Winter Olympics 2026: How to Increase Bookings for Your Holiday Home

October 2025

The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be one of the most important sporting events of the year, attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world. For managers of holiday homes located in the competition areas, this is a huge opportunity: besides increasing bookings for holiday homes during the Olympics, it will be possible to increase the average price per night and try to build loyalty with new customers. Let’s look at some advice on how to attract guests to your holiday home for the Olympics.

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The Numbers of the Winter Olympics

According to the National Olympic Committee, there will be 3,500 athletes competing in the Olympic Games, which will take place in Italy from February 6th to 22nd, 2026. The Olympic games will be followed shortly after by the Paralympics, which will be held from March 6th to 15th, 2026. Naturally, staff members and personnel who will manage the event will increase this number. 

Regarding the influx of tourists, total attendance is expected to be more than two million during the competition days. All of this translates into greater possibilities for you to rent out your holiday apartment and increase Airbnb Olympic bookings & bookings on other holiday rental platforms without too much effort, provided you follow a few guidelines.

How to Attract New Guests for the Olympics

One of the first aspects to focus on is visibility. To make your holiday home easily searchable online, you need to take some steps. Competition will be very fierce during that period, so those who move with the right timing can gain significant advantages. 

Bookings for holiday homes during the Olympics will start many months in advance. This is due to the fact that visitors plan their holidays early, especially when it comes to events of significant importance. By using a holiday rental portal like Holidu, you can improve your online positioning through a series of small adjustments, including: 

• A well-written house description, which highlights your property’s favorable location for reaching the venues where the Olympic Games will take place. 
• Use of an appealing title: in this case, too, it is essential to refer to your holiday apartment’s proximity to Olympic facilities.
• Highlighting available services, such as the possibility of reaching the venues via public transport.

Prepare a Functional Holiday Rental Website

The Winter Olympics will be an international showcase of great value. To make the most of the opportunity, you can create a holiday rental website to present all the positive aspects of the property to your potential guests, offering the opportunity to make a direct booking. Receiving this type of booking allows you to completely eliminate the commissions you would have to pay on most holiday rental portals. 

With an effective website, you can promote your holiday home during the Olympics and reduce the property’s management costs. Nowadays, creating a website is much easier than it was previously. Furthermore, if you use Holidu, you will have the opportunity to create a free and fully customisable website, so you can manage direct bookings with ease. Remember to also include prices and update them constantly. With Holidu, you have access to software that uses elaborate algorithms to find the best price per night based on seasonality and the bookings that occur in your area during a specific period. 

Try also to include availability for the following season. This will be very useful for building loyalty with satisfied customers and obtaining bookings well in advance. Finally, create a QR code for your website and leave it in a visible place in the property, or include it on a business card. This will be useful to show your guests your website & properties and encourage them to book a stay in the future.

How to Promote your Holiday Home for the Olympics with Google Business Profile

Bookings don’t just come through websites and holiday rental platforms! Google Maps can also help you effectively advertise your holiday home. To make the most of this opportunity, you must create a listing on Google Business Profile. By updating the listing, your holiday home will appear on Google Maps and in local search results, increasing the chances of receiving visits and guest bookings for the Olympics. 

To provide good results, your listing must contain: 

• The name of the property 
• The exact address of the holiday home 
• Professional photos of the apartment 
• A detailed description of the property, including how guests can travel to the Olympic venues and the proximity of the property to the venues
• Link to your website to receive direct bookings, if you have one

Create a Digital Guest Welcome Guide

The creation of a digital welcome guide cannot be missing from your preparation plan for your holiday home for the 2026 Olympics. The guide should ideally be written in Italian and English: many of your guests will come from abroad, so it is essential to make it accessible to as many people as possible. To prepare the digital guide, you can use a normal text editor, such as Office Word or Google Sheets. 

The most suitable format for saving the file is PDF. In addition to taking up less space, PDF is compatible with all the most commonly-used devices, from smartphones to notebooks, and tablets to e-readers. You can send the file via messaging programs such as WhatsApp, or make it downloadable via a QR code, to be placed in a prominent place in the home. 

Here are the elements to include in a digital guide: 

• Detailed instructions on the methods and times for check-in and check-out. To help guests, you can attach photographs, especially if you use a key box for key collection.
• GPS location and address of the holiday home.
• Main house rules, such as waste collection and quiet hours. 
• Emergency numbers, particularly 112, which is the European Single Emergency Number, and other useful contacts. 
• Information on public transport, updating it with possible timetable variations for relevant transport to the Winter Olympics. 
• Provide links to the websites of relevant train and bus companies: this will greatly help your guests plan their travel to the Olympic venues.
• Places of interest located nearby: think restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies and cultural sites/landmarks. Offering local landmarks should not be underestimated: considering that guests will stay at your holiday home primarily to follow the Olympic Games, helping them discover the most beautiful places in the area will certainly be appreciated. 
• Remember to focus on the most suitable nearby activities, including snowshoeing, markets, and spa facilities. Do not limit yourself to Cortina and Milan, but also provide information on locations such as Livigno, Bormio, and Val di Fiemme, where most of the competitions will take place.

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