First-party benchmark of corporate MICE RFP response times across 15,213 RFPs sent to 4,892 unique European hotels in Q1 2026. Press-ready summary, pull-quote, chart PNGs and embed-ready interactive leaderboard.
Easy RFP's Q1 2026 European Hotel Response Time Benchmark, drawn from 15,213 corporate MICE RFPs sent to 4,892 unique hotels across 27 European markets between 1 January and 31 March 2026, finds the median first-response time at 38 hours 14 minutes and the median full-quote turnaround at 4 days 6 hours. 27.4% of RFPs received no acknowledgement within 14 days. Madrid leads the city leaderboard (22h 40min median first response), followed by Lisbon (24h 10min) and Milan (27h 50min). London is the slowest top-10 city at 52h 30min and the largest quarter-on-quarter slip (+5h 50min vs Q4 2025). Independent hotels responded 19% faster than chain-flagged properties (32h 06min vs 41h 28min) — a structural gap explained by independent revenue managers replying directly while chain enquiries route through a brand sales office or shared MICE inbox before reaching the property. Counter-intuitively, RFPs with shorter lead times (under 30 days) received faster responses than RFPs with 90+ days lead time, suggesting hotels triage by urgency rather than queue position — a behavioural bias planners can exploit using deadlined "intent to enquire" outreach. The benchmark is released under CC BY 4.0, includes an embeddable interactive City Speed Leaderboard with drill-downs by city, and will be re-issued each calendar quarter. Full data summary, methodology and the interactive leaderboard are published at easyhotelrfp.com/blog/research/hotel-response-time-benchmark-q1-2026/.
"38 hours is the median; the deselection threshold is 24. Every hour past day one halves the probability that a hotel makes the planner's final three."
— Easy RFP Editorial, Hotel Response Time Benchmark Q1 2026Methodology, in one paragraph. Sample: 15,213 distinct corporate MICE RFPs sent through Easy RFP between 1 Jan 2026 and 31 Mar 2026, addressed to 4,892 unique hotels across 27 European markets, originated by 1,184 distinct planner accounts. First-response time = wall-clock interval from RFP send to first inbound message with substantive content (auto-replies and bounces excluded). Full-quote time = interval from send to first message containing priced rooms and meeting-space proposal. Ghost rate = share of RFPs with no inbound substantive message within 14 calendar days. All figures are medians unless noted. Replicate by contacting [email protected].
| Rank | City | Median 1st response | Full quote | Ghost (14d) | QoQ delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madrid | 22h 40m | 3d 4h | 18.2% | −3h 10m |
| 2 | Lisbon | 24h 10m | 3d 6h | 21.6% | −1h 30m |
| 3 | Milan | 27h 50m | 3d 14h | 23.8% | +0h 20m |
| 4 | Barcelona | 29h 20m | 3d 18h | 24.1% | +2h 10m |
| 5 | Berlin | 33h 50m | 4d 2h | 26.4% | −1h 40m |
| 6 | Paris | 36h 10m | 4d 8h | 28.2% | +1h 50m |
| 7 | Munich | 37h 30m | 4d 12h | 29.7% | +3h 20m |
| 8 | Amsterdam | 41h 20m | 4d 20h | 30.5% | +2h 40m |
| 9 | Rome | 44h 50m | 5d 4h | 31.8% | +4h 10m |
| 10 | London | 52h 30m | 5d 22h | 34.2% | +5h 50m |
Where we cite a specific number from a competitor or third-party source, the number is taken from a public press release, conference presentation, public filing, or directly-published industry report. We do not cite private vendor figures and do not editorialise on competitor practices.
Citation (AP / Reuters style):
Easy RFP. (2026). Hotel Response Time Benchmark Q1 2026: Top 10 European Cities Compared (Report no. ERFP-RTB-2026Q1). https://easyhotelrfp.com/blog/research/hotel-response-time-benchmark-q1-2026/
Citation (academic / Harvard):
Easy RFP, 2026. Hotel Response Time Benchmark Q1 2026: Top 10 European Cities Compared. [online] Easy RFP Editorial. Available at: <https://easyhotelrfp.com/blog/research/hotel-response-time-benchmark-q1-2026/> [Accessed DATE].
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Republish freely with attribution and link-back. Custom data cuts (single country, single city, segment) available on request.