Your own team wants time off too, often exactly when the hotel is full. If you only plan leave as requests come in, you end up with short-staffed shifts or disappointed employees. Read how to plan leave and coverage together.
14 October 2026
Summer, Christmas, school holidays and long weekends are the busiest periods for many hotels, and at the same time the moments employees want to be off themselves. Leave is not a favour you fit in afterwards: it is simply capacity that is missing. If you include annual leave in your staffing plan, you can see months ahead where the rota gets tight and arrange extra people in time, instead of asking for overtime or refusing leave at the last minute.
Agree clear deadlines each year so you do not have to solve each request on its own:
• Summer leave: requests before a fixed date in spring, for example the end of February, with confirmation within two weeks.
• Christmas and New Year: requests before autumn, so you can still recruit or book cover.
• Single days outside the peak: a shorter notice period, for example three to four weeks ahead.
Requests that arrive after the deadline are handled in order of arrival and only if coverage allows. Put this in writing so everyone knows the same rules.
Decide for each department how many people can be absent at the same time without the shift falling over. Look beyond headcount to key roles: if both people who can run night reception on their own are away the same week, a full housekeeping team will not help you. A simple leave calendar per department, linked to your occupancy forecast, shows straight away where you are too thin. Agree for each key role who covers whom.
Not everyone can be off in August or at Christmas every year. A fixed allocation rule prevents arguments and the feeling of arbitrariness:
• Rotation: whoever got the popular week this year goes later in the queue next year.
• Blocks: split the summer into periods of one or two weeks and let people rank their preferences.
• Name the trade-offs up front: for example school-age children or travel to family abroad; make clear how you weigh them.
Also check what your collective agreement or local labour rules say about a minimum continuous holiday and how often you may refuse a request. These differ by country.
Once leave for a peak period is fixed, you can see the gaps per week and per department. At that point you still have options: ask last year's seasonal staff back, schedule floaters, temporarily extend part-timers' hours, or secure temporary staff or a partner. The later you start, the smaller the pool and the higher the cost. Also allow for sickness in the same period: do not plan on exactly zero margin.
• Approving leave request by request: first come, first served, and the rest of the team works the peak.
• Counting heads only: key roles away at the same time.
• Confirming leave late: employees book trips in the meantime, and refusing becomes painful.
• No cover arranged: the gap is filled with overtime from whoever is left, which hurts retention.
• Ignoring saved-up leave: people who take no time off all year want it in one go later, often at a bad moment.
• Are there fixed request deadlines for summer and Christmas, and does everyone know them?
• Does each department have a maximum number of people off at once, including key roles?
• Is leave in the same calendar as your occupancy forecast?
• Is there a fixed rule for sharing popular periods fairly?
• Do you confirm leave within an agreed time?
• Is cover for peak periods arranged as soon as leave is fixed?
AXXAZ Hospitality supplies reliable hospitality staff to hotels across Europe. If gaps appear in your rota during the holiday period, we fill them with candidates already pre-screened on availability, language and role, working from a clear staffing brief. Get in touch if you want to cover a period.
Plan holiday leave with fixed deadlines, a maximum per department and a fair allocation rule, and arrange cover for peak periods as soon as leave is fixed.