A group enquiry is not a big reservation, it is a different product

Why the booking engine cannot help

Groups need a rate that depends on volume, season, length of stay, what else is on the books that week, and whether the hotel wants that kind of group at all. Every one of those is a commercial judgement. The engine can only quote the published rate, which for twenty rooms is both wrong and insulting - and quoting it is worse than quoting nothing.

What can be published, and it is the whole qualification

The threshold at which a booking counts as a group. Whether a deposit is required and when. The cancellation terms, which are never the individual ones. Whether a rooming list is needed and by when. Whether meeting space, breakfast or transfers can be included. Six facts that cost nothing to state and that qualify the enquiry before anyone reads it.

Speed decides this one, more than price

A group organiser is writing to several hotels on the same evening. The one that replies with the terms and a named person wins the conversation, not necessarily on rate. An enquiry that sits overnight has usually already lost - and the cost is not one room but twenty, which makes this the most expensive silence in the building.

Capture the five fields revenue actually needs

Dates, number of rooms, number of guests, the occasion, and whether meeting space is wanted. With those, whoever quotes can quote without a round trip. Without them, the first reply is a list of questions - which costs another evening, and the organiser has already had three answers by then.