A booking channel for busy service hours
Restaurant calls often arrive while the team is serving guests. Bistro offers an AI phone agent that can handle reservation conversations and send booking information to your dashboard. It is an additional service to configure for your restaurant, alongside the public booking page.
Start by deciding what callers should be able to do. A normal table reservation, a question about opening hours and an inquiry for a private event have different requirements. Clear rules help the agent give useful answers.
Regular reservations
The reservation flow can check availability against the hours and capacity you configure, verify the caller by text, create a reservation in the dashboard and send a confirmation. Availability, messaging and payment services all need to be configured for that flow to work.
Before launch, try a booking during normal hours, an unavailable time and a party that exceeds your capacity. Check that the dashboard and the message received by the guest agree. Decide how staff should handle questions the agent cannot resolve.
Event inquiries and deposits
For events, the agent can capture the party size, preferred date and other inquiry details. If your restaurant requires deposits, you can configure rules by party size and time of day, with a payment link sent to the guest.
Guests should be able to see the deposit and applicable fees before paying. Payment processing and payout timing follow the connected payment provider's terms.
Activate and check the service
Voice service requires separate activation and usage charges. Number provisioning and setup depend on the service configuration. The seven-day menu trial does not automatically activate a restaurant phone line.
Prepare your restaurant hours, capacity, event policies and guest-facing contact details. Then review those settings with the team handling activation and test the number before promoting it. Your existing menu and QR can be prepared independently.
Measure what happens in your restaurant
After activation, compare answered calls, completed bookings, unresolved inquiries and usage costs over the same period. Review cancellations and no-shows separately. These measurements can help you decide whether the service fits your operation; results depend on your restaurant and the calls it receives.