Taming the Christmas chaos: how hospitality finance teams can keep budgets in check

For restaurants, hotels, pubs, and venues, the festive period brings more than holiday cheer. It brings pressure. 

Christmas parties, corporate bookings, and lastminute demands stretch hospitality teams and finance to their limits. Whether it is a broken oven hours before service, or a last-minute VIP guest request, decisions need to be made fast. And when spend is decentralised, that speed can come at the cost of visibility. 

So how do you stay responsive without losing control? 

Hospitality’s busiest (and riskiest) season 

The weeks of festive parties leading up to Christmas Day in the UK and Italy are when the real operational strain kicks in. 

This year, 37% of UK adults say they plan to attend a Christmas party at a hospitality venue. One in four will attend a work party. And many of these gatherings are large with 25% planning celebrations for 12 or more guests, often in private rooms or exclusive spaces. 

That demand is showing up earlier, too. In June 2024 alone, Square Meal reported a 40% year-on-year rise in Christmas party bookings, led by corporate organisers. 

The hospitality sector is expected to take in £7.4 billion in party related spending this season, with operators like Young’s reporting a 30% increase in bookings compared to last year. 

But with the surge in bookings comes a surge in unplanned costs for staff, supplies, and urgent fixes. For finance teams, that means spend happening outside of budgets, often without real-time oversight. 

When spend happens on the ground 

During peak trading periods, hotel and restaurant managers often need to solve problems immediately: hiring last-minute staff, restocking unavailable ingredients, arranging emergency repairs, or covering team travel. 

If those costs rely on manual processes, shared cards, or out-of-pocket payments, small operational issues become bigger than they need to be. Delays in reimbursement create friction. Chasing receipts adds workload. And finance is left trying to make sense of it all after the fact. 

Beyond the Christmas season 

While the festive season is a clear pressure point, it is not the only one. From Valentine’s Day dinners and weekend brunches to summer tourism and local events, unpredictable spend happens year-round in hospitality. 

A pipe bursts in July. A late summer party booking requires bespoke catering in September. A heatwave calls for more outdoor cover. These moments do not wait for budget cycles or approvals. 

With Soldo, hospitality teams are ready for what the year throws at them not just Christmas. Finance stays in control. Operations stay agile. And the customer experience remains uninterrupted, no matter the month. 

How Coffee #1 gained control and oversight over spend 

Coffee #1, a UK coffee chain with over 100 locations, faced this exact challenge. Site managers needed to act quickly to maintain service but without the right spend tools, local decisions created financial blind spots. 

By switching from cash and reimbursements to prepaid Soldo cards, they were able to give each store autonomy without losing control. Every transaction became visible in real time, limits could be set by location or role, and receipts were submitted on the go. 

“By transitioning to prepaid cards, we gained control and real-time oversight across all stores.” 
– Helen Byrne-Evans, Profit Improvement Manager, Coffee #1 

The result? Less admin for finance, fewer delays for operations, and no more bottlenecks between budget and action.