2026 Hospitality Benchmark Report: The voice channel playbook

In this webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Bailey Yeats, Marketing Manager at Revinate, sits down with Amanda Wasco Brown, Director of Revenue at Old Edwards Hospitality Group, for the third and final session of the 2026 Benchmark Report Leadership Series. The focus: the voice channel, and specifically what the data from 4.3 million phone calls analyzed globally in 2025 reveals about where reservations teams are winning, where they are losing revenue they do not know they are losing, and how to close the gap.

Amanda brings 14 years at Old Edwards — eight of them in reservations — and a holistic operation that most properties would not attempt: seven agents handling rooms, dining, spa, and golf across four hotels, three golf courses, and multiple event and dining venues. Her experience makes every benchmark number land with operational weight.

What you'll learn:

● Inbound call volume is a staffing and revenue planning tool: In peak months — June, July, August, and October through December — the benchmark sits at three inbound lead calls per room per month. For a 100-room hotel, that is 300 high-intent calls during the busiest period of the year. Understanding when volume peaks lets call center leaders optimize staffing before the season, not scramble during it.

● High-intent callers are not front desk traffic: Inbound lead calls are not service inquiries or operational requests. They are guests actively looking to make a reservation — the highest-intent contact point in the direct booking cycle. Treating them as such, with dedicated staffing and campaign-linked toll-free numbers that tell agents exactly why a guest is calling before the conversation starts, changes what is possible in every call.

● Conversion rates are the NPS of the voice channel: The benchmark shows best-performing months at 49% to 53% conversion, meaning well-trained reservations teams are closing more than half of every qualified lead they receive. When conversion dips, it is not just a revenue signal — it is a coaching diagnostic. Amanda's team uses the nightly lead demand report alongside conversion data to distinguish rate resistance from policy friction from agent skill gaps.

● Non-booked lead volume tells a different story than total call volume: June and July average 1.5 non-booked inbound calls per room per month, the highest of any period. But Amanda reads it as intelligence. Non-booked spikes reveal whether the issue is pricing, minimum stay policies, or something the marketing team is promoting that the property cannot deliver. At Old Edwards, removing nightly minimums in winter and into Q2 produced immediate improvement in the abandonment report and forecasting.

● Outbound calls generate $1,164 in incremental revenue per room annually: The benchmark finding on outbound is one of the most striking in the report. A 100-room hotel running proactive outbound calls can expect just over $116,000 in additional revenue annually. This revenue arrives with a lower acquisition cost than any OTA booking, carries no commission, and builds a direct guest data record that belongs to the property. Amanda is candid that her team's outbound focus has been constrained by inbound abandonment rates, but acknowledges that every reservations manager who has deployed true outbound strategy reports significant bottom-line impact.

● Campaign-linked toll-free numbers change the inbound experience: When an email campaign drives a call and the call comes through a campaign-specific toll-free number, the agent already knows what the caller is calling about before saying hello. No explanations, no re-establishing context — just a more personalized conversation from the first second. Amanda's team uses this in combination with targeted email campaigns to move from blanket outreach to high-context inbound conversations.

● Role-play is the training method that actually works: Amanda identifies asking for the reservation as the single most common sticking point for newer agents, not knowledge gaps but comfort gaps. The fix, in her experience, is role-play, specifically on closing language and the offer of a follow-up call. Combined with Revinate's in-person on-site training, which Old Edwards has used with measurable team impact, role-play builds the muscle memory that makes closing feel natural rather than uncomfortable.

● Scoring forms are only useful when paired with one-on-ones: Amanda's reservation manager conducts weekly one-on-ones with every agent, using scoring form data as a starting point but always going further. Half of the Old Edwards reservations team works remotely, and the one-on-ones serve a dual purpose: performance coaching and human connection that prevents silos from forming in a distributed team.

● Agents are the foundation of every guest data point: Bailey's framing for the reservation agent's role in the broader data ecosystem is one of the most memorable in the series. "They are the ones who ultimately enter that first data piece for that guest. They're like the foundation of the house. And the rest of the team builds on top of that house." When agents understand that their lead form accuracy determines everything downstream, the quality of the data, the personalization of the marketing, and the recognition of the guest at check-in, their relationship with their role changes.

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Read the Hospitality Benchmark Report here: https://www.revinate.com/hospitality-benchmark-report/

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Episode Highlights

[05:30] Inbound call volume: the number that determines your staffing season — Bailey presents the benchmark data that reshapes how reservations managers should think about planning: during peak months, a standard 100-room hotel can expect 300 inbound lead calls. Amanda's immediate response is direct — staffing is the most important thing her team pulls from this report. With seven agents managing rooms, dining, spa, and golf across four properties, knowing when volume peaks is not a planning convenience. It is the difference between capturing that revenue and losing it to an abandoned call.

[12:00] Conversion rates as a coaching tool, not just a KPI — Amanda reframes what conversion data is actually useful for when you have a newer team: "Being able to track that really helps us dig into who needs more coaching, a little more love." The benchmark's 49 to 53% conversion rates in best-performing months are a ceiling to aim for, but the nightly lead demand report sits underneath the conversion data and tells Amanda whether a dip is a rate problem, a policy problem, or an agent skill problem. Each has a different fix and conversion data alone cannot distinguish between them.

[20:44] What non-booked leads reveal about rate and policy — Amanda describes how removing nightly minimums in winter and into Q2 at Old Edwards' most economical Highlands property immediately improved both the abandonment report and revenue forecasts. "We just weren't selling in the winter time." Non-booked lead volume told her where the friction was. The nightly lead demand report told her what callers were actually asking about. The fix was a policy change, not more training.

[24:22] Outbound calls: the revenue that arrives without a commission — The benchmark finding is specific: $1,164 in incremental revenue per room per year from outbound calls, with no OTA commission attached and guest data secured directly into the hotel's own database. Amanda is candid about the challenge: "It has been my dream to have outbound-specific agents." Her team's current outbound effort focuses on returning voicemails and responding to abandoned calls, but she acknowledges that every reservations manager who has deployed dedicated outbound reports it as transformative.

[29:04] Role-play and one-on-ones: the coaching combination that sticks — Amanda identifies the most common agent sticking point as the moment of asking for the reservation — not a knowledge gap but a comfort gap. "That seems to be the biggest block for newer agents." Her solution is role-play, specifically on closing language and the proactive offer of a follow-up call. Combined with weekly one-on-ones that go beyond the scoring form, this approach keeps remote agents connected to their manager and continuously improving. "Not just doing the forms, but actually having the catch-up one-on-ones."

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:52 - About the 2026 Benchmark Report Leadership Series
02:30 - Old Edwards Hospitality Group: four hotels, three golf courses, one team of seven
05:30 - Inbound lead call volume: 300 calls per month at a 100-room hotel
12:00 - Conversion rates: the NPS of the voice channel
18:20 - Non-booked lead volume: what summer spikes are really telling you
22:37 - Outbound calls: $1,164 in incremental revenue per room annually
29:04 - Coaching, scoring, and building agents who close