The ultraviolet, visible, and near IR (0.8–2.4μm) luminescence spectra of BaY 2 F 8 single crystals heavily doped with Ho 3+ ions (10 and 30mol%) have been investigated at room temperature and 12K, together with the luminescence decay curves (up to 300μs) of the visible emission. Excitation in the visible region gives rise to very strong emission bands originating from the first 5 I 7 level and located around 2070nm. However the 5 I 7 emission is not observed upon excitation at wavelengths shorter than 300nm. The inter-ionic processes are found to shorten the decay times of the levels emitting in the visible region with respect to the corresponding radiative lifetimes.