Booking inquiries, concierge recommendations, late check-ins, chat answers when reception closes.
Hotels have a classic asymmetry problem: reception is staffed during the day, evenings and nights are uncovered. Exactly when booking inquiries come in, and often disappear to Booking.com because the direct contact stays silent. The chat agent answers 24/7 on the hotel website, handles standard questions (rooms, breakfast, Wi-Fi, directions), captures booking inquiries and hands complex cases (group, special request) to reception.
Notice under EU AI Act Article 50:From the first message, the chat agent shows it's an AI. For complex questions, the agent hands off to your team.How we use AI
What does the Chat agent do for hotels?
rinqo's chat agent for hotels handles booking inquiries, concierge questions and late check-in requests directly on the hotel website. 17+ languages in chat, servers in Germany. Guests get their answer directly on your website instead of via a booking portal.
Servers in Germany · no US corporations
Stored in Germany. Processed in the EU, without US providers.
GDPR-compliant on EU servers
Many host in the EU and still send the data to US corporations like OpenAI. We don't. Calls, transcripts and knowledge data sit on servers in Germany, and the AI processing runs with European providers in the EU. A DPA under Art. 28 GDPR is in place.
Hosting in Germany, in data centres with ISO 27001 certification
AI processing runs with European providers in the EU, not with US corporations like OpenAI, Google or Amazon. No training on your data.
Speech recognition with EU processing and speech synthesis from a German provider, customers receive the named provider list in the dashboard.
Auto-deletion: 90 days by default, adjustable from 7 days
AI Act Art. 50: AI notice on by default
Since 2 August 2026, people must be told no later than first contact that they are talking or writing to an AI. With rinqo this notice is on by default in every channel.
Phone: the preset greeting says it is an AI; calls the agent places itself always open with it
Chat: notice always visible in the window. Email: notice below every reply from the agent
Generated images: AI label in the metadata, plus a visible label that is on by default
Penalty: up to €15M or 3 % global annual turnover, the lower amount for SMEs
Sources: GDPR Art. 28 + 32 · EU AI Act Regulation 2024/1689 · DSK guidance on artificial intelligence and data protection (German data protection conference, 2024). This overview does not constitute legal advice.
Why hotels need an AI agent.
Germany has 40,158 accommodation businesses. HOTREC measures 50.9 % of European overnight stays as booked direct; the market share of the portals has climbed from 19.7 % in 2013 to 29.6 %. Enquiries arrive late in the evening, when nobody is at reception any more, and then move on to a portal. A chat agent on the hotel website answers questions about rooms, rates, location and breakfast at any hour and takes the booking request directly for your hotel.
Reception unmanned at night and late evening, inquiries go straight to Booking.com.
Multilingual: international guests write in EN/FR/IT/ES; reception teams mostly only DE.
Standard questions (breakfast, Wi-Fi, check-in time, directions) clog reception during the day.
Last-minute weekend inquiries processed Monday, the booking is long gone.
Every booking via a portal incurs commission; every direct booking avoids that deduction.
How the chat agent works for hotels.
40,158
accommodation businesses in Germany, VAT statistics 2024
Room and rate information from your own documents, availability straight from your booking system
Concierge questions: breakfast, Wi-Fi, check-in, parking, directions, pet policy
Explain how late check-in and self check-in work
Restaurant recommendations from the area (curated via knowledge base)
Group-booking inquiries qualified and handed to the sales team
Multilingual: DE/EN/FR/IT/ES default without separate staff
What the Chat agent can do
Embeddable as a website widget
Answers questions in real time
Guides visitors through your offering
Captures contact details and inquiries
Hands over to your team when needed
Answers from your knowledge base
Frequently asked questions for hotels.
Apaleo and Mews can be connected through their open APIs, and the agent then checks availability directly. For smaller properties, a webhook that sends every booking request as an email or an entry to your reservation tool is enough. The agent does not create binding bookings.
That depends on your website and your guests, so we don't promise a figure. The mechanism: guests researching late at night get an immediate answer in the chat and can enquire directly with you instead of using a portal the next morning.
If you set keywords (multiple rooms, "large group", "wedding", "accessible", "pet", "catering"), the agent routes such requests to the sales inbox, with request summary and contact details. You receive the qualified inquiry, and the guest is told when to expect your reply, because you set that promise yourself.
The agent writes in 17 European languages, including German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. It detects the language of the first message and replies in that language.
Yes. You set wording, tone and standard answers. Boutique hotel: refined tone, curated recommendations. Family hotel: warm, simple, activity tips. Business hotel: precise, efficient, focus on Wi-Fi/late checkout/grab-and-go breakfast. All editable in the dashboard, changes live instantly.
Multi-channel for your industry
rinqo for Hotels, all channels
Telephone, chat and email from one platform: business case, ROI, GDPR and integrations.
Founder of rinqo. Builds a company memory where an organisation's knowledge comes together and stays available, and the AI agents that work from it: on the phone, in the inbox, in chat, in marketing and in further roles. Writes here about bringing AI into companies, about data protection, and about what holds up in daily operation. Developed in Germany, processed in the EU, no US providers.
