MICE Benchmark Report 2025: Speed is not everything, quality is key!

MICE DESK Managing Director Bernd Fritzges on the Green Stage at ITB during his presentation on the latest results of the Benchmark Report 2025.

Why reaction speed alone is not enough

Our CEO Bernd Fritzges presented the results of the latest benchmark report at ITB last week – to great interest from the trade audience. The numbers speak for themselves: Speed alone isn't enough if quality isn't right. We've now summarized all the results in a comprehensive white paper. You can request it free of charge here!

The MICE industry is a highly competitive field. Event planners have high expectations: They demand not only fast but also precise offers. Our recent analysis of more than 300 conference hotels in Germany shows that while progress has been made in the speed of offer submission, it often comes at the expense of offer quality.

The result: Only 8% of hotels deliver a complete and high-quality offer within 24 hours.

What does this mean for hotels? Without a thorough needs analysis and a professional offer, even the fastest response time will fizzle out.

Hard facts: How are hotels really performing?

Offer and response times:

46% of hotels responded to inquiries with a quote, while over a third didn't respond at all. 36% of hotels delivered their quotes within 12 hours, a significant improvement compared to our last survey in October 2024. 36% of hotels needed more than 48 hours to prepare a quote. 9% even needed more than five days.

Needs analysis: The biggest problem remains:

The graph shows the response times up to the first needs analysis, which averaged 20.5 hours.

65% of hotels did not conduct a needs assessment at all, and 23% of the completed needs assessments were incomplete. Only 13% of hotels provided a complete and qualified needs assessment. Overall, only 8% of hotels were able to deliver a qualified needs assessment within the 24-hour timeframe required by the industry.

Offer quality: The bottleneck for more bookings:

The chart shows the average rating of the offers submitted. The scale ranges from 1 = poor to 5 = very good

Only 20% of the offers were of good to very good quality. 47% of the offers were standard offers without any follow-up questions or customization. 29% of the offers contained incorrect or incomplete information, and 4% of the offers were completely unusable.

What is the problem?

The results show that speed alone is not enough. Many hotels skip needs analysis and deliver offers without follow-up questions or customization. This leads to event planners being presented with offers that neither meet requirements nor inspire trust. While response and offer times have improved significantly compared to last year's benchmark results, the quality of the offers is often inadequate. One reason for this could be a lack of skilled personnel in convention sales departments. It appears that while there are more resources available than in October 2024, the quality of sales expertise lags behind.

Solutions: How hotels can optimize their offer processes

✅ More follow-up questions during the needs analysis: Event planners expect their individual needs to be addressed. Skipping this phase risks cancellations.

✅ Structured and comprehensive proposals: Clear pricing, room sizes, seating arrangements, and options must be standard. Informal emails lacking details appear unprofessional.

✅ Create additional benefits: Offers with alternative suggestions, sketches or innovative ideas stand out from the crowd.

✅ Process automation through technology: This is where smart tools and digital solutions combined with human expertise come into play. This is precisely our approach, helping hotels not only be faster, but also better.

With our digital and operational solutions, we support hotels in:

• End-to-end process optimization for faster and more precise quotation creation

• Automating sales processes with MICE DESK Copilot & Rocket 2.0

• Reduction of personnel costs without loss of quality

• Increase conversion rate through targeted follow-up & upselling

Let's work together to find out how you can optimize your processes and generate more bookings! Schedule a free consultation now.