What Toy Fair Can Teach Hotels About Creating Low-Season Demand
A hotel needs business in February.
What does the commercial team usually do?
Launch a promotion.
Call travel advisors.
Increase paid media.
Offer a fourth night free.
Push an OTA campaign.
Perhaps attend another travel trade show.
All of those tactics have a place.
But what if the better question were:
Who already has an audience we want and what could we create together?
That is where Toy Fair becomes unexpectedly relevant to hospitality.
The Toy Association recently confirmed that Toy Fair will remain at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center through 2032. The 121st edition will take place February 20–23, 2027, followed by four-day February shows every year through 2032.
Toy Fair is enormous in scope. It is the largest trade-only toy and play marketplace in the Western Hemisphere, bringing together manufacturers, retailers, inventors, licensors, entertainment executives, media and other professionals involved in the business of play. The Association says professionals from more than 100 countries attended the 2026 edition, including all of the top 25 U.S. toy retailers and more than 1,000 members of the press.
For New York hotels, that is convention business.
But for the wider hospitality industry, Toy Fair represents something more interesting.
It is an example of how an entirely different industry can create hotel demand.
And perhaps hotels should be looking for more of those industries.
February Makes the Story Even More Interesting
Toy Fair's commitment to New York is particularly relevant because of when the show takes place.
February is not October in Manhattan.
CoStar reported that January and February were New York City's two lowest-demand hotel months in 2025. January occupancy stood at 70.1%, followed by 73.4% in February. October, by comparison, reached 89.6%.
That is precisely why events matter.
A convention can create a reason for thousands of people to travel to a city at a specific moment.
Exhibitors need rooms.
Buyers need rooms.
Media need rooms.
Executives host dinners.
Companies book suites.
Brands rent meeting spaces.
Clients entertain.
Teams arrive early to build booths and remain after the show closes.
The Toy Association even operates an official hotel program for Toy Fair attendees through onPeak, illustrating how deeply accommodation is integrated into the trade-show ecosystem.
For hotels, that is demand creation in its purest form.
The guest did not necessarily think:
"I want to visit New York in February."
They thought:
"I need to go to Toy Fair."
New York and its hotels benefited from the purpose behind the trip.
That distinction should matter enormously to resort operators struggling with low season.
Hotels Are Often Fishing in the Same Pond
Most hotel sales teams pursue demand within a familiar ecosystem.
Travel advisors.
Tour operators.
Wholesalers.
OTAs.
Meeting planners.
Consortia.
Tourism boards.
Travel trade shows.
Again, these relationships are essential.
But every hotel in the competitive set is often chasing many of the same buyers.
What happens if the hotel steps outside that ecosystem?
A family resort could speak with toy companies.
A wellness property could build relationships at wellness and fitness expos.
A lifestyle hotel could attend design, fashion or music gatherings.
A resort with exceptional automotive access could partner with a luxury car company.
A culinary hotel could explore food, wine and beverage exhibitions.
A property targeting creators could look at film, photography, gaming or technology conferences.
The purpose is not necessarily to exhibit at every show.
The purpose is to discover communities that already contain your future guests.
That is a very different way of thinking about demand generation.
Imagine a Resort Partnering With a Toy Company
Consider a hypothetical 200-room family resort with a weak September.
Occupancy forecast: 42%.
Management could launch:
35% OFF SEPTEMBER
It might work.
But another strategy could begin months earlier at Toy Fair.
The hotel identifies a toy company launching a new children's product in the fall.
Instead of buying only media, the resort proposes a partnership.
For one September weekend, the hotel becomes the launch destination.
A section of rooms receives themed welcome amenities. Children receive an exclusive toy on arrival. The company creates supervised play sessions. A designer or inventor hosts a workshop. One ballroom becomes an interactive play lab. The resort stages a family tournament or challenge. The toy brand invites creators and media. Both companies market the weekend to their databases.
Now the message is no longer:
Come because September is cheap.
It is:
Come because your child can be part of something that only happens here.
The same 200 rooms still exist.
But the hotel has created a new reason to occupy them.
And the Economics Can Be Better Than a Discount
Imagine the resort normally sells at $450 per night.
A 30% discount reduces the rate to $315.
Across 100 occupied rooms for three nights, that represents $40,500 of ADR given away compared with the original $450 rate.
Now imagine instead that the hotel maintains a $425 package rate and includes a toy with a $100 retail value but the toy partner supplies it as part of the collaboration.
The guest perceives value.
The resort protects rate.
The toy manufacturer gets product trial, content, direct consumer interaction and media exposure.
There may also be sponsorship income, F&B spend, additional family members, room upgrades, spa revenue and extensions around the main weekend.
The partnership begins to look less like a hotel promotion and more like co-created demand.
That is the important difference.
This Is Not Just Theory: Barbie Has Already Checked Into a Hilton
Hospitality and toy brands have already demonstrated what can happen when intellectual property crosses into hotels.
Hilton Bogotá Corferias worked with Mattel to create a Barbie-themed suite inspired by the iconic doll. Hilton's own announcement credited Mattel as a partner in creating the experience, which was designed around nostalgia and immersion rather than simply placing Barbie merchandise inside a hotel room.
Why does something like that work?
Because the hotel gains access to something far more powerful than décor:
an existing emotional relationship.
People already know Barbie.
Parents know Barbie.
Children know Barbie.
Collectors know Barbie.
Adults who played with Barbie 25 years ago know Barbie.
The hotel does not have to manufacture awareness from zero.
It borrows cultural relevance from an established intellectual property — while giving that property a physical world in which consumers can participate.
That is much more powerful than another generic room package.
LEGO Takes the Idea Even Further
LEGOLAND hotels demonstrate the concept at full scale.
At LEGOLAND California Hotel, the brand extends LEGO play into themed guestrooms, separate children's sleeping spaces, build areas, in-room treasure hunts, nightly entertainment and early theme-park access. New DUPLO-themed rooms introduced in 2026 target younger builders as well.
In this case the hotel is part of the intellectual property.
The child does not leave LEGO behind at the park gate.
The experience continues into the room.
That offers conventional resorts an important lesson.
You do not necessarily need to become a theme park.
But if you partner with a brand, do not stop at a branded pillow and a gift bag.
Create participation.
The Real Opportunity Is Audience Sharing
This is where hotel marketers should think differently.
A strong brand partnership creates access to two audiences.
The hotel has:
Past guests.
Email subscribers.
Social followers.
Travel advisors.
Local customers.
The partner has:
Customers.
Collectors.
Fans.
Retail relationships.
Creators.
Media.
Social followers.
Perhaps millions of them.
Combine the two and the economics of customer acquisition begin to change.
Instead of the hotel paying Google or Meta to find every prospective guest individually, the partner can introduce the hotel to a community that already exists.
That can be particularly powerful during low season when the hotel is willing to experiment with:
Buyouts.
Packages.
Events.
Themed rooms.
Residencies.
Launches.
Pop-ups.
Private previews.
These are difficult to execute when the property is running at 92% occupancy.
At 45%, the hotel suddenly has something extremely valuable:
space.
Low Season Can Become an Incubator
Hotels often describe low occupancy as a weakness.
For partnerships, it can be an advantage.
There is room to transform a restaurant.
Rooms can be themed temporarily.
A ballroom can become a showroom.
Pool decks can host activations.
Brands can bring creators.
Media can stay onsite.
Photography can take place without disturbing peak-season operations.
Teams can experiment with concepts that would be impossible over Christmas or spring break.
This reframes low season completely.
Instead of:
“How do we fill empty rooms?”
ask:
“What can we do with this hotel when we have more creative space?”
That is a far more interesting commercial question.
Toy Fair Is Trade-Only Which Actually Makes It More Useful
One important factual distinction: Toy Fair itself is not open to the general public. It is a qualified trade event, and consumers cannot simply purchase tickets to attend.
A family resort attending or networking around an event like Toy Fair is looking for the companies that already understand parents.
Toy manufacturers.
Licensors.
Entertainment companies.
Retailers.
Inventors.
Media.
Content creators.
Those organizations may become:
Brand partners.
Event sponsors.
Corporate groups.
Product-launch clients.
Room-block customers.
Pop-up collaborators.
Amenity suppliers.
Seasonal programming partners.
The real prospect at an adjacent-industry show may not be the end consumer.
It may be the company that can bring the end consumer to you later.
What Other Shows Should Hotels Be Looking At?
This is where the strategy becomes much larger than toys.
Imagine a resort analyzing its lowest three months and then identifying communities capable of traveling during those periods.
A wellness resort could develop partnerships around a fitness expo, nutrition conference or wellness technology event. A culinary property might work with a premium beverage company after meeting at a food-and-drink exhibition. A design hotel could collaborate with a furniture or fashion house. A resort wanting more affluent men during a soft period might explore golf, automotive or watch communities.
Gaming may be particularly interesting.
A hotel could host a gaming weekend involving a publisher, tournament, creator meet-up and family or adult gaming packages.
Beauty creates another opportunity. A resort could become the destination for a skincare brand's retreat, product launch or consumer weekend.
Music has already demonstrated its ability to create travel on its own.
Film can do the same.
Sports can do the same.
Art can do the same.
The recurring question is:
Which industry already owns the customer we want?
Hotels Should Build an “Adjacent Demand Calendar”
This could become a practical new commercial tool.
Alongside the traditional annual trade-show calendar, a hotel should build a second calendar tracking events outside hospitality.
Not 200 random conferences.
Only those connected to target guests.
A family resort might monitor Toy Fair, Licensing Expo, children's entertainment, gaming, education and parenting events.
A luxury property might monitor art fairs, yacht shows, watch fairs, automotive events, design weeks and luxury retail gatherings.
A wellness hotel might watch fitness, longevity, nutrition, beauty and health-tech events.
The commercial team can then ask:
Which brands should we meet?
Which companies could bring groups?
Who is launching something?
Who needs a destination for content?
Who has a community but no physical hospitality product?
Where can our rooms, restaurants, beach, spa or location become part of their marketing?
Suddenly, trade shows become partnership intelligence, not merely sales events.
The Partnership Has to Make Sense
There is a danger here.
Hotels can become so enthusiastic about collaborations that they create gimmicks with no connection to the property.
A quiet adults-only retreat probably should not host a giant children's toy weekend.
A minimalist wellness property does not need a fluorescent entertainment activation simply because sponsorship money is available.
The partner should strengthen the hotel's positioning.
For a family property, toys make obvious sense.
For an art hotel, perhaps not.
The strongest collaboration lives at the intersection of:
Who the hotel is + who the partner is + what the guest wants.
If one of those pieces is missing, the partnership may generate attention without generating loyalty.
Events Can Also Fix a Destination Problem
The idea becomes even more powerful when several hotels participate.
Imagine a beach destination that struggles every September.
Rather than 20 hotels launching 20 separate discount campaigns, the destination could create:
Family Play Week
Toy manufacturers participate.
Hotels adopt different brand partners.
Restaurants offer family programming.
The tourism board promotes the event.
Airlines build packages.
Creators attend.
One hotel hosts a LEGO-style construction event. Another partners with a board-game company. Another stages a children's design lab.
Now the destination has manufactured an entirely new travel occasion.
That is how low season begins to change structurally.
Not through:
30% OFF
but through:
You should come in September because September is when this happens.
Toy Fair Itself Is Proof That Calendars Can Create Demand
The Toy Association's new agreement with Javits through 2032 is interesting for exactly this reason.
The dates are now known years in advance:
February 20–23, 2027; February 26–29, 2028; February 24–27, 2029; February 23–26, 2030; February 22–25, 2031; and February 21–24, 2032.
That certainty is valuable to exhibitors.
It is valuable to attendees.
It is valuable to Javits.
And it is valuable to hotels.
Everyone can plan.
Room blocks.
Meetings.
Events.
Budgets.
Staffing.
Client dinners.
Travel.
That is what great demand generators do.
They create a date that matters.
Hotels can learn from that.
Your resort's September wellness weekend becomes stronger if it happens every September.
Your culinary festival becomes stronger if travelers know it returns annually.
Your toy collaboration becomes more powerful if families expect a new edition each year.
Eventually, the event itself becomes part of the destination calendar.
And when that happens, the hotel is no longer filling low season.
It has created its own high-demand moment inside low season.
FerrConn Hospitality Insider Perspective
Hotels spend a great deal of time discussing where demand comes from.
Perhaps we should spend more time asking where it could come from.
Toy Fair offers an unexpected lesson.
A toy convention has nothing to do with traditional hotel distribution, yet it brings thousands of professionals to New York in February, historically one of the city's softer hotel months. It generates accommodation demand, meetings, entertainment, restaurants and business activity because it gives people a reason to travel at a specific time.
Hotels can apply that thinking at a much smaller scale.
A family resort does not need to wait for school vacation.
Partner with a toy company and create a reason for families to travel before it.
A wellness property does not need to wait for wellness travelers to discover it.
Partner with a fitness or wellbeing brand and bring its community to the property.
A luxury hotel can work with fashion, watches, art or automotive brands.
A culinary resort can bring chefs, wine producers and food companies together.
The hotel already has what many consumer brands desperately need:
a physical world.
Rooms.
Restaurants.
Pools.
Beaches.
Spas.
Stages.
People.
Service.
A destination.
Brands have something hotels desperately need:
audiences.
Put the two together thoughtfully and low-season marketing can become something much more creative than another rate promotion.
Perhaps that is the larger lesson from Toy Fair.
Hotels should continue going to travel shows.
But they should stop assuming that travel shows are the only places where travel demand begins.
Sometimes your next guest is standing at a toy convention.
Or an art fair.
Or a gaming expo.
Or a wellness conference.
They simply haven't been given a reason to book your hotel yet.
And creating that reason may be one of hospitality's most valuable commercial skills.
Sources & Official Links
The Toy Association has confirmed Toy Fair 2027 for February 20–23 at New York's Javits Center and its long-term New York schedule through 2032.
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
CoStar's analysis of New York City's hotel market shows why the February timing matters: the first two months of the year have typically been the city's lowest-demand period.
Hilton's Barbie suite in Bogotá provides a concrete example of a hotel partnering with Mattel to turn familiar toy IP into a hospitality experience.
LEGOLAND California illustrates the concept at a larger scale, integrating themed rooms, play areas, children's entertainment and LEGO activities directly into the stay.