The Best Venue Teams Aren't Faster. They're More Intentional

As part of Venue Verdict's 20th anniversary, we spoke with commercial and sales leaders representing some of the biggest hospitality groups and brands across Europe, Middle East and Africa to understand what really separates top-performing enquiry teams from the rest.

For years, the hospitality industry has focused on speed. How quickly an enquiry is acknowledged, how fast a proposal is sent, and how rapidly a venue can respond to a prospective client.

Speed still matters. But conversations with venue leaders across the industry suggest it is no longer what separates the highest-performing teams from the rest.

At Ipsos, we spend much of our time helping organisations understand customer expectations, identify performance gaps and uncover the behaviours that drive commercial results. As part of Venue Verdict's 20th anniversary, we spoke with commercial and sales leaders representing some of the biggest hospitality groups and brands across Europe, Middle East and Africa to understand what really separates top-performing enquiry teams from the rest. 

While technology, automation and AI often dominate industry discussions, this conversation took a different direction. The focus was on the people behind the process, exploring the human behaviours that help build trust, strengthen relationships and create better customer experiences from the very first enquiry.

The findings consistently pointed to three themes:

  1. The best teams focus on understanding before responding.
  2. Consistent follow-up remains a competitive advantage.
  3. Measurement and visibility drive behavioural change.

Understanding Before Responding

One message came through clearly from almost every conversation: too many venues still treat enquiries as transactions rather than opportunities to build trust.

Too many venues answer questions instead of understanding the client's actual need.

Marc-Antoine Lesange, Director of Sales, MEA, Hyatt

An enquiry rarely tells the full story. Behind every request is a customer trying to solve a problem, deliver a successful event or make an important business decision. Yet many responses remain focused on availability, rates and logistics rather than understanding what success looks like for the customer.

In the last three years, Ipsos has conducted over 55,000 enquiries across 1000+ hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The venues achieving the strongest results appear to take a different approach. They view enquiries not as tasks to complete, but as conversations to develop. They ask better questions, seek greater context and build confidence from the outset.

What distinguishes leading teams is not simply product knowledge. It is commercial curiosity. They seek to understand before they advise, creating confidence and trust from the very first interaction.

Follow-Up Remains One of Hospitality's Biggest Opportunities

The second theme will be familiar to many venue sales leaders. Despite major advances in technology over the last two decades, follow-up continues to be one of the industry's most persistent challenges. Responses are sent. Conversations begin. Opportunities are created. But many opportunities fail to progress because teams do not maintain the same level of ownership and momentum after the initial interaction.

I think it just all comes back to the consistency.

Helen Butler, Group Sales & Revenue Director, Leaf Hospitality

It's still easy to treat things as a process and not a human connection.

Nicola Burke, Senior Director, EMEA, Hilton

This aligns closely with what Venue Verdict has measured for many years. While response quality often scores strongly, follow-up behaviours can vary significantly between teams and properties. In the past 3 years, we’ve found that 73% of all enquiries placed received a proposal back within 2 working days, with only 70% following up after sending the proposal to check for safe delivery and proceed with the booking. 

The industry has become increasingly effective at responding. It has been less effective at maintaining momentum once the response has been sent.

The strongest performers recognise that responsiveness alone is no longer enough. Customers increasingly expect proactive communication, clear ownership and continued engagement throughout the buying journey.

Visibility Creates Better Behaviours

The third theme focused on improvement itself. All the leaders that we spoke to highlighted that behaviours such as qualification, personalisation and effective follow-up are difficult to improve without first making performance visible.

Venue Verdict provides venues with an objective view of the enquiry experience from the customer's perspective. The value is not simply in measurement. It is in creating a shared understanding of what good looks like and where improvement is needed.

Being transparent with the benchmarking really drives accountability... and quickly lifts performance standards.

Jemma Hussain, Director of Commercial, Aimbridge EMEA

Nobody wants to be at the bottom, but the real value comes from learning from the top performers.

Marc-Antoine Lesange, Director of Sales, MEA, Hyatt

The most successful organisations use benchmarking as a coaching tool rather than a scorecard. They use insight to reinforce standards, share best practice and create accountability across teams. Because while data highlights opportunities, it is behaviour that ultimately drives results.

What Has Changed and What Hasn't

Looking back over insights from Venue Verdict, a clear pattern emerges.

Many things have changed. Customers have more choice. Expectations are higher. Digital channels have expanded. Automation has accelerated. Data is richer and more accessible than ever before.

What has changed far less are the behaviours that consistently influence customer decisions.

The venues that create the best enquiry experiences today are still the ones that demonstrate curiosity, ownership, empathy and consistent follow-through. These qualities remain at the heart of the strongest benchmark performances and continue to distinguish market leaders from average performers.
 

What we've seen consistently through Venue Verdict over the past 20 years is that exceptional enquiry experiences are rarely the result of speed alone. The venues that stand out are those that take the time to understand what matters most to the customer, maintain momentum throughout the enquiry handling and sales journey and empower their teams with clear performance insight. Technology can support the process, but it's human behaviours that ultimately build trust and drive commercial outcomes.

Louise Tawadrous, Director, Ipsos

The teams consistently winning enquiries today are not necessarily the fastest. More often, they are the most intentional.

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