It’s Saturday afternoon and both negotiators are out on viewings. A few Rightmove enquiries and a Zoopla one land in the inbox. By the time anyone reads them it’s Monday, and some of those applicants have already booked to see something else.
If you run a lettings or sales branch, you’ll know this weekend. This guide covers how portal enquiries reach you, what applicants expect, what an AI agent can ask and what a person must decide, and the UK rules on calls and texts.
In short, most portal enquiries arrive when the branch is busy or closed. Reply in minutes, by text or a call, ask the few questions that decide a viewing, and offer a time from the diary. A person still makes every decision about the tenancy.
How Rightmove and Zoopla enquiries reach you
| Portal | What the portal says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rightmove | Email leads and calls show in Lead Reports in Rightmove Plus. Calls show only if you use a Rightmove number. Enhanced lettings leads can flow into some agency CRMs, including Reapit and Street. | Rightmove |
| Zoopla | A free leads delivery service and a Leads API push enquiries to agents within seconds. | Zoopla |
How fast do people expect an estate agent to reply?
In a YouGov survey for Zoopla of 1,000 people who sold in the last five years, 26% expected to hear from an agent within the hour and 67% within four hours (Zoopla, November 2025). That survey is of sellers; we know of no published equivalent for tenants.
Four hours passes quickly on a weekend when everyone is out on viewings. That’s the gap an out-of-hours reply fills.
Qualifying an applicant: what the agent asks, what a person decides
| The agent can ask | A person decides |
|---|---|
| Move-in date and how long they want to stay | Who gets the property |
| Budget and who will live there | Referencing and affordability |
| Pets, parking, furnished or not | Right to rent checks |
| When they can view | Anything about the tenancy terms |
In England, the landlord must check the right to rent of every adult who will live in the property before the tenancy starts, and can ask the letting agent to do it, agreed in writing (GOV.UK, agents).
Calls and texts to applicants: PECR and UK GDPR
- A call is solicited when the person specifically asked you to call. Most PECR rules, including the TPS check, then do not apply (ICO).
- Unsolicited marketing calls must not go to numbers on the TPS without specific consent (ICO).
- Texts count as electronic mail. Marketing texts need consent unless the soft opt-in applies, and every message must say who you are and offer a way to opt out (ICO).
- The ICO is updating parts of this guidance for the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
How Intend helps, and what it doesn’t do yet
- It replies by text, WhatsApp or a call, and offers viewing times from your diary.
- It calls UK numbers only between 8 am and 9 pm UK time, and never after a stop.
- It has no direct connection to Rightmove, Zoopla, Reapit, Alto or Street today. We set up how enquiries reach it, and where viewings are written, with you during setup.
Try this on Saturday
Send an enquiry to one of your own listings from a personal email on Saturday afternoon, and note when the first reply arrives. If it’s Monday, you’ve found one place viewings slip away.
To see how Intend works for branches, visit the page for letting and sales agents or pricing.
Sources
- Rightmove, How do I use my lead reporting?
- Rightmove, Enhanced lettings leads to integrate with agent CRM systems
- Zoopla, Leads Delivery Service and Leads API, 28 April 2022
- Zoopla, What today’s sellers really want from their estate agent (YouGov survey of 1,000 recent sellers), 17 November 2025
- GOV.UK, Checking your tenant’s right to rent
- GOV.UK, Right to rent: agents and subletting
- ICO, What are the rules on live direct marketing calls? (solicited and unsolicited calls)
- ICO, Guide to PECR: telephone marketing
- ICO, Guide to PECR: electronic mail marketing (texts and emails, soft opt-in)
A plain summary as of the date above, not legal advice.