How people search for hotel, restaurant and spa gift vouchers
Hospitality gift voucher searches are a Christmas business. In the UK, searches for restaurant, hotel, spa and afternoon tea vouchers peak in December, which alone accounts for 22% of the year. Spa and afternoon tea vouchers get a second, smaller peak in March for Mother’s Day. And the big voucher brands get far more searches than the vouchers themselves: 13 times as many.
The figures are monthly UK search estimates from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer for 40 searches, from September 2024 to August 2026. Nineteen are hospitality voucher searches, such as “restaurant vouchers”, “spa day vouchers” and “afternoon tea vouchers”. The rest are general gifting searches, occasions and voucher brands.
When do people search for hospitality vouchers?
Hospitality gift voucher searches through the year
Monthly UK searches across 19 restaurant, hotel, spa and afternoon tea voucher searches
- December searches
- 43,152
- November and December
- 35% of the year
- March vs February
- +14%
- Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
- Sep 2024 to Aug 2025
View as a table
| Month | Sep 2025 to Aug 2026 | Sep 2024 to Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 12,815 | 12,696 |
| Oct 2025 | 14,643 | 14,374 |
| Nov 2025 | 25,156 | 25,198 |
| Dec 2025 | 43,152 | 42,305 |
| Jan 2026 | 12,572 | 12,292 |
| Feb 2026 | 12,868 | 13,044 |
| Mar 2026 | 14,666 | 15,169 |
| Apr 2026 | 10,455 | 10,992 |
| May 2026 | 11,325 | 11,568 |
| Jun 2026 | 12,751 | 12,627 |
| Jul 2026 | 14,290 | 14,194 |
| Aug 2026 | 12,915 | 12,775 |
Source: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer · UK · September 2026
The shape is the same in both years:
- December is the peak. 43,152 searches in December 2025, more than four times April’s 10,455.
- November and December make up 35% of the year. October to December is 42%.
- March brings a second, smaller rise. Searches rose 14% from February to March 2026, when Mother’s Day falls.
Over the latest 12 months, the 19 searches added up to 197,608, almost exactly the same as the year before (+0.2%).
Which vouchers do people search for?
Which hospitality vouchers people search for
Average monthly UK searches
- afternoon tea vouchers 2,500
- restaurant vouchers 2,400
- spa vouchers 1,700
- spa day vouchers 1,400
- meal vouchers 1,300
- hotel gift vouchers 1,200
- restaurant gift vouchers 1,100
- spa gift vouchers 1,100
- hotel vouchers 1,000
- spa day gift 700
- cocktail making experience 450
- afternoon tea for two voucher 350
- dinner vouchers 350
- golf gift vouchers 350
- afternoon tea gift voucher 250
- pub gift vouchers 150
View as a table
| Keyword | Monthly searches |
|---|---|
| afternoon tea vouchers | 2,500 |
| restaurant vouchers | 2,400 |
| spa vouchers | 1,700 |
| spa day vouchers | 1,400 |
| meal vouchers | 1,300 |
| hotel gift vouchers | 1,200 |
| restaurant gift vouchers | 1,100 |
| spa gift vouchers | 1,100 |
| hotel vouchers | 1,000 |
| spa day gift | 700 |
| cocktail making experience | 450 |
| afternoon tea for two voucher | 350 |
| dinner vouchers | 350 |
| golf gift vouchers | 350 |
| afternoon tea gift voucher | 250 |
| pub gift vouchers | 150 |
Source: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer · UK · September 2026
| Type | Searches in 12 months | Share | Change from Feb to March |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, dinner and meal vouchers | 62,482 | 32% | −6.5% |
| Spa and spa day vouchers | 58,890 | 30% | +29.9% |
| Afternoon tea vouchers | 36,817 | 19% | +29.7% |
| Hotel and overnight stay vouchers | 27,795 | 14% | +7.6% |
September 2025 to August 2026. Source: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, UK, September 2026.
The Mother’s Day rise belongs to spas and afternoon tea, not restaurants. “mothers day afternoon tea” had 14,301 UK searches over the year, and 54% of them came in March. Hotel vouchers are the most Christmas-heavy of the four types: 25% of their year’s searches were in December.
How do voucher brands compare?
Voucher brands vs every hospitality voucher search
Average monthly UK searches, September 2025 to August 2026
- All 19 hospitality voucher searchesRestaurant, hotel, spa, afternoon tea and more, combined 16,467
- virgin experience days 118,000
- love2shop 62,000
- buyagift 51,000
- red letter days 40,000
- one4all gift card 39,000
- tastecard 12,000
- into the blue 3,600
View as a table
| Keyword | Type | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|
| All 19 hospitality voucher searches | Restaurant, hotel, spa, afternoon tea and more, combined | 16,467 |
| virgin experience days | 118,000 | |
| love2shop | 62,000 | |
| buyagift | 51,000 | |
| red letter days | 40,000 | |
| one4all gift card | 39,000 | |
| tastecard | 12,000 | |
| into the blue | 3,600 |
Source: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer · UK · September 2026
Voucher and experience brands get far more searches than the hospitality vouchers themselves. “virgin experience days” alone had about 1.4 million UK searches over the latest 12 months, seven times all 19 hospitality voucher searches combined. The four experience voucher brands together had 13 times as many.
That’s partly because people search for a brand they know. But it also means a lot of gift buyers start their search on a voucher site rather than with the hotel, restaurant or spa they’d like to give.
What does Google show for voucher searches?
Ahrefs recorded an AI Overview on 7 of the 19 hospitality voucher searches, covering 52% of their searches, including “restaurant vouchers”, “spa vouchers” and “afternoon tea vouchers”. The map pack appeared on only 2. None showed ads at the top of the page. People also ask appeared on 15 of the 19.
So a local venue’s voucher page isn’t competing with the map pack or ads. It’s competing with voucher sites and with an AI summary of them.
What does this mean for hotels, restaurants and spas?
Sell vouchers on your own website, all year. The searches are there in every month, not just December, and a voucher sold on your own site keeps the sale, and the customer, with you rather than a reseller.
Have the page ready by October. Searches start climbing in the autumn and peak in December. A voucher page that’s been live for a while has a better chance of being found by then.
Make a Mother’s Day offer if you’re a spa or serve afternoon tea. That’s where the March rise is.
Name what you sell. “afternoon tea for two”, “spa day” and “overnight stay” are all searched for. A page for each experience, with the price, gives searchers and AI summaries something specific to show.
If you need a simple way to sell vouchers from your own website, GiftDesk sets up a branded voucher shop for independent hotels, restaurants and spas, with no monthly fee (5% per sale) and payments through Stripe. For getting the voucher page found, see SEO for hotels and local SEO.
How was this measured?
I used Ahrefs Keywords Explorer’s UK database to pull monthly search estimates for 40 gift voucher searches from September 2024 to August 2026, in four groups: hospitality vouchers, general gifting, occasions and voucher brands. Totals and year-on-year changes compare September 2025 to August 2026 with the 12 months before. Search result features are the ones Ahrefs recorded for each keyword in September 2026.
Limits. Ahrefs’ monthly figures are modelled estimates, so they’re best used for the shape of the year rather than exact counts. Some searches, like “spa vouchers” and “restaurant gift vouchers”, repeat almost the same curve in both years, which reflects that modelling. “meal vouchers” may include workplace meal voucher searches. Love2shop and One4all are retail gift cards and Tastecard is a dining membership, so the fairer comparison is with the four experience voucher brands. Brand searches include people checking an existing voucher, not just buyers.