Gift Vouchers and Gift Cards for Hotels

What gift vouchers should a hotel sell?

Named experiences, such as a night’s stay, a break with dinner and breakfast, afternoon tea or a spa day, and money values that can be spent on any of them. A money card is the simplest to run, because it holds a value rather than a stay: when your prices change, it’s still worth what it says.

Hotel voucher software offers the same two kinds. The Access Group’s hotel voucher software, for example, lists money vouchers such as £50 or £100, and experience vouchers such as afternoon tea, a spa day or a romantic retreat.

Both midweek ideas come from the help centre of Giftpro, a gift voucher platform for hotels, restaurants and spas: a midweek escape that can only be used Sunday to Thursday, and afternoon tea for two, which it calls simple to fulfil midweek.

Larkhollow House is a made-up hotel. Both cards share the back shown under booking with a card.

Print the item or the amount, never both: a printed price is out of date the day your prices change. Each printed experience or value is a separate design, quoted separately, with a minimum of 25 cards per design. To stock one design instead, add a write-on panel and fill in the amount or the stay when the card is sold. Our gift card printing guide compares the four ways to set cards up.

Running a restaurant or bar as well? See gift cards for restaurants, pubs and bars.

How do guests book with a hotel gift card?

They quote the card number when they book, online, by email or at reception. Staff check the number in your register or voucher system before confirming the booking, and ask to see the card when the guest arrives, before marking it used or noting any balance left, so no card is spent twice. Seeing the card matters, because numbers in order are easy to guess.

1. The card number, printed on every card from a start number you give us.
2. How to book, quoting that number.
3. When it can be used: subject to availability, and any dates it can’t be.
4. A write-on panel for the valid-until date, filled in when the card is sold.
5. A QR code to your full terms. The same code on every card costs nothing extra.

Put blackout dates and peak periods in the terms, in plain words: “Not valid on bank holiday weekends” tells a guest more than “subject to restrictions”. Show them where buyers see them before they pay, on your website and at reception, as well as on the card or wallet. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance on writing a fair contract for customers says a term that could significantly affect a customer must be made prominent, and important information shared early.

Here are lines to adapt for the back of the card or the wallet: change the words in brackets to match how you work.

They’re a starting point, not legal advice: your terms are your decision, and they should match what you say on your website and at reception. An expiry date must be clear and the terms fair: see gift card VAT and expiry rules. For more wording, see gift card terms and conditions.

Keep a register of every card: its number, what it’s for, when it was sold and whether it’s been used. A notebook or a spreadsheet will do, and our gift card register template is a free one to download.

Can printed gift cards work with an online voucher platform?

Often, yes, but check with your platform before you order. Platforms such as Giftpro create a unique code for each voucher when a buyer orders, then email it or send a printed voucher in the post. A plastic card fits in when you post vouchers yourself, or hand them over at reception, with each card matched to the platform’s voucher.

Physical cards still sell: in the second half of 2025, physical gift cards were 46% of the sales reported by members of the Gift Card & Voucher Association, and those sales grew 21% on a year earlier.

We read each platform’s own pages in November 2026. Features change, so confirm with your provider.

When you post vouchers yourself, a card bought online reaches the guest like this:

1. OrderA buyer orders on your voucher page and chooses a posted voucher.
2. MatchTake the next numbered card and note its number against the voucher in your register.
3. PostWrite the buyer’s message inside a landscape wallet and post the card in it.
4. BookThe guest books quoting the number. You check it before confirming, and see the card when they arrive.

Before you order, ask your platform three things: can you post vouchers yourself, can it record your own card numbers or import a list of them, and how long are its codes? If it can take your numbers, order cards numbered in the format it asks for. If not, a write-on panel leaves room for staff to write its code on each card.

If your platform offers plastic cards of its own, ask about the lead time and minimum order: Giftpro’s packaging page, for example, says its plastic cards come with a slightly longer lead time and a higher minimum order than its other packaging. Ours start at 25 cards, and production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment.

Can one gift card work across a hotel group?

Yes. Print one design for the whole group, valid at every hotel, or a design for each hotel in a shared style. Either way, say on the card where it can be used, and keep one register or voucher system that every hotel can check.

• One design for the group is the simplest to stock: any card works anywhere, and the hotels can be listed on the back or inside the wallet.
• A design for each hotel is quoted as a separate design, with a minimum of 25 cards each. If the only change is colour, colour variants of one design cost nothing extra when ordered as one job.
• A start number for each hotel, such as 10001 at one and 20001 at the next, shows where a card was sold. Re-orders carry on from the last number issued.
• The same terms everywhere, so a guest gets the same answer at every reception.

Whether VAT is due when you sell a card or when it’s spent depends on what it can be spent on, so check with your accountant. Our page on gift card VAT and expiry rules explains the two kinds.

Company orders

If a company asks for a batch of cards for its staff or clients, you can sell it cards from your stock and record each number as a sale. For named cards, personalisation prints each person’s name from an Excel file, priced on your quote, and our bureau personalisation service can hold your printed cards in stock and add names whenever you email a list. For more on winning company orders, see selling gift cards to local companies.

How should a hotel present a gift card?

In a landscape wallet if you post it, and in a card sleeve if you hand it over at reception. A card handed over bare undersells what the customer has just paid for. Presentation matters to the trade too: a quarter of the members surveyed for the Gift Card & Voucher Association’s State of the Nation 2024 report said better packaging for physical gift cards will be important in the coming years.

1. The message, handwritten on the inside, as in a greetings card.
2. Die cut slits hold the card by two corners, so it faces the reader the right way up when the wallet opens.
3. The crease. Folded, the wallet is 75 x 105mm, so it fits a standard envelope.

Our landscape wallets start at £89.00 +vat for 25, printed in full colour on both sides of 350gsm silk board, so the outside can carry your branding and the inside your terms. They’re produced alongside your cards and supplied unattached. Our card carriers and wallets page has all four formats and their prices, and our guide to designing a gift card carrier covers the templates.

At reception, a card sleeve is quicker: a printed pocket 87 x 60mm with a thumb notch, printed on the outside front and back. Hotels hand key cards over in the same sleeves at check-in, and the back has room for how to book and the valid-until date.

A premium card

For a card that feels special in the hand, there are two routes.

On our metallic hot foil cards a barcode or QR code has to be the same on every card, so if each card needs its own number, ask us before you design it. Full colour with metallic foiling takes a different code on each card, and keeps the white box a code needs to scan. There’s no postal proof for hot foil cards, but you can ask for a sample colour to be posted to you.

What should a hotel order, and what does it cost?

Numbered cards for each stay or value you sell, and wallets for the ones you post. A sensible first order:

• Full colour gift cards, 86 x 54mm and 760 microns thick, printed on both sides: a design for each stay or value, or one design with a write-on panel for either.
• A number on the back of every card, from a start number you choose. If guests can use a card online without showing it, add a random secret code under a scratch-off panel as well.
• A write-on panel for the valid-until date.
• A QR code to your booking page or full terms, built into your artwork at no extra cost.
• Premium Matt (£20 +vat per order) or High Gloss (included).
• Landscape wallets for posting (from £89.00 +vat for 25), or card sleeves for reception.

Numbering, write-on panels and scratch-off panels are priced on your quote. Most small businesses start with 100 to 250 cards, and gift cards sell all year: in the Gift Card & Voucher Association’s State of the Nation 2025 research, 66% of UK gift card buyers had bought one for a birthday in the past 12 months, and 45% for Christmas.

Email sales@cpcards.co.uk or use our gift card quote form. We often reply within minutes, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Send your artwork at 92 x 60mm with 3mm of bleed, or your logo and wording for our in-house design service, £29 +vat. Ask us if you’d like the wallet designed with it.

Our gift cards are printed in full colour on both sides, then bonded between clear PVC sheets and cut, so the print can’t scratch or wear off. Every order gets a free email proof, so you can check the layout and wording before anything is printed. The colours on the proof are a guide only, because every screen shows colour differently. If a colour has to be right, add a postal proof.

Production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability.

How much do they cost?

Gift cards start at £75.00 +vat for 25, and the price per card falls as the quantity goes up, because much of the work in an order is the same whatever the quantity.

Prices are for one design from your print-ready artwork. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. They exclude VAT and extras such as numbering and write-on panels, which are priced on your quote.

Need key cards for your rooms? Hotel key cards are a separate product. For loyalty and membership cards, see plastic cards for hotels.