The fastest hotel replies don't win the most bookings. How you answer does.
A study of 2 million hotel emails finds that only 1 in 8 replies gave guests what they needed to book, and just 2% of unanswered offers received a follow-up.
Across the hotel industry, guest emails are judged on one number: how fast the hotel replies. A new study of 2 million emails at 48 hotels finds that the focus has been on the wrong thing. The fastest replies did not have the highest booking rate. Few answers gave guests what they needed to decide. And when guests went quiet after an offer, almost nobody followed up.
Inside the Hotel Inbox 2026, published today by Oslo-based Altek AI, covers leisure and business stays: couples, families and business travellers booking rooms by email. Large group bookings, meetings and events are not included.
Three findings
Speed alone doesn't win the booking. Guests who got a reply within 15 minutes booked 37% of the time. Guests who got a reply within 15 to 60 minutes booked 46% of the time.
Few answers let the guest just say yes. Answers that did four simple things (said if a room was available, recommended one room, answered every question and asked for the booking) were linked to a 58% booking rate. Answers that did none of them: 4%. Only about 1 in 8 answers did all four.
Almost nobody follows up. 34% of guests went quiet after receiving an offer. Only 2% of them got a follow-up. Together, these unanswered offers represented an estimated €3.7 million in potential booking value.
"For years, hotels have been measured on how fast they reply. Speed matters, and every guest deserves a quick answer. But when speed becomes the only goal, the reply becomes about clearing the inbox, not about helping the guest decide. Speed alone doesn't win the booking. The answer does," says Kristoffer Pedersen, co-founder of Altek AI.
Not a team problem
The report does not put the blame on hotel staff. The person answering emails is often also checking in guests and answering the phone, and most hotels only measure response times.
"This isn't about teams doing a bad job. Front desks and reservations teams are emptying a full inbox every day, so there's no time to go back to the guest who got an offer four days ago. For most hotels the inbox is a black box. Managers can see how many emails were answered, but not how many turned into bookings," says Pedersen.
The money is still on the table
Booking rates from email enquiries ranged from 19% at the lowest-converting hotels to 55% at the highest. On the €3.7 million in offers where guests went quiet, the report notes: "We do not know how many of these offers a follow-up could turn into bookings. Almost no hotel has tried."
Two things hotels can do now
Answer so the guest can say yes. Say if there's a room available, recommend one, answer every question, and ask for the booking.
Follow up between day 3 and day 7. Of the guests who replied to an offer, half did so within 3 days and 8 in 10 within a week. After that, very few come back on their own.
"What that follow-up should say, we honestly don't know yet. So few hotels follow up that there isn't enough data. That's one of the things we'll look at next," says Pedersen.
Altek plans to study groups, meetings and events in its next edition. Kristoffer Pedersen presents the findings on stage at HTN in Amsterdam on Thursday 29 October.
About the study
The report covers 2 million anonymised emails at 48 hotels in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France and Switzerland, from December 2024 to September 2026. The booking findings are based on 9,239 guest enquiries. It covers leisure and business stays only; large group bookings, meetings and events are not included.
A booking is counted when the email thread shows the guest confirmed it. Bookings made later by phone, on the hotel's website or through a booking platform cannot always be linked, so booking rates may be understated. The findings show relationships, not proof of cause and effect. Hotels are anonymised and not named. The full method and its limits are published with the report.
