Hotel Bookings During Songkran: Strategy Guide
Hotel bookings during Songkran are not just a seasonal spike.
This festival creates one of the biggest travel surges in Southeast Asia, with demand building weeks in advance.
Songkran is not just a public holiday in Thailand.
It is one of the biggest travel surges in all of Southeast Asia, and hotel bookings during Songkran start moving weeks before the festival even begins.
Understanding how to drive direct reservations during high-demand periods like this one is where your preparation should start.
If you run a hotel in any city that draws Songkran travellers, this period deserves its own strategy.
Not a generic “festival promotion” — an actual plan built around how these guests think, book, and decide where to stay.
The difference between a fully booked Songkran and an average one usually comes down to decisions made weeks before the water fights begin.
Your Pricing Needs to Reflect the Demand Early
Hotel bookings during Songkran are predictable in one important way — demand peaks every April without fail.
Travellers start searching weeks in advance, and if your rates are not adjusted before that window opens, you are leaving real money on the table.
This is not about inflating prices for the sake of it. It is about setting rates that match what the market will genuinely bear during peak demand.
Dynamic pricing for hotels is worth understanding properly before this season arrives. A flat rate strategy during Songkran is one of the most common and costly mistakes small hotels make.
Start adjusting rates at least four to six weeks out. Watch what competitors are doing and price with intention, not guesswork.
Direct Bookings Should Be Your Priority Target
OTAs will fill your rooms during Songkran, but they will take a commission on every single one. That cuts into margins during a period when you should be earning your best numbers of the year.
Push guests toward booking directly through your own website before the holiday.
Offer a small added value for direct bookings — a late checkout, a complimentary welcome drink, or early access to check-in.
These cost very little but give guests a real reason to bypass the platform.
Hotel bookings during Songkran that come through your own site cost you nothing in commission. That margin difference adds up to a significant amount by the end of the festival week.
Your Cancellation Policy Needs to Be Firm for This Period
Songkran bookings come with a real risk. Guests book early and sometimes cancel at the last minute when plans change.
If your cancellation policy is too flexible, you end up with empty rooms during the busiest days of the year.
Tighten your policy specifically for the Songkran window. Non-refundable rates or short cancellation windows with a meaningful deposit are both reasonable during this period.
Non-refundable rate strategies can protect your occupancy without pushing price-sensitive guests away entirely.
Be transparent about the policy on your booking page. Guests who book anyway will honour it far more reliably.
Prepare Your Team Before the Crowd Arrives
A surge in bookings means a surge in everything else, too. More check-ins are happening at the same time. More requests. More noise. More energy is running through the building all day long.
Brief your team specifically on what to expect during Songkran. Who handles the front desk during peak arrival hours?
How does room turnaround get managed when occupancy is near full? What is the protocol when something goes wrong, and the lobby is full of waiting guests?
Staff who are prepared to handle pressure better. Guests notice the difference between a team that is ready and one that is reacting.
The Guest Experience During Songkran Is the Review You Get After
Hotel bookings during Songkran come from guests who are already in a celebratory mood before they arrive. They want to enjoy themselves, and they will remember the hotel that made that easy.
Small gestures land bigger during festival travel than they do during ordinary stays.
A small water festival welcome kit at check-in. Local tips on the best spots to join the celebrations safely.
A communal area where guests can rinse off before heading back to their rooms. None of these is expensive. All of them get mentioned in reviews.
The reviews you collect after Songkran will influence your bookings for the next twelve months, so treat this week as an investment in your annual reputation.
Conclusion
Songkran gives hotels a genuine window to perform at their best for the year.
The surge in demand is real, travellers are willing to spend, and the reviews from a great festival stay carry weight long after April ends.
The hotels that treat this period as a planned campaign rather than just a busy week are the ones that look back on it as their strongest stretch of the year.
Get In Touch
If you want to manage Songkran bookings, pricing, and guest records without things slipping through the cracks, QloApps gives you the tools to run it all from one place.
The platform handles direct bookings, rate management, and front desk operations without a monthly software fee.
You can download QloApps and have your system ready well before the festival season arrives.
If you need help setting up or have questions along the way, the QloApps support team is available to guide you through it.