Hear it in action.
Call (916) 545-9316 and experience the receptionist before changing your phone flow.
Your front of house, always on
Restaurant AI
receptionist.
Hostess is an AI receptionist for restaurants. It answers overflow and after-hours calls, handles approved restaurant questions, and captures private dining, catering, and large-party inquiries for staff follow-up.
Overflow-first · Human follow-up stays in control
01 — ◷
Configured call coverageOverflow and after-hours calls are answered during the agreed coverage windows.
02 — ♧
More event opportunitiesTurn missed calls into useful follow-up.
03 — ▮
More time with guestsLet your team focus on the room.
Try it before you trust it
Hear exactly how Hostess handles a missed call.
Call the live demo and experience the receptionist yourself. Hostess answers approved restaurant questions and captures event details for a configured staff follow-up path—without pretending to book what it cannot confirm.
Built for missed calls.
Name, callback number, date, party size, occasion, and notes arrive together.
Your team stays in charge.
Availability, pricing, bookings, and follow-up decisions remain with your staff.
Call the live AI receptionist →
No signup required to try the demo.
Missed event lead calculator
What is one unanswered event call worth?
Estimate an illustrative booking-value scenario using your own assumptions. The inputs are not industry averages or measured Hostess outcomes.
The phone problem
Busy service makes every ring a tradeoff.
The guest at the host stand needs attention. The caller might be asking about parking—or planning a 60-person buyout. Your team should not have to guess which one while the room is full.
Voicemail loses momentum.
High-intent callers often try the next venue before anyone has time to call back.
Every ring pulls from the room.
Routine questions compete with guests already standing in front of your staff.
A message is not a lead.
Your events team needs date, party size, occasion, contact details, and context.
One simple call flow
Ring. Answer.
Revenue.
Hostess fits above the workflow you already use. It catches the unanswered call, recognizes what the caller needs, and routes the right information to your team.
☎
Your team gets first chance.
Your current number rings the restaurant as usual.
◌
Unanswered calls forward.
Overflow or after-hours calls reach Hostess through a tested path.
✦
Intent becomes context.
FAQs are answered quickly. Event inquiries get a full intake.
→
Your team gets the next step.
A structured opportunity arrives ready for follow-up.
Sample handoff · illustrativeOpportunities ready for review
Company dinner · 35 guests
ExampleRequested date · private dining · callback captured
Holiday party · 50–60 guests
ExampleFlexible date · budget noted
Catering request · 24 guests
ExampleRequested date · notes captured
From ring to next step
A better message than “someone called.”
Hostess turns a conversation into a useful handoff without pretending the event is booked. The examples shown here are illustrative, not live customer leads.
- Date, party size, event type, and caller contact captured together.
- Large parties and manager requests marked for priority follow-up.
- The pilot handoff method is agreed and tested for each location before activation.
- Your team confirms availability, pricing, and every commitment.
Accountable automation
Useful boundaries,
built in.
The pilot is configured around approved facts, explicit escalation paths, and truthful caller language.
No invented availability.
Hostess captures requests. It does not claim an event is confirmed.
No guessing on sensitive questions.
Allergy, payment, safety, and uncertain questions go to a person.
No hidden identity.
Callers are told when they are speaking with an automated assistant.
No forwarding loops.
The human transfer destination is tested separately before launch.
Founding restaurant pilot
Prove the value
at one location.
We map your phone flow, load approved information, test the risky paths, and measure whether captured opportunities justify keeping the service.
Flat pilot pricing
$199 / month
per location
per location
Plus $399 one-time setup.
Apply for the pilot →Manual billing. No per-minute overages during the agreed pilot. Setup may be waived for selected case-study participants under a written agreement.
Included in the pilot
- Overflow and after-hours answering
- Private dining, catering, and large-party qualification
- Approved restaurant FAQ handling
- Structured lead delivery and callback capture
- Safe human transfer configuration
- Location-specific setup, testing, and adaptation
- Outcome-based monthly reporting
“Built from the floor, not from a feature list.”
Hostess founder · hospitality operationsThe founder began in resort hospitality, then worked at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Nick’s Fishmarket on Maui. In Los Angeles, they joined the opening team at Waterloo and City, helped open Larry’s and became its General Manager, then opened Belcampo’s Santa Monica flagship as General Manager and supported its Downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco openings. Later fast-casual operations experience includes Golden Road Brewing and Mendocino Farms. That background informs Hostess’s narrow role: capture caller intent and context, then leave availability, pricing, commitments, and follow-up decisions with restaurant staff.
Before anything goes live
Good questions deserve clear answers.
Will Hostess replace my staff?
No. Hostess handles configured overflow and after-hours calls so restaurant staff can focus on guests. Staff keep control of availability, pricing, bookings, commitments, and follow-up decisions.
Do I need to change my phone number?
The pilot is designed to preserve your restaurant’s existing public number. Your team gets the normal chance to answer first; unanswered or approved after-hours calls can be forwarded using the location’s carrier-supported settings. The exact route is documented and tested before activation.
How does overflow and after-hours routing work?
First, your existing number rings the restaurant as usual. If the configured no-answer, busy, or after-hours condition is met, the carrier forwards the call to Hostess. We verify the route and the manager’s rollback steps for that location before turning on live forwarding.
Can Hostess confirm reservations or events?
No. Hostess captures an inquiry or callback request. Restaurant staff confirm availability, pricing, bookings, and other commitments directly with the caller.
What happens when Hostess does not know an answer?
Hostess uses only restaurant-approved information. For an uncertain or sensitive question, it follows the location’s approved human follow-up or callback path; it does not guess. A request is not described as delivered to staff unless the configured notification or handoff is confirmed.
Can Hostess take food or takeout orders?
No. The founding restaurant pilot answers approved restaurant questions and captures private dining, catering, large-party, and callback inquiries; it does not place or modify food orders.
What types of calls can Hostess handle?
For the founding restaurant pilot, Hostess handles approved restaurant FAQs and captures private dining, catering, large-party, and callback inquiries. It does not take food orders or confirm table availability, event pricing, or bookings.
Does Hostess replace my event CRM or POS?
No. Hostess is a phone inquiry-capture layer. The restaurant’s existing reservation, event, and point-of-sale systems remain authoritative. Any additional system connection must be separately scoped and tested before it is described as supported.
How does the restaurant receive an inquiry?
The pilot handoff method is agreed for the location and must be configured and tested before live calls are routed. Email notification and a tenant-scoped CSV export are described in the pilot materials; availability and delivery timing for a specific restaurant must be confirmed during setup. Webhook delivery is not currently promised by this page.
Are calls recorded or transcripts stored?
Recording and transcript retention are off by default. They can be enabled only under a location-specific approved policy with the required caller disclosure. Ask during setup which settings apply to your pilot.
How do you evaluate a pilot?
For the agreed period, the report can distinguish calls received and missed, qualified inquiries, handoff status, staff follow-up, and customer-reported booking outcomes. A captured inquiry or calculator estimate is not a confirmed booking or realized revenue.
What does the pilot cost?
The founding pilot is $199 per location per month plus a $399 one-time setup fee. There are no per-minute overages during the agreed pilot. A setup-fee waiver applies only to selected case-study participants under a written agreement.
What happens if a route or service fails a test?
Live forwarding stays off until location-specific checks pass. If a live route or intake service fails, the restaurant uses its documented carrier rollback to restore the original call path. Human transfer failure follows the approved callback fallback; Hostess does not claim that a person was reached unless the transfer succeeds.
Where is Hostess available?
Hostess is offered through a founding restaurant pilot. Contact us to confirm whether your restaurant’s location, carrier, and call flow can be supported; the Sacramento page describes the local demo and setup context, not a promise of coverage for every restaurant in the region.
Is the live call on this page a customer installation?
No. The phone number on this page is a Hostess demo. It lets you experience the receptionist before changing a restaurant’s phone routing. The example handoff shown on this site is illustrative, not a live customer lead.
Start with your real call flow
Let’s find out what’s ringing past you.
Tell us about the calls your team misses. We’ll map the highest-value path and decide whether a measured pilot makes sense.