The Chinese New Year Rush: Running Your Salon's Biggest Month Without Breaking It

For most Singapore salons the fortnight before Chinese New Year is the year’s revenue in miniature: every chair full, every customer wanting the same three days, staff wanting the same days off, and the distributor closed exactly when the colour runs out. It is also the month that decides how many of those customers come back in March. Here is how to plan it so the peak pays for the lull.

Open the book early, and shape it

The customers who book in December are your regulars; the ones who call on the last weekend before the festival are strangers who will pay anything today and never return. Open CNY bookings six to eight weeks out and message your regulars first — they get the slots they want, and you fill the calendar with people whose lifetime value justifies the chaos. Then deliberately keep a few late slots at a premium for the strangers.

Deposits that actually hold

Deposits are normal in Singapore for the CNY window. One chain’s published CNY 2026 terms set a S$20 deposit per booking, non-refundable for cancellations under five days out and for no-shows. Nothing in consumer law prevents a deposit or a no-show fee; under the Court of Appeal’s 2024 restatement of the rules on forfeiting deposits, a deposit is enforceable if it was reasonable when agreed. Reasonable means proportionate — S$20 to S$50 against a S$150 service — and stated up front, in writing, at booking.

Collect it by PayNow. The MAS and ABS PayNow study puts it in the hands of more than nine in ten adults, and there is no card fee to argue about — though remember you may not add a surcharge for a customer paying by PayNow; the banks’ own merchant surcharge rules forbid it for every merchant.

Surcharges: common, but say so early

Most salons apply a CNY surcharge, on TheSmartLocal’s February 2026 count. The same chain charged S$20 per service from 15 January to 15 February 2026; nail and lash studios, which Stomp found holding on to theirs, run S$5 to S$30, often stepped up as the date approaches. Customers accept it when it is announced in December and printed on the booking confirmation; they resent it when they discover it at the counter. A minority of salons have gone the other way and advertise no surcharge — a legitimate marketing position for a heartland salon whose customers are price-sensitive, and worth a thought if every competitor charges one.

Stock before the shutters

Your distributor is closing for the same holiday you are busiest for. Double the reorder point on colour, developer and your top five retail lines in early January, and treat the delivery before the shutdown as the last one — because it is. Running out of the one shade half your regulars use on the second-last day is a loss you never see in a report; it simply becomes a walk-out.

Staff: the roster decides everything

Everyone wants the same two days off, and some of your team want to travel home. Fix the CNY roster in November with the incentive attached — a peak-week bonus per service, or a premium for the last two days — and publish it. Staff who know in advance turn up; staff who find out in January call in sick. Attendance that is actually recorded, not remembered, is what makes the bonus fair and the arguments short.

What most vendors won’t tell you

No software fills a February that follows a heroic January — the demand simply moved. What software does is make the peak legible: which customers came for the first time, who booked and did not show, who bought retail. That is the list for the win-back message three weeks later, and it is the only reason the rush leaves anything behind.

The month after

The customers who came for the first time in the rush are your acquisition for the year — if anyone follows up. A message in the third week of February to every first-timer, with a genuine offer for a quiet Tuesday, turns a stranger into a regular for the price of one WhatsApp. On EaseSeat, the appointment book, reminders and the first-visit list live together, so the February message goes to exactly the right people — see the platform, or book a demo before your next December.

Sources

• HairForm — Chinese New Year 2026 surcharge and deposit terms: https://www.hairform.sg/chinese-new-year-2026
• Covenant Chambers — Court of Appeal clarifies the framework on forfeiture of deposits (2024): https://www.covenantchambers.com/articles/case-update-court-of-appeal-clarifies-framework-on-forfeiture-of-deposits
• Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Association of Banks in Singapore — PayNow Generation 2 study, June 2026: https://www.mas.gov.sg/news/media-releases/2026/mas-and-abs-chart-instant-payments-enhancements-with-paynow-generation-2-study
• Association of Banks in Singapore — merchant surcharge prohibition FAQ, November 2025: https://abs.org.sg/docs/library/merchant-surcharge-prohibition-faq.pdf
• TheSmartLocal — salons with no CNY surcharge, 7 February 2026: https://thesmartlocal.com/read/salons-with-no-cny-surcharge/
• Stomp — hair salons drop festive premiums, nail and lash studios retain: https://www.stomp.sg/big-picture/no-cny-surcharge-here-hair-salons-drop-festive-premiums-nail-and-lash-studios-retain

All figures retrieved 4 September 2026.