From Enquiry to Booking: How to Turn Guest Enquiries Into Bookings

Why guest enquiries don’t always become bookings

Guest enquiries don’t always become bookings because the guest often doesn’t get the answer they need. A guest who sends an enquiry has already moved beyond browsing. They have chosen to contact you because they need an answer before they can decide. That makes the enquiry part of the booking journey, not just an administrative task.

One of the most common reasons guest enquiries don’t become bookings is an incomplete answer. A guest asks whether the room works for two adults and a child, whether a dog is accepted and whether they can check in late, but the reply covers only one or two of the three. Research has shown this problem in action. Recent analysis of hotel reservations by Lobby found that only 44% of enquiries with more than one question got a full answer, and nearly 12% of the emails hotels received were guests asking again for something they had already asked.

A second reason is a ‘no’ with nothing after it. When a hotel in Lobby’s analysis had to turn a request down, 42% of those conversations ended right there, without anyone suggesting an alternative. That alternative could have been a different type of room or a new date. For a tour operator, it could be a different tour that still includes some of the spots the guest wanted. The same analysis found that many enquiries were answered quickly but still left the guest’s request unresolved. Speed matters, though a fast reply isn’t enough if the guest still can’t decide.

Neither of those is about your price or your place. Both happen after the guest has got in touch, which means both can be fixed. Some of the fix is in how you reply. More of it is on your website, because many of those questions could have been answered before the guest ever opened their inbox.

Why this applies to every travel and hospitality business, not just hotels

The data only looked at hotels, so it’s fair to ask whether any of this applies to a campsite, a guided tour or a destination pub. It does, because none of it depends on being a hotel. Every travel and hospitality business sells something a guest can’t see or try before they pay for it, so guests ask questions before they book.

The questions differ from one kind of business to the next, but the enquiry still arrives with several of them at once. A retreat guest asks about dietary needs, single rooms and travel from the station, and a holiday let guest asks about bed layout, changeover day and parking.

Any business that gets several questions in one message can leave one unanswered. Any business with limited space will sometimes have to say no, whether it has run out of rooms, pitches, tables or places on a tour. So the two reasons an enquiry stalls are the same.

And we believe it applies even more to a smaller business, for three reasons:

• Your guests have more to ask. A hotel room is a known quantity, and most people can picture what they are getting. A bell tent, a canyoning trip or a five-day retreat is harder to picture, so the guest arrives with a list.
• You are the reservations desk. A larger hotel has someone whose job is to answer enquiries. In most independent travel and hospitality businesses, that person is also the owner, the guide, the chef or the one doing the changeover.
• Your “no” comes round sooner. A hotel with forty rooms usually has another room to offer. A site with three cabins, or a tour with one departure a week, fills up faster. What you say after “sorry, we’re full” matters more because you will be saying it more often.

How can you turn guest enquiries into bookings?

You turn more guest enquiries into bookings by doing six things well. The first two are on your website, the next three are in how you reply, and the last is a simple way to check it’s working.

Answer the questions before guests need to ask

Open your sent folder and read the last twenty enquiries you answered. The same five or six questions will be in most of them. Can we bring the dog? Is there parking? How far is the pub? What time can we arrive?

Each one is a gap on your website. The answer may well be there, on a page the guest didn’t open, or in a paragraph they skimmed on their phone. From the guest’s side, an answer they can’t find and an answer that doesn’t exist look exactly the same.

For somewhere to stay, these come up most often:

• Beds and sleeping arrangements. Who sleeps where, and whether there is a cot or a sofa bed.
• Children. Which ages are welcome and what is there for them.
• Dogs. How many, whether there is a charge, and anywhere they can’t go.
• Access. Steps, ground-floor rooms, and how far it is from the car.
• Arrival. Check-in and check-out times, parking and EV charging.
• Minimum stays and changeover days.
• Cancellation terms.
• What is nearby. Food, walks and the things guests always ask about.

Depending on your business, your list will be different. A glamping site gets asked about showers and electricity. A tour operator gets asked about fitness levels and what happens if it rains. A destination pub gets asked about allergies, dogs and a table for twelve. Your sent folder will tell you what belongs on yours.

The aim isn’t to pile all of it onto one page. Put each answer where the guest is already looking. Bed details belong on the room or cabin page. Dog rules belong beside the booking button as well as in the FAQs. The rest of that journey is covered in our post on building a frictionless booking website.

Let your enquiry form do some of the asking

Most enquiry forms ask for a name, an email address and a message. The first reply then has to ask for everything else: which dates, how many people, any children, any dogs. A day has gone before the guest has learned anything.

Ask for the details you always need at the start:

• The dates they want, and whether they are flexible
• Number of adults and children, with ages if it affects where they can stay or what they can do
• Dogs
• Which room, pitch, cabin or tour they are interested in
• Anything you should know, such as access needs or a special occasion

The flexible dates question earns its place more than any other. It is the one that lets you offer something else when the first choice has gone.

Keep the form short enough to finish on a phone. Five or six fields and a message box is plenty.

One more thing to look for. If most of your enquiries are simply asking whether certain dates are free, your guests can’t see your availability. A live calendar answers that question for you, and a guest who can see the dates are free can go straight to booking.

Answer every question in the first reply

This is the finding at the centre of Lobby’s analysis, and it is one you can act on today. Before you send a reply, count the questions in the guest’s email, then count the answers in yours.

It sounds too simple to matter. Then think about how replies really get written: on a phone, between a changeover and the school run, with the first question answered and the rest scrolled past. Nobody sets out to send half an answer.

A few habits make a full answer easier:

• Reply in the guest’s order, with one line for each question.
• Keep saved answers for the questions you get every week, and edit them to fit the guest.
• If you don’t know yet, say so and say when you will. “I’ll check with the farm about the gate and come back to you tomorrow morning” still counts as an answer.

Speed still counts for something. A guest left waiting for three days may well have booked somewhere else. A full answer tomorrow morning will usually do more for you than a partial one in ten minutes, though, because the partial one starts a second round of emails and gives the guest another day to keep looking.

Offer an alternative when the first choice has gone

A guest who asks for the first weekend in August wants a break more than they want that exact weekend. So when their first choice has gone, tell them what you do have. Some people will take it.

There is always something else you can offer:

• The nearest free dates either side of the ones they asked for
• A different room, pitch, cabin, table or tour that is free on their dates
• A midweek stay in place of the weekend
• A place on your waiting list, with a message if their dates open up

If the alternative costs more, say so. Or offer it for the same price as the one they wanted.

This is also where a flexible dates box on your enquiry form pays you back. If they answer yes, you already know whether the week before or after is worth suggesting.

Your website can make the same offer without an email. A live booking calendar that shows the nearest free dates when a guest picks a full one keeps them on your site and still looking at you.

Tell the guest exactly how to book

End every reply with one clear way to say yes. That might be a link to the exact room, pitch or tour and dates, a line saying you will hold it until Friday, or a number to call.

A reply that ends with “let me know if you have any other questions” leaves the guest to work out the next step on their own. A reply that ends with “here is the link for those dates” has already taken it for them.

Discover how you can keep the conversation going after they book in our guest communication before arrival guide.

Keep a tally for a month

You don’t need software for this. For one month, note down three things:

1. How many enquiries came in.
2. How many of them became bookings.
3. Which questions came up more than twice.

At the end of the month, you will know what share of your enquiries turn into bookings, which is a number worth knowing. You will also have a list of exactly what your website should be answering.

Our Conclusion

A guest who sends an enquiry is already close to booking. What decides it is the reply. If every question gets an answer, and a ‘no’ comes with another option, you give more of those guests a reason to book, whether you run a hotel, a campsite, a retreat or a tour.

You can start with your next reply. After that, look at your website, because every question it answers is one the guest never has to send, and you never have to type. And when a guest can find the answer and book in one visit, the booking comes straight to you, which is the first step towards relying less on third-party bookings.

If your inbox is answering questions your website should be answering, talk to the team.

Tell us what guests keep asking, and we’ll show you how your website could answer it for you.

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