Most Irish tourism operators lose between 40% and 70% of their warm enquiries simply by responding too slowly. Not because the experience is wrong, not because the price is too high, because someone else replied first. This calculator puts a euro figure on that delay.
Response Rate Calculator
Every hour you wait
costs you a booking
Why this matters
Speed of response is one of the
most powerful levers you have.
When someone enquires about a tourism experience, they are in a moment of enthusiasm. They have just seen your website, read your reviews, and decided they want to do what you offer. That enthusiasm has a shelf life. Research consistently shows that conversion rates drop sharply with every hour that passes without a response, and most operators have no idea how steep that drop-off actually is.
Responding within one hour converts at roughly three times the rate of responding within 24 hours. Responding after two or three days converts at a fraction of that. Operators with no enquiry system at all, no auto-reply, no follow-up process, are typically converting fewer than one in twenty of their warm leads.
The uncomfortable truth is that the experience itself is rarely the reason someone does not book. The reason is almost always something operational, and slow response time is the most common culprit of all.
The drop-off by response time
What your response window
is actually costing you.
The table below shows how much of your potential conversion rate you retain depending on when you respond. These figures are based on lead response research and reflect the reality most tourism operators never see in their own numbers.
What you will gain
A specific euro figure
not a percentage, not an estimate.
What you will need
Four honest inputs
give you an honest result.
The calculator is only as useful as the numbers you put in. Be honest, particularly about your typical response time across all enquiries. Busy periods, weekends, and days when you are running sessions all count. The average across your whole operation is what matters.
Why this knowledge matters
Knowing the cost makes
the fix feel obvious.
Most operators know, vaguely, that they should respond faster. But without a number attached to the delay, it remains on the to-do list indefinitely. When you can see that your current response pattern is costing you €8,000 a year, or €24,000, the calculation changes. The cost of setting up a simple auto reply and a response template is measured in minutes. The return is measured in bookings.
This is also one of the few areas where a small operational change produces an immediate, measurable result. You do not need a new website. You do not need to spend on advertising. You need a system that means warm leads get a reply before they go cold.
Your experience is worth
a website that does it justice.