In October 2026 we played the guest. One of us planned a group trip, sent the same email to 74 places to stay and timed every reply. We wanted to know one thing: how many replies gave us a quote we could say “yes, book it” to?
For our group, a normal hotel or villa quote came to $2,000 to $6,000. A resort package with meals and a meeting room came to about $17,000. 80% of the places replied, but only 28% sent a quote we could book. So 53 places never got us to a bookable quote. Only 15 of them ignored us. The other 38 were talking to us, and still lost the booking somewhere in the conversation.
How the test worked
We wrote to each place the way a real guest would, through its own booking email or contact form. We started a clock when our email landed and stopped it when a person wrote back.
- Our request. 6 adults, Monday 9 to Friday 13 November 2026. Two extra asks: a dinner together, and a quiet room to work in for one afternoon.
- Who we asked. 74 places: 28 villas and holiday rentals, 21 hotels, 17 hostels and 8 serviced apartments. 69% were in the US and 31% in the UK and Europe.
- What we counted. Did a person reply? How fast? Did they send a price? Did they send a bookable quote? Did they check in with us when we went quiet?
A price is not the same as a bookable quote
A price
“Our rooms are $495 a night.”
A number, or a link that shows one. It tells you what something costs. It does not tell you if it fits your trip.
A bookable quote
“3 rooms for 6 adults, 9 to 13 November, $4,280 in total. Dinner for 6 is fine on the 11th, and the library is free for your work afternoon.”
The right dates, the whole group, and an answer to both extra asks. You can say “yes” without asking anything else.
Why isn’t a price enough? Because a guest can’t book a price. In our test, one hotel sent a nightly rate but was full for two of our four nights. A villa sent a weekly rate for a house that sleeps 16. Both are prices. Neither could be booked. A link to a booking website also counted as a price, but never as a bookable quote, because the guest still has to do the work.
Results by type of place and country
Bookable quotes: 63% of serviced apartments, 12% of hostels
Share of each group that reached each step. Darker cells mean a higher share.
| Group | Places | Share of 74 | Replied | Sent a price | Bookable quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serviced apartments | n=8 | 11% | 100% | 88% | 63% |
| Hotels | n=21 | 28% | 86% | 71% | 38% |
| Villas and rentals | n=28 | 38% | 79% | 68% | 21% |
| Hostels | n=17 | 23% | 65% | 47% | 12% |
| UK and Europe | n=23 | 31% | 91% | 87% | 48% |
| US | n=51 | 69% | 75% | 57% | 20% |
| All places | n=74 | 100% | 80% | 66% | 28% |
- Serviced apartments did best. All 8 replied, and 63% sent a bookable quote.
- Hotels sent a bookable quote 38% of the time, about 2x as often as villas.
- Villas and rentals often sent a price that didn’t fit: a weekly rate, a house the wrong size, or just a link.
- Hostels did worst. 35% never replied, and only 12% sent a bookable quote.
- UK and Europe sent a bookable quote 48% of the time, about 2.4x the US rate of 20%.
Why the gap between countries? UK teams usually wrote the price in the email. US teams more often sent us to a website or asked us to call. In our second round, 95% of UK and Europe teams that replied sent a price (20 of 21), against 71% in the US (10 of 14). That round had only 40 places, so treat this as an early sign, not a rule.
Where the bookings got lost
28% of enquiries ended in a bookable quote
Places that reached each step, out of 74
This was not one email and done. Over two weeks, teams sent us more than 160 replies. We answered their questions and nudged when things went quiet, so every place had a fair chance to reach a quote.
The biggest drop is the last step. 57% of the prices we got (28 of 49) could not be booked as written. They had the wrong dates or group size, a weekly rate, a general price list, or no answer to our extra asks.
1. 20% of enquiries never reached a person
15 of 74 places (20%) never sent a reply from a person.
- 13 sent nothing at all. 2 sent only an automatic “we got your email” message.
- We wrote a second time to four of the silent places. None of them answered.
- Some of the silent places belong to big, well-known brands.
- One group-bookings inbox auto-replied that it was “not in use for group enquiries”.
- Hostels were the worst: 35% (6 of 17) never replied.
7 more places replied, then stopped answering halfway through.
- As far as we could tell, they weren’t full. They asked a question, we answered it, and we never heard back.
- Some asked us to phone or text instead, and went quiet when we asked to keep it on email.
- Add these to the 15 silent places, and 30% of enquiries (22 of 74) ended with nobody answering us.
It looks like many of these inboxes have no one in charge of them.
2. Price first, then ask
Pricing in the first reply made a bookable quote 2.5x more likely
Share of places that ended with a bookable quote
- 34 places started with questions. That is normal. Checking bed types or which hotel we meant is good service.
- 28 places sent us to a website, and some asked us to phone or move to WhatsApp.
The trouble came when a question replaced the price. Each extra back-and-forth email cost us about a day.
A better reply does both: “Here is a price for what you told us. Can you also tell us if you need twin beds?”
3. Speed vs. a complete answer
Only 10% of places (6 of 59) were both fast and complete: a reply within 4 hours that we could book.
Most teams pick speed or completeness. Guests need both.
Each dot is one of the 59 places that replied. Left means a faster first reply. Top means a bookable quote. Names are hidden.
- Bookable quote
- Not bookable
4. Follow-up
We went quiet on purpose, like a real guest comparing options. Only 11% of places (8 of 74) checked in on us, and those 8 had a median rank of #14.5 out of 74.
The 8 places that followed up all ranked in the top half
All 74 places by overall score rank, best on the left. Blue bars are the 8 that followed up.
Places that followed up sent a bookable quote 2.6x as often
Share of places that ended with a bookable quote
What good follow-up looked like
A Hawaii villa company (#2 of 74) checked in twice without being asked
Every email in the thread, by days since our first email
- Check in before the guest does. The Hawaii villa team checked in after 1 day and again after 5, while we were quiet.
- Give a reason to reply now. A Lake Tahoe villa team checked in before the weekend, and again after 8 days of silence.
- Make “yes” easy. A UK hostel held the room, sent an invoice with a pay link, and reminded us before the hold ran out.
The bad version: one US villa company sent a general “still interested?” email after its quote had already expired.
5. Software sent receipts, not quotes
36% of threads (27 of 74) showed some kind of software: ticket systems, automatic receipts, booking links and template emails. Only 7% (5 of 74) used it to send a quote.
- No place used software to answer our dinner or work-room asks.
- 15% of places (11 of 74) showed us a software mistake:
- One replied from a “no-reply” address, so our answer bounced back.
- One sent a “how did we do?” survey 73 seconds after our first email, before anyone had helped us.
- One sent a quote with template codes still in it, and another left “Street Address, City, Zip Code” unfilled.
- One sent us its internal email subject line.
- One opened a new ticket for every reply, so our messages got mixed up.
Seven fixes for your booking team
You can do all seven with the team you already have. Each one fixes a leak we measured.
- Give the inbox an owner. Someone should be in charge of every enquiry, including ones that arrive at night.
- Send a price, then ask. Price what the guest told you. Then ask about anything you still need.
- Make the first quote complete. Right dates, the whole group, and an answer to every extra ask, in one email.
- Write the number in the email. A link makes the guest work out the price on their own.
- Check in after 1 day and after 3 days, and always before a quote expires.
- Test your own system once a month. Send yourself an enquiry and read what comes back.
- Count bookable quotes, not just reply speed. If you only count speed, your team will send fast, empty replies.
An agentic inbox, with a human in the loop
The places that won sent the right dates, the whole group and an answer to every ask. Then they checked in. Your team has to do that at 11pm and on a busy check-out morning too.
Osvi’s agentic inbox reads every enquiry the moment it lands. It drafts a complete quote from your rates and rules, answers the extra asks, and follows up when the guest goes quiet. Your team stays in the loop: they approve big group quotes and make the judgment calls.
Where an agentic inbox moves your team
The same 59 places from finding 3. The agent drafts a complete quote in minutes, and a person approves it.
- Bookable quote
- Not bookable
- Osvi agentic inbox + human in the loop
Slow but complete teams keep their care and lose the wait. Fast but empty teams keep their speed and gain a real answer. Both land in the top-left box.
Want to see how your team would do in a test like this? Talk to us.
About the data
We ran this test with one guest and one request, from 7 to 22 October 2026.
- Small groups. Each type of place has 8 to 28 places, so we show the count next to each percentage.
- A slow guest. Like a real buyer comparing options, our guest often took 1 to 2 days to reply. We took our own waiting time out of every “time to price”.
- Two rounds. We sent the request in two rounds a week apart, with slightly different wording and send times.
- Sender address. 7 of the 74 places could have guessed who we were from our email address. Next time we will use a neutral one.
- One reviewer. One person scored every thread with the same rules.
We plan to run the test again in early 2027 and share how the numbers change.