Speed wins before any algorithm even gets involved
When a client submits an enquiry through Party Hero, up to six suppliers in the same category can be notified about it at the same time. That's true regardless of any scoring – it's simply how many suppliers a single enquiry can reach. In practice, the first supplier to reply with something genuinely useful – real availability, a rough price, a specific answer to what they asked – very often wins the booking, even over a supplier who might have been the "better fit" on paper but replied a day later.
Customers planning an event are usually comparing a handful of options in real time. A fast, specific reply doesn't just look responsive – it ends the comparison in your favour before your competitors have even opened the enquiry.
Ignoring leads has a real, automatic penalty
This isn't a guess – it's built directly into how leads are routed. If a supplier lets three leads in a row sit unactioned for more than 48 hours each, they're automatically placed on a 7-day cooldown: no new leads route to them in that category until it lifts. It's not triggered by one busy day or one missed enquiry – it takes a genuine pattern of ignoring leads back-to-back. But it is fully automatic, and it's a real gap in bookings, not just a bad look.
The fix is simple: action every lead within a couple of days, even if "action" is just a quick acknowledgement or a clarifying question. You don't need to have the perfect answer instantly – you need to not go quiet.
Response speed and follow-through are part of how you're matched, too
Party Hero's AI enquiry matching genuinely scores each supplier on their average response time and their real conversion history (enquiries that actually turned into bookings), alongside fit factors like location, capacity and budget. Both are still ramping up as real behavioural data builds across the platform – but the earlier you build genuinely fast, helpful response habits, the better positioned you are as that data increasingly separates consistently responsive suppliers from slower ones. It's not a reason to panic about today's rankings; it's a reason to start the habit now rather than later.
Fast doesn't have to mean rushed
The point isn't a one-line "thanks, we'll be in touch" – vague acknowledgements don't convert much better than silence. The goal is fast and specific: real availability for their date, a rough price range, and one clear next step.
Party Hero's AI Email Reply tool (Pro and Multi-Listing) is built exactly for this gap – it drafts a reply to a specific enquiry, in a tone you choose, ready to review, tweak and send straight from your Enquiries tab. It turns "I'll get to that properly tonight" into a two-minute task you can do the moment the enquiry lands, without sending something generic or under-thought.
The bottom line
Speed matters for a simple, non-algorithmic reason first: enquiries are competitive, and the first solid reply usually wins. On top of that, Party Hero's matching genuinely rewards consistent responsiveness over time, and consistently ignoring leads carries a real, automatic penalty. Build the habit of replying properly within a day, and let AI Email Reply take the friction out of doing it well every single time.