AI for Restaurants
Book reservations on the first call and stay focused on the guests in front of you
AIVA, our AI receptionist, books reservations in your reservation system, following your rules for holds and deposits, and answers the questions your restaurant staff receive every night, such as business hours, directions and menu options, so your team can stay on the floor.
Highlights
- Answers calls on the first ring
- Takes multiple calls at once, no busy signal
- 99.999% network uptime
What it covers
The calls AIVA takes off your hands
The AI receptionist handles the calls it is designed to handle, such as the ones below. Anything else goes to your team.
Reservations booked on the call
AIVA checks availability and books the table in your reservation system, with party size and special requests. If you require a card hold or deposit, AIVA texts the guest a payment link during the call. If you don't, the booking is confirmed on the call. Best for: full-service restaurants that take reservations.
Hours, directions and location questions
Holiday hours, last seating, parking and where the entrance is. Best for: restaurants where these calls interrupt service every shift.
Menu and dietary questions
Ingredients, how dishes are prepared, substitutions and the items your kitchen will not change. Best for: restaurants that get many allergy and preparation questions.
Catering and private event inquiries
The date, the headcount and the contact details, taken in full and passed to a manager. Best for: restaurants that book events by phone.
Large parties and buyouts
Large parties and buyouts go to a person, with the conversation attached. Best for: restaurants that want a manager on every large booking.
The caller asks
“Saturday at 7:30 for six?”
Booked on the call, following your deposit rules.
The call flow
How AIVA answers your restaurant's phone
The phone rings
AIVA answers on the first ring, in any of 51 languages, with no silence at the start of the call.
AIVA works out what the caller wants
A caller who asks about “Saturday at 7:30 for six” wants a table, so AIVA checks availability and books it. A caller can interrupt mid-sentence and still be understood.
Answered on the call
Hours, directions, menu items and how dishes are prepared, from the content you give us.
Booked on the call
The date, time, party size and special requests, under your hold and deposit rules.
Handed to a manager
Catering, large parties and anything that needs a decision, with the conversation attached.
A written summary
Every call ends with a written summary, including special requests.
BluIP is a licensed phone carrier and carries the call straight to the AI, with no other phone company in between, so callers hear fewer clipped words and dropped calls.
What changes on the floor
Your team is always customer-facing while AIVA takes the calls
Fewer missed calls at peak hours
Call volume increases when the floor is busiest. AIVA answers multiple calls at once, so callers are not sent to voicemail and ten people calling at 6:45 p.m. all get the help they need.
6:45 p.m. · ten callers
10 calls answered
Reservations booked on the first call
A party of four that calls once and reaches voicemail may not call back. AIVA books the table on that first call, with the date, time, party size and any special requests, following your rules for holds and deposits.
More time on the floor
Each call AIVA answers is one your host does not have to step away for. Staff stay with the diners in the room, and the phone still gets answered.
The same answer to every menu question
Today, a dietary question can get a different answer depending on who picks up. The AI receptionist answers only from the menu content you supply, so the same question gets the same answer at noon and at 10 p.m.
Phone service and AI on one bill
Phone lines, phone service and the AI are billed together. If call quality slips, BluIP support resolves the issue and checks the complete service from end to end.
Side by side
Answering service or AI for your restaurant?
Both answer the phone. An answering service takes a message for your team. The AI receptionist answers the question on the call.
Swipe sideways to see every column
An answering service is the better choice when callers mainly need a person to take a detailed message and your call volume is low. AI answering is the better choice when volume is high and the same questions come up every shift.
Where it fits
Which of these sounds like your restaurant?
It helps most in these four situations.
Busy phones at dinner
The phone rings hardest between 5:30 and 8 p.m., and calls go unanswered every night in that window. The signs are a full voicemail box and callbacks nobody has time to make.
Restaurant groups with several locations
Each location has its own line, hours and way of answering. With AIVA, every location answers the same way, using that location's hours and details.
Restaurants inside hotels and resorts
In-room dining, the restaurant and the front desk share a building and a guest. Many calls come from guest rooms, and the system knows which room is calling.
Restaurants watching labor costs
Staff time spent on routine calls is time away from diners. The AI receptionist takes those calls without adding a shift.
When this is not the right fit
If most of your calls are takeout or delivery orders, AIVA is the wrong product. We do not take phone orders, connect to point-of-sale (POS) systems for ordering or build for quick-service and counter-service restaurants. A tool built for phone ordering will serve you better.
How setup works
We do the setup. You keep running your restaurant.
Your number, phones and systems stay as they are.
- 1
We gather your content
Hours, menu, policies and reservation rules, taken from your website or sent by you.
- 2
We build around how you operate
Workflows are set up to match your systems and rules, including whether bookings need a card hold or deposit.
- 3
We test before guests call
Every common call type is run through before go-live.
- 4
You go live
Same number, no new hardware.
- 5
AIVA keeps getting better
Call reports show where callers got stuck or asked something AIVA couldn't answer. Fill those gaps yourself, or work with our team to refine the call flows.
Hotel calls since 2012
Restaurants get the same platform as our 2,200+ hotels
Your restaurant runs on the same network, with 99.999% uptime, and gets the same support team as our hotels.
The first question is usually reliability. If the AI cannot run for any reason, calls ring through to your phones as they do today. Complaints and anything that needs judgment go to a person, with the conversation attached.
2,200+
hotels
450K+
rooms
99.999%
network uptime
About BluIP
BluIP is a licensed telecom provider that builds its own software: Cloud PBX, contact center and AIVA, our AI receptionist for voice, text and chat. Founded in 2011, BluIP serves hotels, health systems, restaurants and large enterprises across North America, including 2,200+ hotels, with 99.999% uptime.
Frequently asked questions
Questions restaurants ask about AI answering
Contact us for pricing. We share pricing after a short discovery call.
On the call, we look at how many locations you run, how your calls come in and which features you need. Phone lines, phone service and the AI come on one bill.
An answering service takes a message. AIVA answers the question on the call.
A traditional service uses operators who read from a script and pass on anything beyond it, so your team still handles the request later. Our AI receptionist answers menu and hours questions itself, books reservations on the call and hands off only what needs judgment. It also answers multiple calls at once, so there is no queue at peak hours.
It depends on how much content you bring and how many locations you run. There is no hardware to wait for.
Setup starts with your content. There is no wiring, no new handsets and no change to the number your regulars dial. BluIP sets everything up, and you review every answer before a caller hears it. Later changes take a sentence in plain English, with no code.
No. We do not offer voice ordering, phone ordering or point-of-sale integration.
The AI receptionist handles hours, directions, menu and dietary questions, catering inquiries and reservations. If most of your calls are orders, it is the wrong fit. Restaurants whose calls are mainly reservations and questions get the most from it.
Yes. AIVA follows your reservation setup.
Tables that need a card hold or deposit get one, the way your reservation system is set up to take it. Tables that don't are confirmed on the call. We set this up with you before go-live.
As many as arrive. Capacity sits in the cloud, so there is no box in your restaurant with a fixed number of lines.
The tenth caller during the dinner rush is answered as fast as the first. A surge of calls on a holiday weekend or after an event announcement does not slow it down.
Yes. AIVA says it is an AI when asked.
It speaks naturally, keeps up when a caller interrupts and moves through a conversation without long pauses. It never claims to be a person. Its job is to answer the call in seconds and get the caller what they asked for.
The call goes to your team with the caller's name, the request and the conversation attached.
Complaints, press, vendors and anything that needs a decision go to a person. Your manager picks up already knowing what the call is about, so nobody asks the caller to explain a second time.
Yes. AIVA started in hotels, and it recognizes a call from a guest room before the conversation begins.
Reservations are booked with the room number attached. Hotel restaurants, in-room dining and the front desk can all run on the same hotel phone system.
Next step
What does your phone get asked most on a Friday night?
Book a demo with those questions. We will show you what AIVA does with each one, including the calls it hands to your manager.
