--- title: The Christmas party enquiry that waited until Monday description: How to answer Christmas party enquiries at your restaurant: what the first reply says, five questions to ask, and when to chase before they go elsewhere. canonical_url: https://www.askholly.ai/blog/christmas-party-enquiries/ date: 2026-10-09 column: Field Guide last_updated: 2026-10-09 --- # The Christmas party enquiry that waited until Monday The first useful reply puts you ahead for the whole party. Here is what it should say, what it should ask and when to chase. By the Holly team, 9 October 2026. In Field Guide, a column in The Pass, the Holly blog. **In short:** Over half of Christmas party bookings are made in October and November, and the first venue to send a useful reply is in the strongest position to win them. That reply confirms the date, gives an all-in price per head, asks five questions in one message and names the next step. Chase twice, then stop. Take a typical Friday in October. At 16:52, an email lands in the general inbox at Ember Lane. Sarah is organising a Christmas dinner for a team of 18 on Thursday 10 December, budget about £55 a head. Could someone send the menus? Service starts at 17:30. The events manager is off until Monday. The email is opened at 10:20 on Monday and the menus go out at 10:40. At 11:05 the answer comes back: thanks, but we’ve booked somewhere else. That is 18 covers at £55, or £990 before anyone has ordered a drink, gone over a weekend. Nobody at Ember Lane will ever count it. A lost enquiry doesn’t show up anywhere. ## Christmas party enquiries arrive now, and they don’t wait The calendar is not on your side. Office Christmas, a party-booking service, surveyed more than 300 UK organisations for its 2025 market report and found that [over half of all bookings still take place in October and November](https://officechristmas.co.uk/xmas/christmas-party-market-report-2025). Tagvenue’s London booking data tells the same story: [around 28 per cent of December bookings are made by the end of September, rising to 87 per cent by the end of November](https://www.tagvenue.com/blog/how-much-does-a-christmas-party-cost-in-london/). Most of these parties are small enough for a restaurant. In the [Office Christmas survey](https://officechristmas.co.uk/xmas/christmas-party-market-report-2025), 41.8 per cent were for 20 guests or fewer, and another 38.8 per cent for 21 to 50. Access Hospitality’s own booking data puts [the average Christmas group at 15.5 covers](https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/blog/hos-marketing-strategies-to-boost-christmas-bookings-hospitality/). The inbox is where those bookings go quiet. In 2023, Stampede mystery-shopped [250 UK and Irish venues](https://qsrmedia.com/research/news/one-out-three-customers-dont-get-reply-their-query-report) with one simple emailed question: could we bring a birthday cake? A third never replied. Only 22 per cent replied within the hour, [fewer than 5 per cent sent an automatic reply, and fewer than 15 per cent tried to turn the conversation into a booking](https://stampede.ai/blog/the-hospitality-industry-is-leaving-money-in-their-inbox-industry-insight-report). A Christmas party enquiry is a harder email to answer than a cake question, not an easier one. It needs a date checked, a menu attached, a price worked out and a deposit explained. So it waits for the one person who knows the answers, and on Monday it is still waiting. > A lost enquiry doesn’t show up anywhere. ## The first useful reply wins the booking Put yourself in the booker’s seat. They have a date, a headcount, a budget and someone senior asking whether it’s sorted. In the [Office Christmas survey](https://officechristmas.co.uk/xmas/christmas-party-market-report-2025), the largest single group of organisers, at 20.8 per cent, were admin professionals, which suggests a lot of these parties are organised around a day job. They are not comparing tasting notes. They want a yes, a price and a next step. A useful first reply does five things: - **Answers the question asked.** Is the date free? If not, offer the nearest one that is. - **Gives a price they can forward.** Per head, with the service charge stated and what that buys. - **Attaches the menu.** One link or one PDF, not three. - **Asks for what you need.** The five questions below, in a single message. - **Names the next step, with a time on it.** “We can hold the date until Wednesday at 17:00.” Now compare two replies to Sarah’s email. **Before:** “Hi, thanks for your enquiry. Please find our Christmas menus attached. Let us know if you have any questions. Kind regards, Ember Lane.” It is polite, and it hands all the work back to the guest. They still don’t know whether the date is free, what it will cost or what to do next. **After:** “Hi Sarah, yes, we can do Thursday 10 December for 18. Our Christmas menu is £48 a head for three courses including VAT, and with our 12.5 per cent service charge that’s £54 a head all in. The menu is attached. To hold the date, could you send a rough range for numbers, any dietary needs or allergies, and whether it’s one bill or separate? I’ll hold the 10th for you until Wednesday at 17:00. Tom, Ember Lane.” The all-in figure matters more than it looks when a company is paying. In the UK, an annual staff party is [tax-free for employees if it is open to all staff and costs £150 or less per head](https://www.gov.uk/expenses-benefits-social-functions-parties/whats-exempt), and [HMRC counts VAT in that cost](https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim21690). A booker working to that line needs a total, not a menu price with extras still to add. ## Ask five questions in one message, not five emails Every round trip is another chance for the booker to go quiet. Get everything your events team needs in the first exchange: 1. **The date, and a second choice.** VenueScanner says [Fridays and Thursdays account for 35.9 and 30.3 per cent](https://www.venuescanner.com/blog/2026-uk-christmas-party-booking-trends-businesses-need-to-know) of the Christmas party enquiries it sees. If the Friday has gone, a Tuesday is still a real offer. 2. **Numbers, as a range.** “Between 16 and 20” tells you which tables or which room. Agree the minimum you will charge for now, not in December. 3. **Budget per head, and who’s paying.** One company bill, a card behind the bar or everyone paying their own. That decides your deposit and the shape of the night. 4. **The format.** Seated dinner, sharing feast, canapés and drinks, or the whole room. 5. **Dietary needs and allergies.** Record them exactly as the guest wrote them and pass them to the kitchen. Don’t promise anything the kitchen hasn’t confirmed. Then put your terms in the same message: the deposit per head, the dates pre-orders and final numbers are due, and what happens to the deposit if numbers drop. Write them once and send them every time. Nobody should meet your cancellation policy for the first time in December. ## Chase twice, then stop Silence after your first reply is not a no. Often the booker is waiting on someone else: a manager’s sign-off, a final headcount, a budget. A rhythm that keeps the enquiry warm without nagging: - **The next working day:** a short follow-up with something new, such as photos of the room or a vegetarian version of the menu. - **Two days later:** the hold. “We’re holding Thursday 10 December for you until Wednesday at 17:00. After that we’ll release it.” - **Then stop.** A third chase starts to feel like pressure. A released hold tells the booker the date was real. Never invent another party to hurry someone along. If the date really is in demand, say so plainly. If it isn’t, the hold does the work. The enquiry that decides December lands at 16:52 on a Friday, so give the weekend an owner. Until the end of November, name one person to check the events inbox at 11:00 and 16:00 on Saturdays and Sundays, and reply from the template. This is the work we built Holly to do. Holly replies to [Christmas and group enquiries](/group-bookings/) by form, email and WhatsApp within seconds, sends your menus, asks those five questions, follows up once or twice and stops the moment the guest replies or books. Then the whole thread goes to your events team. Custom menus and discounts should stay a human decision, and Holly hands those over rather than guessing. Before you go home tonight, search the inbox for “Christmas”, “party” and “December”. Reply to every enquiry still waiting, including the ones from September, even if the answer is that you’re full. Then save the reply above as a template and put the weekend inbox on the rota. ## Sources 1. Office Christmas, “UK Christmas Party Market Report 2025”, 2025. [officechristmas.co.uk](https://officechristmas.co.uk/xmas/christmas-party-market-report-2025) 2. Tagvenue, “How much does a Christmas party cost in London?”, 6 August 2026, updated 8 October 2026. [tagvenue.com](https://www.tagvenue.com/blog/how-much-does-a-christmas-party-cost-in-london/) 3. The Access Group, “8 Christmas marketing strategies for hospitality: 2026 guide” (Access Hospitality booking data, 2025/26), 3 September 2026. [theaccessgroup.com](https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/blog/hos-marketing-strategies-to-boost-christmas-bookings-hospitality/) 4. QSR Media, “One out of three customers don’t get a reply to their query: report”, 30 May 2023. [qsrmedia.com](https://qsrmedia.com/research/news/one-out-three-customers-dont-get-reply-their-query-report) 5. Stampede, “The hospitality industry is leaving money in their inbox”, 17 May 2023. [stampede.ai](https://stampede.ai/blog/the-hospitality-industry-is-leaving-money-in-their-inbox-industry-insight-report) 6. GOV.UK, “Expenses and benefits: social functions and parties, what’s exempt”, checked 8 October 2026. [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/expenses-benefits-social-functions-parties/whats-exempt) 7. HMRC, “EIM21690: Annual parties and other social functions”, Employment Income Manual, checked 8 October 2026. [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim21690) 8. VenueScanner, “2026 UK Christmas party booking trends businesses need to know”, 7 September 2026. [venuescanner.com](https://www.venuescanner.com/blog/2026-uk-christmas-party-booking-trends-businesses-need-to-know) ## Contact - [Book a demo](https://calendly.com/boxlycrm/meet-holly-your-digital-concierge) - Holly is a product of Holly AI, a subsidiary of EB Tech Limited.