When should a commercial property book holiday lighting?
Commercial properties should book holiday lighting early in the season. Properties that wait too long are bidding into the leftover slots on every reputable installer's calendar in the region, which means higher cost, shorter crews, and a compressed install window.
The commercial install calendar
Virginia has one of the longest install windows we work, and the mid-November line still holds because the limit here is the calendar, not the weather. Northern Virginia properties in McLean, Tysons and the Dulles corridor and Richmond West End retail around Short Pump all want to be lit before Thanksgiving, and the HOA and architectural review process across Fairfax and Loudoun counties adds weeks to the front end of any commercial scope. Our route starts in late September with the properties that need approvals, fills the Tysons and Reston office corridors in October, and times Old Town Alexandria and Short Pump retail for the start of the shopping season.
Why late October is the cutoff
Every installer serving Northern Virginia and Richmond builds its route from the front, with the properties that signed first. By mid-November the route is full and the remaining days are spoken for by weather contingencies and the commercial accounts already under contract. A property that signs after that is not buying an install date. It is buying a place in line for whatever days open up.
What late bookings actually cost
Rarely a different number on the quote. Usually a different outcome. Late bookings get the crews and days that are left, which means fewer people on site, a longer install, a display that is lit for less of the season it was bought for, and no slack to absorb a weather delay or a service call. On a retail property that is lost evening traffic. On an HOA entrance it is a board asking why the lights went up the week before Christmas.
How to lock a scope in 72 hours
Send the address, a contact who can walk the site, and the name of the person who signs. We walk the property, write one fixed-price scope covering design, commercial-grade product, install on a locked date, in-season service, takedown and storage, and hold a route slot while the signer reviews it. For most commercial properties that is about 72 hours from first call to a locked date.
Still unbooked? Request a commercial site walk or call (434) 505-8357. The full guide: when a commercial property should book holiday lighting. See also commercial annual service agreements.
Commercial Booking Questions
- Not necessarily, but late in the season a property in Northern Virginia and Richmond is bidding for leftover slots rather than choosing a date. Call immediately, have someone available to walk the site, and expect the install to land later in the season than it would have in October.
- Because commercial installs are scheduled as blocks of crew days, and the properties under contract have locked dates. Each signed scope removes days from the window, so the earliest signers get the best dates and the latest signers get what remains.
- Design and a site walk, commercial-grade product custom-cut to the frontage, an install on a locked date, in-season service at no extra charge, takedown and off-season storage, in one document and one number.
- Sign an annual service agreement after takedown. Contracted properties go on the route before public booking opens, which locks the install date, the scope and the pricing basis before the fall scramble starts.