Hotels pay commission on every portal booking, while direct calls at lunch or after 7 PM go to voicemail. Your agent picks up, answers standard questions from your own documents and takes down reservation requests in full, so your front desk can confirm them.
Notice under EU AI Act Article 50:The preset greeting says right at the start that an AI is speaking. If a transfer number is on file, the agent hands callers over to a person on request.How we use AI
What does the AI phone assistant do for hotels?
The AI phone assistant for hotels answers calls around the clock, handles guest questions about breakfast, parking and check-in from your own documents and takes reservation requests with travel dates, room category and number of guests. Your front desk confirms the booking; the agent deliberately does not take card details over the phone.
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.
DEHOGA counts 40,158 accommodation businesses in Germany. Calls peak in the late morning and early evening, exactly when reception is changing shifts. HOTREC measures 50.9 % of overnight stays in Europe as booked direct; the portals' market share has risen from 19.7 % in 2013 to 29.6 %. Anyone who can't get through books via a portal. An AI agent catches exactly these calls and turns them into requests your front desk can confirm directly.
Lunch and evening callers frequently land in voicemail
OTA commissions cut into the room rate on every portal booking
Breakfast, parking, pets, the same questions every day
International guests call in 5 languages, the front desk speaks 2
How the phone agent works for hotels.
Your agent answers calls without a keypad menu, in the languages you enable. For a reservation request it takes down arrival, departure, room category, number of guests and contact details, reads them back for confirmation and passes the request to your front desk with a summary. If your booking system has an open API, availability lookups can be set up as a connection. Standard questions about breakfast, parking, pets or check-in are answered from your house rules. Complaints, cancellation requests or group enquiries go to the front desk.
40,158
accommodation businesses in Germany, VAT statistics 2024
Move the sliders. The starting values are rough orientation, not a measurement — put your own numbers in.
100
25%
€250
30%
~108Missed calls per month
€8,063Lost revenue per month
€96,756Lost revenue per year
rinqo answers calls around the clock. At night, at weekends too.
What your agent does for hotels
Take down reservation requests in full: dates, room category, guests
Take down change requests for existing bookings and pass them on
Standard questions (breakfast, parking, check-in, Wi-Fi, pets)
Directions and arrival info
Take down spa and restaurant requests
Multilingual service in the languages you enable
What the Phone agent can do
Answers common questions automatically
Books appointments directly in your calendar
Qualifies inquiries and captures contact details
Routes complex cases to your team
Main language from 17+ languages
Answers from your website and documents
Honest answers to real concerns.
The questions that come up before the start.
Does the agent take credit card details?
No, and that is deliberate. Card numbers do not belong in the recording or transcript of an AI conversation, and card payments are subject to strict security rules. Payment and guarantees run through your booking engine or the front desk.
How does the agent handle cancellations and refunds?
The agent explains your cancellation terms from your own documents and passes cancellation requests and refund questions to the front desk with a summary. It does not change anything in your booking system.
What if the front desk team wants to take over a call?
Yes. If you set up call forwarding, the agent transfers calls to the front desk. You can see every conversation, with transcript, in the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions for hotels.
Apaleo and Mews can be connected through their open APIs, and the agent then checks availability directly. The agent does not create binding bookings in your booking system.
On the phone you choose the main language from 17+ languages, including German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch; the agent also recognises English automatically. In chat and by email it replies in the language of the enquiry.
The agent passes complaints to the front office manager, either by transferring the call or by email with a summary. You decide when: for example for complaints, refunds, weddings or group enquiries.
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.
