Why hotel holiday decor needs its own plan
A hotel is never closed. Guests arrive at midnight, breakfast service starts at six, and the lobby is both the brand and the busiest room in the building. That makes hotel Christmas decorating different from an office tower, where the lobby empties at six, or a plaza, where the work happens in a parking lot.
Hotel decor has to be installed without disrupting arrivals, approved by people who may not be on site, consistent with brand standards and robust enough to survive six weeks of luggage carts, children and holiday parties. It also has to come down cleanly in January while the hotel keeps running.
This checklist is the one we work through with hotel GMs and facilities managers across Southwestern Ontario, the GTA and Hamilton-Niagara. Use it to prepare for the site visit and to brief your own team. It runs in the order the decisions actually happen, from what guests see to who signs off to what the night manager needs to know, and it ends with the part most hotels forget: January.
Step one: decide what the guest should see, in order
Walk the arrival route as a guest. The approach and porte-cochère come first: wrapped trees along the drive, a lit canopy edge, wrapped or lit columns, garland and wreaths at the doors. Then the lobby: the main tree, garland on the reception desk or staircase, a wreath or arch at the entrance. Then the secondary spaces: elevator lobbies, the restaurant or bar entrance, the ballroom foyer.
Rank those in order of guest impact and budget them in that order. If budget is tight, a strong porte-cochère and a strong lobby tree beat a thin scheme spread across every corridor. The elevator lobby and ballroom foyer can be added in a later season under the same agreement.
Photograph each spot now, in daylight and at night, and note ceiling heights, outlets and anything in the way. Those photos and measurements are most of what we need to start a proposal. If you have photos from a previous season, send those too, even if you want a different look this year. They show us the scale and the light.
- Approach and porte-cochère: tree wraps, canopy edge, columns, doors
- Lobby: main tree, desk or staircase garland, entrance wreath or arch
- Secondary: elevator lobbies, restaurant entrance, ballroom foyer, planters
Step two: get the brand and the budget approved early
Most hotels need sign-off from more than one person: the GM, an owner or management company, and sometimes a brand standards team. Colour schemes are the usual sticking point. Warm white with gold ribbon suits most hotel finishes. Navy and silver or blue and gold read as modern and work well against marble and glass. Red with gold is traditional and festive.
We bring ribbon and ornament samples to the site visit so your team can see them in the lobby's own light rather than on a screen. We can also match a brand colour from a logo or a signage specification. Once the scheme is set it carries through the tree, garland, wreaths and planters. It also means the brand team can approve a physical sample rather than a rendering.
On budget, ask for the lease and purchase options side by side. For hotel lobby trees we recommend leasing: one seasonal price for design, product, install, maintenance, removal and storage, with the option to refresh the scheme in a later year. A multi-year agreement locks the price and dates so the number is known before the budget cycle.
Step three: vendor paperwork and site logistics
Hotels and their management companies usually need a certificate of insurance, WSIB clearance and a vendor setup form before anyone works on site. Ask for those at proposal stage, not install week. Our crews are insured and WSIB-compliant and we provide the documents on request. Having the file complete also makes it easier to add a second hotel in the same portfolio later.
Logistics decide how smooth install night is. Where can a bucket truck or aerial lift park without blocking the porte-cochère? Which outlets will the exterior lighting use and are they on separate circuits? What is the route for a 15 foot tree from the loading dock to the lobby? Who on the night team has the keys and the contact number?
Agree a written install window and a takedown window with the front office. Overnight installs are standard for us at hotels, and the point of the plan is that the morning shift arrives to a finished lobby and an open drive. If the hotel has a blackout period, such as a sold-out weekend or a large conference, tell us at proposal stage.
- Certificate of insurance and WSIB clearance on file
- Lift parking, power and tree route confirmed
- Night manager briefed with a contact number
The hotel decor timeline
Hotels run on events, and the holiday calendar fills early with corporate parties, weddings and brunches. Work backwards from the first event you want the decor in place for. For most hotels that is late November. The table below shows what has to happen by when, with extra time for approvals built in.
If you are reading this later than July, do not assume it is too late. Call 519-266-6796 and we will tell you what is possible. The steps are the same, the choice of dates is just narrower. We would rather tell you a lobby tree is still possible in November than have you skip the season.
| When | Hotel action | Our action |
|---|---|---|
| June to July | Walk the arrival route, photograph spots, list events with fixed dates | Site visit, measure, bring samples |
| August | Circulate scheme and budget for owner or brand approval | Proposal with lease and purchase options |
| September | Sign agreement, pay deposit, send vendor forms | Reserve product, lock install and takedown dates |
| October | Confirm lift parking, outlets and night access | Exterior: porte-cochère, canopy, columns, tree wraps |
| November | Brief front office and night team | Overnight lobby install, test, timers, walkthrough |
| December | Call for any fault or event change | Season-long maintenance at no charge |
| January | Confirm preferred takedown date | Overnight takedown, label, store in our warehouse |
| February | Confirm next season and any refresh | Priority dates held, pricing locked on multi-year |
Step four: install night and the first morning
On install night the crew arrives with everything on the truck. Exterior work is usually done first on a separate night so the porte-cochère is only coned for a few hours. The lobby tree goes up in sections, is decorated from a lift if it is tall, and the garland, wreaths and planters follow. Every circuit is tested and every timer set before the crew leaves.
In the morning your team should find a finished display, no packaging, no ladders and a contact number for the season. Walk the lobby with the day manager and send us anything that needs adjusting. Small changes such as a bow moved or a timer shifted are part of the program.
Porte-cochère lighting is on a timer with the rest of the exterior so it comes on at dusk every night without staff involvement. If an event runs late, a phone call changes the timer. The same applies to the lobby tree, which can run on a timer or on a switch at the front desk, whichever the front office prefers.
Step five: maintenance, takedown and next year
Season-long maintenance is included at no charge for any fault. Hotels are hard on decor: a luggage cart catches a garland, a tree section goes dark, a plug is pulled by a snowplow on the drive. Call and it is fixed. Because the product is our own commercial-grade inventory, replacements match and nobody argues over whose fault it was.
Takedown is overnight in the first three weeks of January. Tell us if you want the lobby back for a specific event or if you would like the warm-white exterior lighting kept as winter lighting into February. Everything is labelled by hotel and location and stored in our warehouse, so your housekeeping storage stays clear.
Before the next budget cycle you will have photos, a note of what worked and a renewal with locked pricing if you are on a multi-year agreement. That is the simplest version of hotel holiday decor: decide once, approve once, and have the lobby look right every year. The lobby looks right every year and nobody has to rediscover the plan.
