A holiday package surge hits apartment buildings hardest between Thanksgiving and early January, so the work starts in October. Measure today's volume, plan overflow space, set desk hours, and tell residents the rules before peak. URBI logs every parcel, alerts residents, and records each pickup.
This guide is written for the 2026 season, before the rush begins. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, and Cyber Monday on November 30. That leaves about five weeks to get ready.
How big will the holiday package surge be this year?
Nationally, the surge grows a little each year, but your building's peak can be far bigger than the national number. The national figure tells you the carriers will be busy. It does not tell you how full your package room will get.
- ShipMatrix forecast about 2.3 billion packages for the 2025 peak season, up 5% from the year before, as reported by Supply Chain Dive in October 2025.
- The Postal Service said in October 2025 it raised daily package processing capacity from 60 million to 88 million. That is capacity, not deliveries, but it means carriers can push more parcels to your door at once.
- Local numbers can be much steeper. Castle Lanterra's founder and CEO, Elie Rieder, told Multifamily Executive in November 2024 that package volume at his properties had doubled from the year before. The firm hired seasonal temporary staff to keep up.
So skip the national multiplier. Plan from your own counts.
How much overflow storage does a building need for peak?
You need enough space for the packages that arrive each day multiplied by the number of days they sit before pickup. That second number matters as much as the first. A building that halves the wait halves the pile.
Here is a worked example with made up numbers for a 200 unit building. Swap in your own counts.
| Scenario | Packages arriving per day | Average days on the shelf | Packages waiting at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal October week | 60 | 1.5 | 90 |
| Peak week, no changes | 100 | 3 | 300 |
| Peak week, faster pickup | 100 | 1.5 | 150 |
In this example, peak volume goes up by two thirds. The pile more than triples, because residents travel and pickups slow down. Getting pickups back to normal speed cuts the pile in half. That is why reminders are a storage tool.
Set your overflow plan before you need it:
- Pick the overflow room now. It must lock, and only package staff should have access.
- Set the trigger. For example, open overflow when the main room passes 80% full, not when parcels hit the floor.
- Log overflow parcels the same way. A package in the overflow room still needs a shelf location in the record.
- Keep hallways and exits clear. Never stack overflow in corridors, stairwells, or fire exits.
Waiting parcels are also a theft risk. In an October 2025 Security.org survey of 3,307 adults, apartment residents were victimized 3.5 times more often than homeowners in the prior three months. Our guide to sizing package lockers covers the permanent capacity question. This section is about getting through eight weeks.
How should you staff the package room for November and December?
Staff for the minutes the work takes, measured in your own building, not for a rule of thumb. Start counting now, while volume is still normal.
- Count for two weeks. Track packages per day, the hours carriers arrive, and how many items are oversized.
- Time the work. Logging, shelving, searching for a lost parcel, and handing one over all take minutes. Add them up per day.
- Map coverage to delivery windows. Most parcels arrive in a few busy hours. Put your people there, plus the evening pickup rush.
- Plan the holidays themselves. Decide now who covers Thanksgiving weekend, December 24 and 25, and December 31 and January 1, or post that the room is closed.
- Bring in help early. Seasonal temporary staff, like Castle Lanterra used, cause less disruption than pulling leasing staff off their work for two months.
Some operators also make pickup more pleasant. Bonaventure set up gift wrapping stations so residents would collect packages sooner, Multifamily Executive reported. Its founder and CEO, Dwight Dunton, put the season plainly: "The holidays take a problem like package management and multiply it."
Write the plan down. Our package room procedure template gives you a starting document, and the package room workflow guide covers the daily steps.
What should residents be told before peak, and when?
Residents should hear the holiday rules in early November, before volume climbs, and then get short reminders as it does. New rules announced in the middle of December feel like a punishment. The same rules sent in November feel like planning.
| When | What to tell residents |
|---|---|
| Early November | The right address and unit format, pickup hours and location, and how long parcels can stay. |
| Before Thanksgiving | Holiday desk hours and closures, what to do while traveling, who may collect for them, and the rules for food and large items. |
| Through December | Arrival alerts, reminders for parcels waiting too long, and where to report a missing package. |
| Late December and January | Whether the desk accepts outgoing returns, what label is needed, and when carriers collect them. |
Keep each notice short and give it one job. A notice that answers "when can I pick up" gets read. A four page holiday policy does not.
How should a building handle perishable deliveries?
Treat food and flowers as urgent: log them first, alert the resident right away, and decide now whether your building will refrigerate them at all. Many package rooms have no fridge, and staff should not guess about food safety.
- The USDA advises that mailed perishables should arrive frozen or partially frozen. Chilled food that is not frozen should read below 40 °F on a food thermometer.
- For food that arrives warm, the same USDA guidance says not to eat it, not even a taste.
- Ask residents to schedule food and meal kit deliveries for times they are home.
- Post a clear rule on what staff will do with a perishable that is not collected the same day.
Where do oversized items go during the surge?
Oversized items need their own zone and their own process, because one sofa box can take the space of forty small parcels. Count them separately in your two week tally.
Stephanie Dryer, a community manager in Brea, California, told Multifamily Executive in 2024 that her residents now get frequent deliveries of furniture, artwork, and appliances. Items like these will not fit a locker.
- Mark a floor zone for large items, away from walkways.
- Ask residents to book the elevator and collect large items within a set window. Our elevator booking guide explains how buildings schedule this.
- Decide whether staff will help carry heavy items, and say so in the November notice.
Lockers and rooms only work if drivers use them. The same Multifamily Executive report notes that many drivers still pile packages on the floor despite the spending on package rooms. Our guide on delivery drivers ignoring the package room covers the fixes.
How do you plan for January returns?
Plan returns as a second wave that runs through January, with its own shelf and its own rules. Gifts that do not fit go back, and many residents will try to leave them at the desk.
The National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, a UPS company, said in October 2025 that retailers expected 17% of holiday sales to be returned. That is a share of sales value, not a parcel count, but it shows the wave is real.
- Decide whether the desk accepts outgoing returns at all.
- If it does, require a printed label and keep returns on a separate shelf from incoming parcels.
- Record when each return was handed to a carrier, so nobody argues later about where it went.
- Tell residents the carrier pickup times, so returns do not sit for days.
How does URBI help a building get through the holiday package surge?
URBI turns the package room into a record. That record keeps the pile small and the arguments short.
- Fast logging. Staff photograph the shipping label, and the AI scanner reads the tracking number, carrier, and unit for staff to confirm.
- Arrival alerts. The resident gets a push notification as soon as the parcel is logged.
- Reminders while it waits. URBI keeps reminding the resident while a parcel sits, which is how you get pickup times back down.
- Pickup records. URBI records who picked up each parcel and when, so a "missing" package has an answer.
- Lockers and desk together. URBI works with smart lockers for small parcels, while the desk logs the large ones.
- Holiday notices, drafted for you. A manager can ask HERO, URBI's AI for the building team, to draft the holiday package notice. The manager reviews and approves it, and URBI delivers it by push, in the app, and by email.
See how the pieces fit for apartments and condos on our residential buildings page.
Frequently asked questions
How much extra package storage does an apartment building need for the holidays?
It depends on two numbers: packages arriving per day and how many days they sit. Multiply them to estimate how many parcels wait at once. A building that sees deliveries rise by two thirds can see its pile triple if residents travel and stop collecting. Count your own volume for two weeks in early November, then size overflow for your peak week. Faster pickup reminders often save more space than new shelving.
What should happen to packages when residents travel over the holidays?
Set the rule in early November and send it before Thanksgiving. Common options are pausing deliveries, naming a neighbor or family member who may collect, or allowing a longer hold for residents who tell the desk they are away. Whatever you choose, record who collected each parcel. That record protects the resident, the staff, and the building if a package goes missing while someone is out of town.
Should the front desk accept outgoing holiday returns?
Only if you can run it as its own process. That means a printed label on every return, a separate shelf from incoming parcels, and a record of when each one went to the carrier. Retailers expected 17% of 2025 holiday sales to come back, so January can be busy. If the desk cannot handle that, say so early and point residents to nearby carrier drop off points instead.
The holiday package surge is predictable, which means it is plannable. Count now, set the rules in early November, and give every parcel a record. To see how URBI runs package operations for your building, write to hello@myurbi.co or visit myurbi.co.
