If you're new to HTR's lead gen program, please make sure to review the intro guide below to make sure you are setup for success to maximize ROI:
1. Build a Strong Reputation First
Key takeaway: A strong reputation boosts engagement and conversions.
All leads come from HTR users — meaning when you reach out, the first thing they’ll do is check your profile.
How do you rank in your category?
How strong is your review profile?
Are you more trusted than competitors?
📉 A weak reputation = lower response rates. Hoteliers will often request info from multiple vendors. If others respond faster or have better reputations, you lose out — even if the lead came to you first.
👀 Must-read:
2. Match Your Messaging to the Lead Type
Key takeaway: Tailored outreach = higher reply rates.
Not all leads are the same — and treating them like they are can kill your results.
Direct leads asked to connect with your company.
Matched leads were algorithmically paired based on their criteria, not your brand.
📬 If your sales team sends the same message to both — especially a hard-sell — matched leads are far less likely to engage.
📉 The risk. If your team doesn’t know the difference, response rates drop, deals fall through, and your brand looks out of touch.
👀 Must-read:
3. Automate to Reduce Time-to-Follow-Up
Key takeaway: Faster replies = higher engagement and better ROI.
The faster you follow up, the better your chances of closing the deal.
Whether leads come through your own site or via HTR, there’s a direct correlation between response time and success rate. Every extra hour introduces risk:
The hotelier loses interest
Gets distracted
Or worse — another vendor gets to them first
Manual workflows = delays = lost opportunities. That’s why it’s critical to automate your follow-up process end-to-end — from lead acceptance to outreach.
⏱️ Your goal: Follow up as close to instantly as possible -- here's how:
| DESCRIPTION |
1️⃣ | Set lead criteria to auto-accept and push leads straight to your CRM for instant follow-up—no manual work needed.
⏱ Setup time: 1–2 minutes |
2️⃣ | Enable CRM forwarding to automatically send accepted lead details into your CRM and create the opportunity instantly.
⏱ Setup time: 1–2 minutes |
3️⃣ | Set up automated nurture sequences in your CRM so leads get instant follow-up, saving your team 15–20 minutes per lead and keeping you competitive with faster-responding vendors.
⏱ Setup time: 30-40 minutes |
4. Treat HTR Leads as MQLs, Not SQLs
Key takeaway. Treat HTR leads as MQLs and build a dynamic marketing funnel that lets you track ROI, measure performance, and continuously optimize your messaging.
Don’t treat HTR leads like fully qualified deals. That mindset leads to:
Slower follow-up
Missed opportunities
No visibility into what’s working
📉 Manual outreach = delays + no data
📈 Automated funnels = speed + insights
Set up HTR leads as Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) in your CRM and track how they move through your funnel. This gives you a full view of performance and where to improve.
📊 Metrics to monitor. Track these in your CRM or email tool:
1. Lead Acceptance Time → How fast you accept leads
1. Lead Acceptance Time → How fast you accept leads
What: The time it takes from when a lead places their request to when you accept the lead in the lead inbox
Why: Delays decrease probability of being able to engage and convert leads and put you at a disadvantage to other vendors who are responsive and provide great service to leads requesting information on HTR
How: This is automatically tracked in the lead inbox and you can see the time-to-acceptance on each lead as well as your average time to acceptance in the
2. Time-to-Follow-Up → How long it takes to respond
2. Time-to-Follow-Up → How long it takes to respond
What: Time it takes from when the lead places their initial request to when your team actually follows up
Why: Same as above, delays kill engagement rates and put you at a major disadvantage to the competition
How: Use CRM Forwarding and follow-up automation to drop leads into targeted nurture sequences in your CRM that have built in analytics for open, reply and conversion.
3. Open Rate → Are leads opening your emails?
3. Open Rate → Are leads opening your emails?
What: What percentage of HTR leads opened your outreach
Why: This will tell you if leads are opening/engaging with your outreach to know if you might have areas to improve in terms of things like subject line or sendability/email reputation
How: Automatically tracked if you drop leads into nurture sequences
4. Reply Rate → Are they engaging?
4. Reply Rate → Are they engaging?
What: What percentage of HTR leads replied to your outreach
Why: This will show you if there is room to improve your email content/messaging in the nurture sequences
How: Automatically tracked if you drop leads into automated nurture sequences in your CRM
5. Demo Conversion → Are they booking calls?
5. Demo Conversion → Are they booking calls?
What: What percentage of HTR leads booked a demo
Why: This will tell you if your sales playbook, nurture sequence messaging and strategy is working or if you might need to improve it
How: Automatically tracked in your CRM if you tagged HTR as the source when setting up CRM forwarding
6. Closed Won Rate → Are they becoming customers?
6. Closed Won Rate → Are they becoming customers?
What: What percentage of HTR leads converted to becoming a customer and what was the deal size and lifetime value of these
Why: This will tell you just based on new business generate through organic leads on HTR alone, what the ROI of your lead spend is
How: Automatically tracked in your CRM if you tagged HTR as the source when setting up CRM forwarding
5. Invest in Brand Awareness to Boost Matched Lead Success
Key takeaway. Match leads are more likely to engage if your brand is known
Matched leads didn’t ask for your company specifically — so if they’ve never heard of you, response rates can drop.
🧠 Buyers often:
Google you
Skip you if your brand isn’t familiar or trusted
Low engagement? It might not be your messaging — it could be brand recognition.
✅ First: Follow HTR's follow-up best practices
💡 Then: Invest in awareness (HTR ads, PR, retargeting)
Read more 🔽
Read more 🔽
On the one hand, matched leads are a great opportunity for companies with lower brand awareness because it puts you in the consideration set of buyers who wouldn't have considered you otherwise and in many cases may have never even heard of your company or products. On the other, you (a) should understand the risk of a buyer not being interested if they haven't heard of your brand and (b) should make sure you carefully craft your followup with matched leads according to HTR's best practices.
If you're a match this is great, but you also need to keep in mind that if the buyer doesn't trust your brand or isn't familiar with it, this is a potential risk when accepting matched leads. If you get a match and reach out but the user either hasn't heard of your brand (or you have a bad reputation) they very likely may not respond to your outreach (especially if it is aggressive and overly promotional/salesy).
If you have low brand awareness in the market and matches are not responsive to your outreach you should first iterate on your sales messaging and make sure you are following all recommended best practices, but it may also be worth investing in brand awareness campaigns both on and/or off Hotel Tech Report to increase brand recognition and recall.
FAQs
What is a lead?
What is a lead?
So what is a lead...a lead is a verified hotelier who has expressed interest in your product and we have verified their contact information and manually researched/enriched the lead to make sure they are who they say they. The user (1) pre-qualified as a hotel tech buyer by the nature of just being on HTR (2) have filled out 15+ form fields (3) verified their contact information (4) been manually verified by HTR (5) explicitly requested intent and interest in your product. This is what you are accepting when accepting a lead and if any of this criteria is not met HTR offers a 100% money-back guarantee.
Is a lead a closed deal?
Is a lead a closed deal?
A lead is NOT a closed deal (that's why they are priced at $30 for example rather than an affiliate model which is typically 10-15% of lifetime revenue of the customer).
It is important to keep in mind that leads are leads, not affiliate sales/closed deals. You will not close all of them and that is (a) totally normal and (b) what you should be expecting (that is also why they cost $30-$50 and not hundreds or thousands of rev-share dollars). That said, you should get responses from most leads if you have a strong outreach and followup strategy in place following the below best practices.
What if I purchase a lead but the lead doesn't respond? Am I eligible for a refund?
What if I purchase a lead but the lead doesn't respond? Am I eligible for a refund?
The short answer is no, this does not qualify for a refund per our refund policy. After HotelTechReport has done the work to acquire, convert, enrich and verify the lead, they become a lead and are then sent to your vendor dashboard.
After that point there are things we cannot control that can impact response rate which is why we recommend going through our best practice guides to set expectations and a strategy to set your company up for success before getting started with leads.
👉 Want us to audit your lead follow-up process to boost ROI?
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