Phone agentprimary
Take reservation inquiries 24/7 with table availability via webhook (resmio, OpenTable). Large groups and catering qualified and escalated to the restaurant team.
Open voice agent
ForRestaurants
Reservations reach you.
On every channel.
While service moves between tables and the kitchen ramps up for lunch, reservation requests come in by phone and by web chat. AI agents take reservations, answer allergy questions from your menu, and forward group requests to you.
Get startedIn short
The Rinqo AI agent for restaurants takes reservation calls around the clock, books tables directly in OpenTable, Quandoo or resmio, answers questions about menu, opening hours and allergens from your menu, and escalates groups of 8 or more or special requests to you.
The situation
DEHOGA counts about 165,000 dining establishments in Germany in 2025. A typical restaurant with 40-80 seats receives between 80 and 250 reservation and service calls per week, with clear peaks between 11 AM and 1 PM and 5 PM and 7 PM, exactly when service staff is at the table or on mise en place. HOTREC studies show that 32 percent of all reservation calls go unanswered within the first two rings, the caller goes to the next restaurant. Marketplace solutions (OpenTable, Quandoo) bring reach but cost €1-2 per cover plus a monthly fee, a direct-call agent is 5-10× cheaper per reservation.
Where it hurts
- Lunch and dinner peaks: service is at the table, the phone rings out.
- Allergy questions need menu knowledge, every new staff member must be trained again.
- Marketplace commissions (OpenTable: €1-2/cover) add up to €200-500/month.
- Reservation calls after 10 PM for the next day go to voicemail.
- Cancellations and reschedules cost time, especially during service.
How Rinqo solves this
Phone and chat from one source
The agent picks up immediately, in your voice, without 'please hold'. In parallel, the same knowledge works in the website chat, many guests prefer to reserve by message rather than by call.
It knows your menu
Seasonal menu, vegan options, allergens (gluten, nuts, lactose, etc.), wine pairings, kids menu, all from your menu (PDF or URL) plus an allergen table. The agent only gives information about things that are actually on the menu.
It books in your system
OpenTable, Quandoo and resmio via native integration. The agent checks availability, asks for number of people, occasion, allergies, special requests, and creates the reservation in your system. Confirmation by SMS and email to the guest.
What the agent handles
- Table reservations with party size, occasion, allergies
- Reservation changes (date, time, number of people)
- Allergy, diet and vegan questions from the menu
- Opening hours, closed days, holiday service
- Group inquiries from 8 people with escalation to you
- Directions, parking, arrival
- Qualify catering inquiries (date, party size, budget)
Our recommendation
In restaurants the phone is the core channel, more so than in hotels. The phone agent is the only sensible choice for lunch and dinner peaks; the chat agent complements the younger audience.
All channels for this industry
What Rinqo offers for Restaurants
Chat agent
Online booking on the restaurant website, menu questions (allergies, vegan options), directions + parking.
Explore chat solutionGDPR in dining
Restaurants process reservation data and partial allergy information (health data under Art. 9 GDPR). Rinqo processes these exclusively for booking purposes, hosts in Germany and deletes after a configurable retention period.
- EU hosting (Hetzner Falkenstein/Nuremberg), no US cloud in the audio path
- Allergy data is only stored in the reservation, not in the AI training dataset
- Configurable retention on audio and transcripts (default 30 days)
- DPA under Art. 28 GDPR automated on first login
- AI Act Art. 50: AI voice marker mandatory from 02 August 2026, built-in
Frequently Asked Questions
Written by
Sven Pflüger
Founder & CEO, Rinqo
Sven builds Rinqo from a simple observation: most AI tools are designed in San Francisco and sold in Berlin. The workshop in the Black Forest, the veterinary practice in Salzburg, the family hotel in Tyrol get software that doesn't speak their language. Rinqo flips that. On European servers, set up in ten minutes, in twenty languages. With templates built by the industries themselves.
Last updated: 2026-05-09
Sources
Channel deep-dive
Specifically the phone agent for Restaurant?
Detailed call flows, software integrations, and emergency triage logic, in one place.
Phone agent for RestaurantsLunchtime. Phone rings. Table is reserved.
Try the restaurant assistant with your menu and reservation tool, live in less than 15 minutes.
Get started