Get your salon ready for the busy season

The festive run-up fills a salon calendar faster than any other stretch of the year, and most of what decides how it goes is settled before the first party booking arrives.

The festive rush doesn’t leave room for decisions. By mid-December, your prices, pre-payment rules, staff rota, colour stock and January rebookings are effectively locked in, and changing any of them means an awkward conversation with a client or your team. Set them now, while it’s quiet, and December takes care of itself.

Start now, while the calendar still has room

Six weeks before your busiest weeks is the last comfortable point to change prices, agree the rota and take delivery of a stock order before demand arrives. If those weeks fall in December, that point is the start of November. Last year’s festive bookings are still a fair guide to this year’s.

Settle the rules first (prices, pre-payments, closures), then the people (holiday requests and the rota), then the supplies, and only then tell clients the festive calendar is open. Announce dates before the rota is agreed and you take bookings you may not have the hands to deliver.

Your Treatwell Connect reports from last season show what clients booked and where new clients came from, so you can see which treatments carried the festive weeks and which barely moved. Treat them as a guide to the shape of the season, not a forecast down to the last booking.

Set prices and the festive treatments before festive bookings open

A price set before festive bookings open is the price every client sees from the start. Change it halfway through and two clients can pay different amounts for the same treatment in the same week, and one of them will usually mention it.

If a price review is overdue, do it now. Raising your prices without losing clients depends on notice, a clear reason and the whole team giving the same answer, and all three are easier to manage now than in a fully booked December.

Pricing levels in Treatwell Connect let you charge different rates for the same treatment depending on who does it, so a senior colourist’s festive colour and a junior stylist’s blow-dry are each priced for the person in the chair. For treatments that vary a lot, a “from” price opens a list of every option with its own price, so clients know exactly what they will pay before they book.

Keep long treatments off your busiest dates

One long colour correction on your busiest day takes the slot of several shorter bookings, and if it overruns, every booking after it runs late too. Set a last date for long or complex work before the peak, and put shorter, clearly priced treatments at the front of the menu for the final weeks: blow-dries, glosses, gel manicures, brows, festive make-up.

Check that every duration matches how long the treatment really takes on a full day. Each treatment in Treatwell Connect carries its own duration and the calendar blocks exactly that time, so a realistic duration is what keeps a busy day running on time.

Decide festive offers as a separate question

Discounts in the busiest weeks give away margin on bookings that would probably have come in at full price, so they need their own decision, apart from your standard festive prices. Black Friday for salons is the clearest example: whether to take part at all, and which offers leave your margin intact, depends on how full your calendar already is.

Switch on pre-payments before festive bookings open

A no-show in the festive run-up costs more than one at any other time of year, because the slot could have been sold to someone else, often more than once. With pre-payments, clients pay for their booking up front, in full or in part, and they are available to every Treatwell partner, wherever you are.

Pre-payments in Treatwell Connect apply to your whole menu, so the decision is whether to have them on for the season, and the time to switch them on is before festive bookings open. Every festive client then books on the same terms, and nobody finds the rules changed between booking and arriving.

Then set your cancellation policy in Treatwell Connect: how much notice you need, and what happens to the pre-payment when a client cancels late or does not arrive. Keep it to terms a client can read in a few seconds, and apply it the same way to everyone, regulars included. Pre-payments are one part of reducing no-shows in your salon; reminders and a policy the whole team stands behind do the rest.

Switch on the waiting list before the season starts

A cancellation on a peak date only costs you if nobody is ready to take the slot. With the waiting list in Treatwell Connect, clients who find their preferred time full can join it, and when space opens up you can contact them or book them in yourself. Switch it on before festive demand arrives, so the list is already building by the time your busiest days are full.

Agree festive holiday plans with your team early

Talk to your team about taking time off over the festive period now, before anyone books travel. Team members plan December trips early, so a conversation now is about dates, while the same conversation a few weeks later is usually about a ticket already paid for.

Agree together how the peak weeks will work: which weeks need everyone in, how requests for those weeks are handled, and how the least popular dates are shared out, so the same people are not working all of them every year. Put the rota for the peak weeks on one page and walk everyone through it. People commit more readily to a rota they can see weeks ahead than to one handed out the week before.

Once the rota is agreed, update each team member’s bookable hours in Treatwell Connect, so the times clients can book online are the times someone is actually there to do the work. Online, walk-in or by phone, every booking lands in the same calendar. When December gets busy, that’s the real test of your salon software: clients can only book the people who are actually in.

Set closures and shorter days in the same decision

Closures and early finishes change who you need and when, so they belong in the same conversation as the rota. Settle every date in one go: the days you close, the days you finish early and your first day back.

Put them into the calendar before you announce them. Announce first and update later, and clients can book a date you have already said you are closed. Treatwell Connect lets you set one-off closures and shorter days for specific dates without touching your standard opening hours. Set them there first, then update your own website and your Google Business Profile, so a client booking late in the evening sees the same hours wherever they look. If you use the partner site, it updates from your Treatwell Connect profile automatically, which is one less place to change.

Plan cover and breaks before the first sick day

A single absence does the most damage in your fullest weeks, so agree the cover plan before you need it: who can pick up extra hours, which bookings move first and who calls the clients affected. Build breaks into the rota as well. A team that works through lunch for three weeks finishes the season exhausted, and the clients in the final week feel it.

Order stock against last season’s bookings, with a buffer

Supplies run short in the festive weeks because delivery times stretch at exactly the moment salons get through stock fastest, and some suppliers close over the holidays. Order the core of the season before demand peaks: colour and developer in your best-selling shades, lightener and toners, nail and lash products, wax, and the single-use items a full day goes through, such as gloves, foils, towels and couch roll.

Base quantities on what was booked last season, then add a buffer for the extra bookings you expect this year. Count what is already on the shelf first, so the gaps show up while there is still time to order. Agree a minimum level for every item you cannot work without, and make one person responsible for reordering when stock reaches it.

Bundle your best-selling retail for gift buyers

Clients shop for gifts while they are in the chair, and products they already use from you make an easy present. Restock your top retail lines early and put a few together as ready-made gift sets at reception, priced and wrapped, so nobody is assembling one on a full day.

Pre-book January before festive clients leave

A client in your chair in December already knows when they will next need you, which makes them the easiest January booking you will get. Ask every client at checkout, with a date: “Your colour will be due around the third week of January, shall I book that in now?” A specific date is easier to say yes to than “see you in the new year”.

Add the booking in Treatwell Connect while the client is still at the desk, so it sits in the calendar with their details before they walk out. January is slower for most salons once the festive season ends, and pre-booking is the first step in beating the January slump: the month starts with names already in the calendar.

Give regulars first choice of festive dates

Before you announce festive availability widely, tell your regular clients through your own channels so they can book the dates they want first. It fills the calendar with clients you already know, and the most requested dates go to the people who come back all year.

Sell gift vouchers from the start of the season

Gift vouchers bring clients back after the festive season, because a voucher given in December is a booking waiting to happen in January. Make them visible at reception and available to buy online, and make sure everyone on the team can explain how they work in one sentence.

Settle the terms before the first one sells: what a voucher covers and how it is redeemed. Selling salon gift vouchers has its own season, through Black Friday and Christmas and on into January, so give it its own plan.

Treatwell gift cards are spent online when the client books, not at the till, so with pre-payments switched on, clients can put them towards festive bookings with you.

Refresh your profile before festive searches begin

Festive searches start weeks before the dates themselves, and what a client finds on your profile at that point decides whether they book you or keep scrolling. Out-of-date photos or a half-finished menu lose those clients before you know they were looking.

Why the profile carries more weight in the run-up

Treatwell Connect runs your salon and brings in clients from the same calendar: the software that holds your bookings, team and hours, and a marketplace where half a million people search for somewhere to book every day. On average, measured across Europe, one of those searches reaches a salon in 8.7 seconds. Whatever you set for the season, from festive hours to festive prices, is what those searches see. And because Treatwell is hair and beauty and nothing else, the people searching are looking for what you do.

Update what clients read first

Use your featured services for the season: you can feature up to five treatments at the top of your profile, so put the ones clients book for parties, events and gifts there for the run-up, and swap them back in January. Rewrite treatment descriptions so they say what is included and how long it takes, because a client choosing between two salons at eleven at night will not call to ask.

Refresh your photos with recent work, including festive styles your team has done this year. Portfolio pictures are uploaded through the Treatwell Connect mobile app, so each team member can add their own. Check every team profile is complete too: our data shows that team members with complete profiles receive more first-time bookings.

Every festive visit also adds to your reviews, because Treatwell sends each client a review request automatically after their visit. If you are not on Treatwell yet, the run-up is a good reason to start: a profile set up before festive searches begin gives those clients somewhere to find you.

Your busy-season checklist

• Look at last season’s bookings and set the date your run-up starts
• Review prices and set pricing levels by team member before festive bookings open
• Set a last date for long treatments and check every duration
• Switch on pre-payments and set your cancellation policy
• Switch on the waiting list
• Agree festive holiday plans with the team and share the peak rota
• Set closures and shorter days in Treatwell Connect, then update your hours everywhere
• Agree cover for absences and build breaks into the rota
• Count stock, place the festive order and set reorder levels
• Put together retail gift sets
• Get gift vouchers on sale at reception and online
• Refresh featured services, descriptions, photos and team profiles
• Brief the team on pre-booking January at checkout
• Tell regulars first, then announce festive availability

Get your calendar ready for the season

Every decision above is easier to make before the festive weeks than during them, and each one you settle early is one less question at reception when the calendar is full. Set the rules, agree the rota, fill the shelves and tell clients last.

If you are already a Treatwell partner, log into Treatwell Connect and set your festive hours, pre-payments and waiting list before the calendar opens. If you are not a partner yet, starting now gives you time to set up your treatments, team and bookable hours before festive searches begin.

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