reminder before your last postal order date, then push e-vouchers on 23 and 24 December for last-minute buyers.
Keep each offer easy to understand in one line, like “Buy a £50 voucher, get £60 to spend – until 15 December”, and be clear which deadline you mean, whether that’s the offer end date or the last day to order for Christmas delivery.
Finally, ask therapists to mention vouchers at the end of a treatment. Guests are at their most relaxed, which makes it a natural moment to think of someone else who needs a break.
Turn the gift into a booking
A voucher is not the end of the sale. It is the start of a relationship with a guest who may never have visited you before. Plan for the redemption: a warm welcome, a well-timed add-on and a follow-up that invites them back.
And the work pays off well beyond December. Mother’s Day falls on 7 March 2027, with gift shoppers starting to look in February, so the voucher journey you build now will keep earning into the spring.
With Trybe, vouchers sit right alongside the rest of your spa, leisure and activities, from the first online sale to the moment a guest hands theirs over at the front desk.
Ready to make this your best gifting season yet? Talk to the Trybe team about setting up your bespoke voucher offerings, or read our earlier guide, The Festive Season of Giving: How to Maximise Spa Gift Vouchers.
