How to stop losing Idealista and Fotocasa enquiries over the phone
To stop losing enquiries from the portal, every call from a listing has to be answered there and then, even when the team is out on viewings or the office is closed. The most direct way is an AI receptionist: it answers, knows which flat the call is about, qualifies the caller and leaves the viewing booked with the agent. If the enquirer writes instead of calling, call them back soon, and before you do it with AI, make sure you have their consent.
David Zafra · · 10 min read ·
- Someone calling from a listing is comparing flats and wants an answer now.
- The calls come in while the agents are out and about.
- Five or six questions are enough to know whether they fit and what to do next.
- The viewing can be settled on the same call.
- Price, negotiation and legal terms are always decided by a person.
Why do agencies lose enquiries over the phone?
Because people call just when nobody can pick up.
- Every agent is out showing flats.
- The office manager is at a valuation.
- Whoever is left in the office is dealing with a client at the desk.
- It's Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon and the agency is closed.
- Two calls about the same listing come in at once.
Someone calling from Idealista or Fotocasa, Spain's big property portals, usually has several listings open. If you don't answer, they call the next one. And when you finally call back, they may already have arranged to see another flat.
How much does answering quickly matter?
A lot: the first hour decides.
In 2011, Harvard Business Review published two findings on response speed. In an audit of 2,241 US companies, only 37% replied within an hour to an enquiry that came in through their website. In another study, of 1.25 million leads at 42 US companies, those that tried to reach the enquirer within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to get a conversation with a decision-maker as those that tried an hour later (Harvard Business Review, 2011 (opens in a new tab)). Neither study is about estate agencies or about calls, so take them as evidence that speed matters, not as a rate for your agency.
Speed alone isn't enough. Picking up the phone to say “an agent will call you back” moves nothing forward. The call has to end with a next step: a viewing, a missing detail or a clear note for the agent.
Can AI answer your agency's calls and call your Idealista or Fotocasa leads?
Answer them, yes. If you want to call leads yourself with AI, the prudent course is to have their consent first.
Incoming calls. An AI receptionist answers the phone number shown in your listings, at any hour and several calls at a time. The listings don't change: only that number is forwarded. It identifies the flat from the listing reference and answers with the published details. It checks your portfolio to see whether the flat is still available and, if it isn't, suggests a similar one.
The calls you make. If someone writes through the portal and you want to call them with AI, bear in mind the Ley General de Telecomunicaciones, Spain's telecommunications law. Its article 66.1.a recognises the right not to receive automated calls without human intervention for commercial purposes unless prior consent has been given (BOE, Ley 11/2022 (opens in a new tab)). Before calling someone who wrote through the portal with AI, check with your adviser that you have their consent for that call, and keep a record of where it came from.
Which questions help qualify an enquirer?
Just enough to know whether they fit and what to do next. It isn't an interrogation.
| Question | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Are you looking to buy or to rent? | Which process and which agent they belong to |
| Which area? | Whether the flat fits or another one from the portfolio should be suggested |
| What's your budget? | Whether the listing is within their reach |
| How would you pay for it? | Whether a buyer is ready or needs a mortgage first |
| When do you need it by? | How urgent it is and the decision timeline |
| When could you see it? | The shortest route to a viewing |
You don't need all of them on every call. Someone looking to rent gets asked about the agency's requirements. With someone asking about a particular flat, it's sometimes enough to confirm it's still available and give them a time. Your agency decides the questions.
Can the viewing be booked on the first call?
Yes, if the flat is available, the person fits and the agent's diary is connected.
The receptionist offers two free slots with the agent who handles that flat. The enquirer picks one and hangs up with the viewing booked. The agent gets a message with the summary: what they're looking for, their budget and which listing they called about.
An example. Sunday, 12:20. Someone calls about a two-bedroom flat they've seen on Fotocasa. The agency is closed, but the call is answered. They want to buy, have a mortgage pre-approved and can come on Tuesday or Thursday. They're booked in for Thursday at 18:00 with the agent for that flat. On Monday, the agent starts the day with the viewing already in the diary.
Which calls have to go to a person?
The ones that need judgement, trust or a decision.
| The AI receptionist handles it | It goes to the agent |
|---|---|
| Whether the flat is still available | Whether there is room to negotiate on price |
| The published price, size, area and charges | An offer or a counter-offer |
| Booking, changing or cancelling a viewing | Legal or financing terms |
| The agency's rental requirements | A complaint |
| Suggesting a similar flat from the portfolio | An owner who wants to sell, with their details already taken |
If the agent isn't free, the receptionist takes down the essentials, leaves them a message and tells the enquirer what will happen next. It never makes up a margin, a condition or a detail about the flat that it doesn't have.
How do you test it before signing up?
With your real CRM and test listings. Write down how each case ends: completed, awaiting confirmation, passed to the agent or unavailable.
| Case | What should happen |
|---|---|
| A call quoting a listing's reference | It identifies the flat without making anyone repeat anything |
| A flat that is no longer available | It says so and suggests a similar one from the portfolio |
| A viewing with the agent who handles the flat | It books it in one of that agent's free slots |
| A question about room on the price | It doesn't negotiate: it passes it to the agent |
| A call in another language, with street names | It understands it and handles it just the same |
| Two calls about the same listing at once | It answers both |
| The CRM doesn't respond | The viewing stays pending and it alerts the agent |
A rule for any provider, heydiga included: if the diary or the CRM doesn't respond, the viewing cannot be treated as confirmed.
Where heydiga fits
The AI receptionist from digaliving, heydiga's product for estate agencies, answers your agency's calls and WhatsApp in a natural voice and works 24/7. It identifies the property from the listing reference, qualifies callers with the questions your agency sets and books the viewing with the agent who handles that flat. It doesn't negotiate prices: that's for the agent.
- With Idealista and Fotocasa, it answers whoever calls from the listing without touching what you already have published.
- With your CRM, such as Inmovilla or Witei, it looks up the property record. Then it logs the lead with the viewing, the listing it came from and the call summary.
- For the detail by type of agency, see the estate agencies page.
Nothing to install, no change of CRM and no change to the agency's number. The integration with the sector's software is included from Diga Start upwards: €99 a month excl. VAT, with 500 minutes. No lock-in. Conversational WhatsApp is added for €39 a month excl. VAT: with it, €138 a month.
Book a demo of the AI receptionist
What should you measure?
Not just how many calls are missed. What matters is how many end in a viewing.
| What you measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Calls answered | Whether demand gets an answer there and then |
| Qualified enquirers | How many fit your portfolio |
| Viewings booked | Whether calls turn into something concrete |
| Out-of-hours calls | How much demand comes in while the office is closed |
| Calls by listing and by portal | Which listing and which portal bring in viewings |
| Calls passed to an agent | Whether the handover rules work |
A first step: review a week of calls
Before you change anything, note down over a normal week:
- How many calls are answered and how many are missed, by hour and by day.
- Which listing and which portal each one comes from.
- What the agents ask before giving someone a viewing.
- Which calls are always the same and which need judgement.
- How long it takes to return a missed call and how many end in a viewing.
If the losses cluster while the team is out on viewings, look at the lead capture and qualification use case. If they cluster while the office is closed, the one on after-hours calls. And if you want to see the problem in any kind of business, read how to stop missing customer calls.
Frequently asked questions
Do the Idealista or Fotocasa listings have to change?
No. The listings stay as they are: only the phone number shown on them is forwarded to the receptionist. If you drop a portal tomorrow, nothing changes, because it works on the agency's phone and CRM.
Does it know which flat each enquirer is calling about?
Yes, from the listing reference, without making the caller repeat anything. It answers with the published details and checks your portfolio to see whether the flat is still available.
Can it negotiate the price?
No. It only gives the prices the agency has loaded. If the enquirer asks whether there is room to negotiate, it tells them they'll go over that with the agent, and passes the agent what they're looking for and their budget.
Will the enquirer know they're talking to an AI?
Yes. heydiga's AI receptionist introduces itself as a virtual assistant from the very start, as article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (opens in a new tab) requires. If they would rather talk to someone on the team, it transfers the call.
Does it handle foreign buyers?
Yes: it answers in the caller's language, without an interpreter, and qualifies them and books their viewing like anyone else's. If the agency prefers a person to handle it, it transfers the call to someone who speaks that language.
Is it going to replace the agents?
No. It takes the repetitive calls and the ones that come in when nobody can pick up. Advice, negotiation and the relationship with the client stay with the agent.
Sources
- Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011, hbr.org (opens in a new tab).
- Ley 11/2022, de 28 de junio, General de Telecomunicaciones, article 66, in the BOE (opens in a new tab), Spain's official gazette.
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on artificial intelligence, article 50, Official Journal of the EU, 2024, in the BOE (opens in a new tab).
- Features, integrations and pricing: digaliving, estate agencies, Idealista, Fotocasa and pricing, accessed on 29 October 2026.
How it was written: written with the help of AI tools; reviewed and checked by the heydiga team.
