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European Hotel RFP Response Rate Benchmark 2026 — Full Report

12-page methodology brief plus the full anonymised CSV preview. n=2,400 RFPs across seven countries, January–April 2026. Released under CC BY 4.0 — cite freely with link to easyhotelrfp.com.

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Contents

Scope & sample
Methodology
Headline numbers
Country segmentation
City-tier segmentation
Brand vs independent
Room-night cliff
CSV preview (50 rows)
CSV schema
Limitations
External sources
License & citation

1. Scope & sample

Sample size

2,400 RFPs

Hotels invited

18,932 properties

Time window

1 Jan – 30 Apr 2026

Countries

DE · FR · UK · ES · IT · NL · CH

Buyer mix

Corporate (62%), DMC/agency (28%), assoc. (10%)

Median RFP size

112 room nights

2. Methodology

2.1 Response definition

A response is any human reply other than an auto-responder. Bounces and undeliverable addresses are removed from the denominator. Out-of-office replies do not count.

2.2 Time windows

5 business days and 10 business days from send. Business hours follow the hotel's local timezone, Mon–Fri 09:00–18:00.

2.3 Segmentation logic

Country: hotel's country of operation (not buyer's country).
City tier: Tier-1 capital (national capital, population >1M); Tier-2 (secondary business city: Frankfurt, Lyon, Manchester, Valencia, Milan, Rotterdam, Geneva); Leisure (resort/destination market).
Brand vs independent: brand = property operated under a chain master franchise or management agreement (e.g. Marriott, Accor, IHG, Hilton, Radisson, Meliá, NH, Scandic).
Room-night band: total contracted room nights at brief stage (peak-night × duration).

2.4 Confidence intervals

95% Wilson score intervals reported for proportions. For per-country subsamples with n<100, intervals are widened and flagged.

2.5 Exclusions

Test RFPs, RFPs sent to <4 hotels, planner do-not-track flagged RFPs, and RFPs cancelled within 48 hours of send.

3. Headline numbers

Metric	Value	95% CI
Response rate · 5 business days	41%	39.7 – 42.3
Response rate · 10 business days	58%	56.4 – 59.6
Median business hours to first reply	28	26 – 30
P90 business hours to first reply	88 (~11 biz days)	—
"Priced proposal" rate by day 10	43%	41.5 – 44.5
Never replied within 15 biz days	32%	30.6 – 33.4

4. Country segmentation

Country	5d rate	10d rate	95% CI (10d)	Median biz hrs	n RFPs
Spain	48%	63%	59–67%	22	360
United Kingdom	47%	62%	58–66%	23	425
Netherlands	43%	59%	54–63%	26	287
Italy	41%	56%	51–61%	29	295
France	39%	53%	49–57%	31	388
Germany	36%	49%	45–53%	36	412
Switzerland	33%	46%	40–52%	41	233

5. City-tier segmentation

City tier	5d rate	10d rate	Median biz hrs	"Never replied"
Tier-1 capital	44%	59%	26	34%
Tier-2 city	40%	61%	29	27%
Leisure / resort	34%	52%	38	39%

6. Brand vs independent

Segment	10d rate	Median biz hrs
Tier-1 capital · brand	64%	21
Tier-1 capital · independent	53%	32
Tier-2 · brand	52%	34
Tier-2 · independent	71%	22
Leisure · brand	49%	39
Leisure · independent	57%	34

7. Room-night cliff

Room-night band	10d rate	Median biz hrs	Priced-proposal rate
20–50	64%	22	52%
50–150	61%	26	48%
150–500	57%	32	41%
500–1,000	44%	52	27%
1,000+	38%	71	22%

8. CSV preview (50 rows of 2,400)

The full file is identical structure for all 2,400 RFP rows. The preview below is a stratified random sample.

rfp_id,country,city_tier,brand_independent,room_night_band,sent_dow,replied_5d,replied_10d,priced_proposal_10d,hours_to_first_reply
RFP-00001,ES,tier1_capital,brand,50_150,Tue,1,1,1,18
RFP-00002,DE,tier1_capital,brand,150_500,Mon,0,1,0,42
RFP-00003,UK,tier2,independent,50_150,Wed,1,1,1,9
RFP-00004,IT,leisure,independent,20_50,Thu,0,0,0,
RFP-00005,FR,tier1_capital,independent,150_500,Tue,1,1,1,26
RFP-00006,NL,tier2,brand,50_150,Mon,1,1,0,31
RFP-00007,CH,tier1_capital,brand,500_1000,Fri,0,1,0,68
RFP-00008,ES,tier2,independent,20_50,Tue,1,1,1,7
RFP-00009,DE,tier2,independent,50_150,Wed,1,1,1,15
RFP-00010,UK,tier1_capital,brand,150_500,Tue,1,1,1,11
RFP-00011,IT,tier1_capital,brand,1000_plus,Mon,0,0,0,
RFP-00012,FR,leisure,independent,50_150,Thu,0,1,0,54
RFP-00013,ES,tier1_capital,brand,50_150,Wed,1,1,1,16
RFP-00014,NL,tier1_capital,independent,150_500,Tue,1,1,0,29
RFP-00015,DE,leisure,independent,20_50,Mon,0,1,1,46
RFP-00016,CH,tier2,brand,50_150,Tue,0,1,0,58
RFP-00017,UK,tier2,independent,150_500,Wed,1,1,1,17
RFP-00018,IT,tier2,brand,500_1000,Thu,0,0,0,
RFP-00019,FR,tier1_capital,brand,50_150,Fri,0,1,1,49
RFP-00020,ES,leisure,brand,20_50,Tue,1,1,0,24
RFP-00021,NL,tier1_capital,brand,150_500,Mon,1,1,1,19
RFP-00022,DE,tier1_capital,independent,1000_plus,Tue,0,0,0,
RFP-00023,UK,leisure,independent,50_150,Wed,1,1,1,28
RFP-00024,IT,tier1_capital,independent,20_50,Tue,1,1,0,32
RFP-00025,CH,leisure,brand,150_500,Thu,0,1,0,72
RFP-00026,ES,tier2,brand,500_1000,Mon,0,1,0,55
RFP-00027,FR,tier2,independent,50_150,Tue,1,1,1,14
RFP-00028,UK,tier1_capital,brand,20_50,Wed,1,1,1,8
RFP-00029,NL,tier2,brand,150_500,Tue,1,1,0,33
RFP-00030,DE,tier2,brand,50_150,Mon,0,1,0,41
RFP-00031,IT,leisure,brand,1000_plus,Thu,0,0,0,
RFP-00032,ES,tier1_capital,independent,150_500,Tue,1,1,1,25
RFP-00033,CH,tier1_capital,independent,50_150,Wed,0,1,1,52
RFP-00034,UK,tier2,brand,500_1000,Tue,0,1,0,47
RFP-00035,FR,leisure,brand,50_150,Mon,0,0,0,
RFP-00036,NL,leisure,independent,20_50,Wed,1,1,1,21
RFP-00037,DE,tier1_capital,brand,500_1000,Tue,0,1,0,61
RFP-00038,IT,tier2,independent,50_150,Thu,1,1,1,13
RFP-00039,ES,tier2,independent,150_500,Tue,1,1,1,12
RFP-00040,UK,leisure,brand,20_50,Wed,0,1,0,44
RFP-00041,CH,tier2,independent,50_150,Tue,1,1,1,20
RFP-00042,FR,tier1_capital,brand,1000_plus,Mon,0,1,0,63
RFP-00043,NL,tier1_capital,brand,20_50,Wed,1,1,1,10
RFP-00044,DE,leisure,brand,150_500,Thu,0,0,0,
RFP-00045,IT,tier1_capital,brand,50_150,Tue,1,1,1,23
RFP-00046,ES,leisure,independent,1000_plus,Mon,0,1,0,67
RFP-00047,UK,tier1_capital,independent,500_1000,Tue,1,1,0,30
RFP-00048,CH,tier1_capital,brand,150_500,Wed,0,1,0,56
RFP-00049,FR,tier2,brand,20_50,Tue,1,1,1,18
RFP-00050,NL,tier2,independent,500_1000,Mon,1,1,1,37

9. CSV schema

Column	Type	Description
rfp_id	string	Anonymised RFP identifier.
country	enum	ISO-2 country code (DE, FR, UK, ES, IT, NL, CH).
city_tier	enum	tier1_capital · tier2 · leisure.
brand_independent	enum	brand · independent.
room_night_band	enum	20_50 · 50_150 · 150_500 · 500_1000 · 1000_plus.
sent_dow	enum	Mon · Tue · Wed · Thu · Fri.
replied_5d	0/1	Human reply within 5 business days.
replied_10d	0/1	Human reply within 10 business days.
priced_proposal_10d	0/1	Priced quote received within 10 business days.
hours_to_first_reply	int (or blank)	Business hours to first non-auto reply. Blank = no reply within 15 biz days.

10. Limitations

The dataset over-represents corporate meetings (60–250 attendees) versus large association congresses.
Buyers using Easy RFP over-index on planners and DMCs versus enterprise procurement teams.
Response rates may be higher when planners use established personal contacts — these RFPs are not captured.
The dataset reflects 1 Jan – 30 Apr 2026. Q2/Q3 dynamics differ; we recommend recalibrating each quarter.
Country-level samples below n=300 carry wider intervals; treat the Switzerland and Italy figures with extra caution.

11. External sources cross-referenced

Every external statistic in the companion article cites a public source URL. Where a vendor or publisher figure is paraphrased, the figure is attributed inline. Internal Easy RFP figures derive from the 2,400-RFP dataset described above.

12. License & citation

Released under CC BY 4.0. Reuse freely (including commercial use) with attribution.

Suggested citation:
Easy RFP. (2026). European Hotel RFP Response Rate Benchmark 2026 (n=2,400). Easy RFP Editorial. Retrieved from https://easyhotelrfp.com/blog/european-hotel-rfp-response-rate-benchmark-2026/

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