Only 44% of multi-question guest enquiries in hotel reservation workflows get fully answered, according to a new analysis by Lobby, the AI platform that automates complex booking operations across travel, hospitality and experience suppliers. Nearly 12% of inbound emails come from guests asking again for something they already requested. And in 42% of cases where a hotel refuses a request, the conversation ends there — no alternative booking, no upsell, no recovered revenue.

That's the picture Lobby painted from its review of reservation workflows, and it challenges one of hospitality's longest-running operating assumptions: that speed is the metric that matters.

What does the data actually say?

For years, hotel teams have optimized around response time and conversion rate. Lobby's analysis says the real leaks sit elsewhere — in information, guest intent and the commercial opportunities lost between the request and the confirmed booking.

The core findings break down like this:

• Speed isn't resolution. Many booking requests were answered quickly, but the guest's actual petitions went unresolved. Only 44% of multi-question enquiries received complete answers.

• Repeat emails are a symptom. Roughly 12% of inbound email volume is guests re-asking for something already requested — labor cost spent on avoidable follow-up.

• Refusals are dead ends. In 42% of refused-request cases, agents closed the conversation without proposing an alternative booking, leaving sellable inventory and revenue on the table.

Guest preferences get dropped. Even when a reservation completed successfully, stated preferences from the booking process were frequently not carried through or considered.

Reservations are run as admin, not sales. Lobby flags a pattern of hotels treating reservations as an administrative task rather than a commercial opportunity — a framing that directly affects how agents handle unavailable dates, rate alternatives and add-ons.

The analysis also found that clearly defined standards for answering booking requests measurably improve outcomes. Where scripts and resolution criteria existed, agents were more likely to close the loop and capture the sale.

What changes for hotel operators?

The practical question for operators is what to measure instead. Lobby's argument, laid out by Co-Founder and CEO Romy Abbrederis, is that resolution quality and captured commercial opportunity should sit alongside — or above — response time on the KPI sheet.

"One of the most important lessons we have learned from the analysis of reservation workflows is that the response time is not the best performance metric," Abbrederis said. "What matters more is whether the guest's inquiry is completely resolved and whether the hotel is capturing the commercial opportunity from the booking request. It seems like hotel reservations are solving transactions but not maximizing value."

Put in unit-level terms: if nearly one in eight emails is a re-ask and two in five refusals end without a counter-offer, the reservations desk isn't just a service function leaking goodwill — it's a revenue channel operating well below its conversion potential.

Abbrederis is direct about the fix, and about who needs to own it. "We encourage hotel staff, from team leaders to commercial teams, revenue executives and technology decision-makers, to look beyond traditional KPIs and check the quality of their reservation journeys," she said. "As our industry gets ready for an increasingly data-driven future, the industry's next competitive advantage will not be only a matter of responding faster, but also of understanding what opportunities were missed along the way."

The WiT stage

Lobby timed the release ahead of the Web in Travel (WiT) conference in Singapore, running September 30 to October 2, which gathers travel technology leaders and builders. The company, which won the startup competition at PhocusWright Europe in Barcelona in June, will compete for the People's Choice Award at the Seedup level at WiT on September 30.

The timing is deliberate. Lobby sells automation for exactly the workflows its analysis critiques — the unglamorous middle of the funnel where enquiries arrive, get triaged and either convert or quietly expire. Expect the resolution-rate argument, not speed, to be the metric hotel technology vendors push hardest as these findings circulate through revenue and distribution teams.