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Group Sales Process Time: One RFP Consumes 3 Hours and 47 Minutes
Survey period April to August 2024 · Published September 2, 2026. The study is designed as a baseline; a follow-up measurement is not part of this analysis.
There is a number everyone in hospitality asks about, and until 2024 nobody had it: how long does handling a group RFP really take? 24 hotels ran the stopwatch for five months. To the minute, across 34 defined process steps, over 4,824 RFPs. The answer is 3 hours and 47 minutes per case. What matters more than the total is how it is distributed.
Group sales process time: the number nobody had
Until the 2024 survey, no publicly published benchmark existed in the German-speaking market for how much working time a single group inquiry consumes inside a hotel. The industry studies that do exist measure market volume, not operational effort.
That is remarkable, because group sales is one of the highest-revenue areas of hotel sales - and one of the most error-prone. The Meeting- & EventBarometer, conducted by the European Institute for the Meetings Industry (EITW) on behalf of the GCB German Convention Bureau, EVVC and DZT, counts events, attendees and revenue. It does not count how many minutes a rooming list costs.
Ask a property how long an RFP takes to handle and you get a shrug or a guess. Neither works as a basis for decisions. Without this number, two questions cannot be answered - and every property and every group asks them sooner or later: where in the process is so much time buried that automation actually pays off? And how do you measure afterwards whether it worked?
"For years we got the same answer in conversations with hoteliers: it just takes as long as it takes. Nobody could say how long exactly, and nobody could say where the time goes. Without this number, you are debating automation in the fog."
- Bernd Fritzges, CEO and Founder, MICE DESK
What is process time in group sales?
Process time in group sales is the active working time a single group or meeting case consumes inside the hotel - from RFP review to invoice review, across every department involved. It is not the same as turnaround time, the span a client waits for a proposal. Process time drives payroll cost. Turnaround time drives conversion.
Methodology of the process time study: five months, 33 stopwatches
The group sales process time study is a primary survey: 24 hotels, 33 recording staff, 4,824 RFPs and roughly 82,900 individual time entries between April and August 2024. Time was captured alongside the work in the mite system - not estimated after the fact.
Before the first minute could be recorded, one problem had to be solved that sounds like bureaucracy and decides the credibility of the entire study: where exactly does a process step end?
The answer was a taxonomy of 34 sharply delimited steps, each with a binding boundary rule. One example: client correspondence before contract signing counts toward the proposal phase, after signing toward the follow-up phase. Without rules like these, every property measures something different and the total is worthless.
Then the measuring began. Five months, per step and per case, referenced by block ID or client name. No case was reconstructed from memory.
Then came the screening. Cases without at least phases 1 through 3 were dropped. Outliers were removed per step using the 1.5× interquartile range method. Every single step above 120 minutes was verified back with the person who recorded it - 450 cases did not survive this review. That left 4,374 of 4,824 RFPs, or 90.7 percent.
What we report is the mean across all cleaned cases. Handling times scale strongly with event size, so the composition of the sample is part of the interpretation. For context: the Meeting- & EventBarometer reports a considerably higher share of large events for the German events market than this sample contains. Since effort per case rises with event size, the reported figure of 227 minutes is conservative rather than inflated relative to the overall market.
Survey at a glance
24 hotels: 16 chain properties, 8 independents, 3- to 5-star segment, Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Survey period: April to August 2024
4,824 RFPs recorded, 4,374 after cleaning (90.7 percent)
roughly 82,900 time entries from 33 recording staff
34 process steps, consolidated into 7 phases
Methodological framework: OECD Frascati Manual 2015, all five criteria met — novel, creative, uncertain, systematic, transferable
Study design: quantitative longitudinal observational study with real-time capture
That is the difference from market research. Market studies describe what gets booked. This study measures how the work gets done — on the real case, in real time, to a documented method.
Where the time goes: proposal creation consumes 72 minutes
Of the 227 minutes of handling time per group RFP, 72 minutes go to proposal creation and 42 minutes to manual data entry into the PMS and the sales and catering system. Together these two phases consume 114 minutes, or 50.2 percent of total handling time.
| Phase | Steps | Time | Share | What was measured in this phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · RFP review & qualification | 5 | 20 min | 8.8% | Inbound screening and channel allocation, duplicate check and CRM match, availability check, needs assessment and first contact, qualification and prioritization |
| 2 · Data entry PMS / S&C system | 6 | 42 min | 18.5% | Creating the record, room block with rates and terms, meeting space, setups and ancillary services, rooming lists, pickup blocks with routings and traces |
| 3 · Proposal creation | 7 | 72 min | 31.7% | Internal alignment including revenue call, option review, rate calculation, proposal assembly from the system or a Word template, client correspondence, feasibility clarification, proposal revisions |
| 4 · Follow-up & client consulting | 3 | 19 min | 8.4% | Following up on open RFPs and proposals, client correspondence on event details, related internal alignment |
| 5 · Contract prep & signing | 4 | 10 min | 4.4% | Contract draft, client correspondence on terms and amendments, internal clarification of attrition and cancellation terms, countersignature and filing |
| 6 · BEO creation | 5 | 39 min | 17.2% | Initial banquet event order including all notes and signage, updates on client or house request, post-signature changes with system maintenance, deposit invoice, handover to operations |
| 7 · Invoice review | 4 | 25 min | 11.0% | Invoice review and final check before dispatch, client correspondence on invoicing and disputes, internal clarification, project close and reporting |
| Total | 34 | 227 min | 100% |
Reading the table top to bottom, you instinctively look for the selling moment. It is not where you expect it.
Proposal creation, at 72 minutes, consists largely of correspondence and of assembling a document from the PMS or a Word template. The 42 minutes of data entry are room blocks with rates and terms, meeting space, setups, ancillary services, rooming lists, pickup blocks, routings and traces - data that already exists, just in the wrong place. If you want to centralize group inquiry management, this is the largest single item: the effort comes not from the work itself but from its distribution across multiple systems.
More than half of the working time thus sits in two phases in which nobody is selling - data is being moved around. That is not a sales activity. It is administration.
And contract signing? The step where the business actually closes is, at 10 minutes, the shortest of all seven phases. The entire effort sits before and after it.
Phase 6 deserves its own attention: BEO creation - the banquet event order, the document operations runs on - consumes 39 minutes and ranks third. It occurs after the contract has long been signed.
Three hypotheses on RFP handling time - three hits
The study started with three research questions on RFP handling time and was designed open-ended. All three were confirmed.
Proposal creation is the largest time block. At 72 minutes and 31.7 percent it is by far the largest single item. The main drivers are client and internal correspondence plus manual document assembly. How to automate hotel proposal creation is therefore the economically most important follow-up question of this study.
Manual data transfer consumes more than 15 percent of the time. The actual figure is 18.5 percent. Together with proposal creation, more than half of total time falls on steps that are technically automatable.
Large RFPs consume a disproportionate share of time. From around 145 minutes for small events to around 590 minutes for very large ones — a fourfold increase per case. For resource planning, the derived figure says more than the raw values: events above 250 attendees made up 4 percent of cases in the sample but consumed around 10 percent of total handling time. Add the bracket from 101 attendees upward, and 13 percent of RFPs account for around 27 percent of the working time.
Case distribution before cleaning (n = 4,824)
| Size bracket | Cases | Share | Avg time per case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small — up to 20 attendees | 2,364 | 49% | 145 min |
| Medium — 21 to 100 | 1,834 | 38% | 250 min |
| Large — 101 to 250 | 434 | 9% | 415 min |
| Very large — over 250 | 192 | 4% | 590 min |
This table shows the distribution of the 4,824 RFPs originally recorded. Subsequent cleaning reduced the dataset to 4,374 cases; the size distribution is deliberately reported in its original state.
A practical consequence follows. If you want to prioritize group RFPs, you do not need gut feel - you need the attendee count: it is the strongest single predictor of the workload a case will cause.
Process time is not turnaround time - what the number does not say
The 3:47 hours of process time per group RFP are not waiting time. They are working time. The study captures active handling only, not the idle time in between — actual turnaround time to proposal delivery runs up to 48 hours in practice.
This distinction is the most important one in the entire study, and it is routinely missed. If you read 3:47 hours as response time toward the client, you are reading the wrong number. Both figures matter, but they answer different questions: process time is a cost figure, turnaround time is a sales figure.
One note on comparing figures: the 227 minutes cover all seven phases from RFP review to invoice review. Statements about the impact of automation - including MICE DESK's - refer, depending on context, to individual phases or to the full process. When comparing numbers, check the process scope behind them.
Three further limitations apply. Times were self-recorded by the staff doing the work - despite training and plausibility checks, inaccuracies are possible. Five months from April to August 2024 reflect seasonal effects only in part. And the sample covers the 3- to 5-star segment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; transferability to other markets and segments is limited.
"We could have made the number look bigger by counting waiting time. We deliberately did not. A metric you cannot re-measure in your own property is worthless as an argument."
- Bernd Fritzges, CEO and Founder, MICE DESK
Why we measured for two years before we built
The study was the empirical core of a two-year deep research phase, and it was open-ended. At the outset it was neither certain that heterogeneous hotel processes could be measured comparably, nor whether the hypothesis on proposal creation would hold or fall.
That is the uncomfortable part of real research: you do not get to choose the result. Had the measurement shown time spread evenly across all seven phases, the conclusion would have been that targeted automation in group sales does not pay. That was a real scenario.
It showed something else. And from that followed the development priorities: automated RFP qualification for phase 1, structured data handover into PMS and CRM without double entry for phase 2, automated proposal creation for phase 3. Not because these features sounded plausible - because that is where the time was.
The study's second function is the more important one, and it outlives any product: it is the baseline against which effectiveness can be verified at all. The 34-step taxonomy works as a measuring instrument regardless of the software in use. Any property can apply it - with or without us.
The study as a PDF
The full consolidated version of the 2024 group sales process time study is available for download, no form required. It contains the description of all 34 process steps, the detailed Frascati classification, the full methodology and the sources.
Note on this version: this is the consolidated analysis compiled for external recipients, not the original document from the official procedure. Process taxonomy, survey methodology and the central result of 3:47 hours per case correspond to the original study. Figures at individual step and sample level have been consolidated for this presentation and reconciled with the phase totals.
Frequently asked questions about group sales process time
How long does handling a group RFP take in a hotel?
On average 227 minutes - 3 hours and 47 minutes of active working time per case, spread across 34 process steps and every department involved. For events up to 20 attendees the figure is around 145 minutes; above 250 attendees, around 590 minutes. Source: Group Sales Process Time Study, primary survey across 24 hotels, April to August 2024.
How long does professional proposal creation take in a hotel?
On average 72 minutes per group RFP. It is the largest single item in the entire process, equal to 31.7 percent of the total handling time of 227 minutes. The main drivers are client and internal correspondence plus manually assembling the proposal document from PMS data or a Word template. Source: Group Sales Process Time Study, primary survey across 24 hotels, April to August 2024.
How do I prioritize group RFPs correctly?
By attendee count, because it determines workload more than anything else. RFPs from 101 attendees upward made up 13 percent of cases in the survey but consumed around 27 percent of total handling time. If you want to prioritize group inquiries, plan these cases as their own capacity class instead of folding them into day-to-day business.
Which process step consumes the most time in group sales?
Proposal creation, at 72 minutes or 31.7 percent of total time. Second is manual data entry into the PMS and the sales and catering system at 42 minutes or 18.5 percent. Together these two phases account for 50.2 percent of total handling time.
What is the difference between process time and turnaround time?
Process time is the active working time a case consumes and drives payroll cost. Turnaround time is the span from RFP receipt to proposal delivery including all idle time, and drives conversion. The study measures process time only; turnaround time runs up to 48 hours in practice.
Is the study representative of the entire hotel industry?
No, and it does not claim to be. The sample covers 24 properties in the 3- to 5-star segment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It contains a lower share of large events than the German events market overall; since effort rises with event size, the reported figure is conservative. Transferability to other markets and segments is limited — the methodology, however, transfers.
How can I measure process time in my own property?
Using the 34-step taxonomy with its boundary rules. It is documented in the PDF and works regardless of the software in use. What matters is that time is captured alongside the work, not estimated afterwards.
Translating 227 minutes into your own math
The study tells you where the time sits. What a property does with that is arithmetic: 227 minutes per case, multiplied by your own RFP volume, equals the working time tied up in group sales.
Of that, 114 minutes per case are proposal creation and data entry - the part worth talking about. That is exactly where automated proposal creation in ROCKET Core comes in, the group sales system by MICE DESK. Add phase 6 and the territory grows: BEO creation consumes another 39 minutes per case - 153 minutes in total, two thirds of the entire process time. For that part there is a dedicated sales and catering software that generates BEOs from the same data that was already in the proposal.
If you want to see how those 153 minutes change in your property, we will show you - on your own RFPs.
Key takeaways
A single group RFP consumes an average of 227 minutes of active working time - 3 hours and 47 minutes per case.
Proposal creation (72 min) and manual data entry (42 min) together consume 50.2 percent of total process time.
Add BEO creation (39 min) and 153 minutes per case fall on three automatable phases.
Contract signing itself is, at 10 minutes, the shortest of seven phases - the effort sits before and after it.
To prioritize group RFPs, use the attendee count: 13 percent of cases cause around 27 percent of the working time.
Process time is not turnaround time: in practice, the client waits up to 48 hours for a proposal.
About the author
Bernd Fritzges is CEO and Founder of MICE DESK (myhotel.team GmbH, Leipzig, Germany). He is responsible for the company's strategic direction and initiated the 2024 Group Sales Process Time Study as the foundation of product development. Focus areas: digitalization in hotel sales, automation in the group and meetings business, MICE market development in the German-speaking region and internationally.
MICE DESK works with more than 180 hotels in the German-speaking region and internationally.
LinkedIn: Bernd Fritzges on LinkedIn
Publisher: myhotel.team GmbH · Neumarkt 31 · 04109 Leipzig · Germany · Managing Director: Bernd Fritzges · Leipzig Commercial Register HRB 40393
Sources
Europäisches Institut für TagungsWirtschaft GmbH (EITW) on behalf of GCB German Convention Bureau e. V., EVVC and DZT: Meeting- & EventBarometer Germany 2023/2024, Management Summary, April 2024.
OECD: Frascati Manual 2015 — Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development, 7th edition.
MICE DESK: Group Sales Process Time Study, primary survey April to August 2024.