Published figures run from 14% to 56.8%, and the gap is definitional, not empirical. The National Apartment Association has printed an after-hours share three times — 14% of calls in 2019, 40% of web contact forms in 2021, 35% of customers in 2021 — and the widest figure counts every weekend hour. Set your cutoff before quoting a number.
Which After-Hours Figures Have Actually Been Published?
Three sit on one industry association's site. NAA's 7 New Year's Resolutions for Marketing (January 9, 2019) states that "studies have shown about 14 percent of calls come after hours." Evolution and Adaptation for Leasing Agents (March 15, 2021) refers to "the 40% of contact forms coming into a leasing office after hours." AI Driving Leasing Efficiency, Consistency (October 12, 2021) reports that at one national apartment operator, "leasing teams noticed that 35% of customers were reaching out after business hours."
Read all three and the same limit appears: each number is an operator's or a consultant's, repeated inside an article, and none of the three states where the after-hours line was drawn or how many inquiries it covers.
| Figure | Published | What was counted | Where the line sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~14% of calls | NAA, Jan 9, 2019 | Inbound calls to leasing offices, credited to unnamed "studies" | Not stated |
| 35% of customers | NAA, Oct 12, 2021 | One national apartment operator's own observation | "After business hours," undefined |
| 40% of contact forms | NAA, Mar 15, 2021 | Web contact forms at a leasing office (a consultant's figure in a session recap) | Not stated |
| 56.8% of inquiries | Leasing-platform analysis, Jan 2025 | All prospect inquiries across scattered-site US portfolios of 300–10,000 doors | Weekdays outside 9–5, plus the whole weekend |
Why Does the Number Swing Four Times Over?
Because each source draws the boundary elsewhere. The 2019 figure counts phone calls; the 2025 one counts every inquiry, web messages included. The 2025 analysis also treats both weekend days as after-hours — 48 of the week's 168 hours — and reports that weekends alone carried 22.5% of all inquiries, so whether Saturday and Sunday are in or out decides most of the argument by itself.
The 56.8% is worth its own caveat. It comes from a leasing-platform provider reading its own book of business — a disclosed sample of scattered-site US managers, mostly single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Real data with a stated scope, but a vendor's own platform, not a neutral series anyone outside it can reproduce. The hour-by-hour breakdown is in our post on after-hours rental inquiries.
Where Does the Office-Hours Window Actually Sit?
A Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 office is staffed 40 of the week's 168 hours — 23.8% of the calendar. The renters you want are working through most of it. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey — 2025 Results found that 81% of employed people worked on an average weekday, against 30% on an average weekend day, and that full-time employees put in 8.5 hours on the weekdays they worked. Their free hours begin where your staffed hours end.
How Do You Get a Real Number for Your Own Portfolio?
Pull 90 days of inquiry timestamps from your listing and inbox tools, in local time. Use your actual staffed hours as the cutoff instead of a generic 9-to-5, count the share landing outside it with weekends included, then split it by channel: the two channel-specific figures above are 26 points apart, so one blended percentage hides where your gap really is.
Whatever cutoff you land on, those inquiries still need an answer before the renter opens the next listing. LetHub replies in about 30 seconds by text, chat, and phone, and the AI voice agent picks up calls at 11 p.m. or on a Sunday — you can try it on 404-383-6213. When a renter is ready to see the unit, self-showings with bank-level ID verification let them tour on their own schedule. See how it works.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of rental inquiries come in after business hours?
Published figures range from about 14% to 56.8%, and the spread is definitional. The 14% counted inbound phone calls (NAA, January 2019). The 56.8% counted every inquiry and treated both weekend days as after-hours (a leasing-platform analysis of scattered-site US portfolios, January 2025). Pick a cutoff before quoting either.
Has an industry association ever published an after-hours share?
Yes — NAA has printed one three times: about 14% of calls (January 2019), 40% of web contact forms (March 2021), and 35% of customers reaching out (October 2021). All three are operator or consultant figures repeated in NAA articles, and none of the three states its cutoff or its sample size.
Why do the published numbers disagree so much?
Two definitions move them. First, where the evening line sits — 5 p.m., 6 p.m., later — and whether weekends count at all; in the 2025 analysis weekends alone were 22.5% of inquiries. Second, the channel: the published call figure is 14% and the web-form figure 40%, six years and two samples apart.
How should property managers cover the after-hours window?
Measure your own share first, using your real staffed hours as the cutoff. Then cover the hours outside it continuously: text, chat, and phone answered in seconds at any hour, so a Friday 9 p.m. inquiry gets a reply that night instead of a Monday callback, by which time the renter has toured elsewhere.
