Nobody picks up a phone at half past seven on a Friday
Your host is seating a four-top and your phone has rung eleven times. GreetKeeper answers every one of them, takes the booking, and reads your allergen policy.
Caller
“Are you doing food until ten? We're six of us and one of the group is coeliac. Can you fit us in tonight?”
What happened next
- Confirmed the kitchen closes at 9:45pm, last orders stated
- Booked six covers at 8:15pm on the back banquette
- Read out the coeliac policy and flagged the booking for the kitchen
Service is exactly when the phone is loudest and the host is busiest
Between seven and nine your host is running the floor. The phone rings through all of it, and every call you don't answer is a table that goes somewhere else.
Most of those calls are short and repetitive. Are you open Sunday, have you got parking, is there a set menu, can you do a high chair. A host who answers them spends your shift on the phone instead of on the door.
The bookings hiding inside that noise are your problem. A six-cover walk-up inquiry at half seven is a real table on a Friday, and it rings exactly like the eleventh parking question until somebody picks up.
GreetKeeper answers all of them. Hours, parking and set-menu questions get your answer, and a reservation gets taken against the covers you actually have.
Covers, time and the allergen question
Three things decide a reservation for you, and the fourth is the one that reaches your kitchen.
Covers and the time they want
Party size and the slot, checked against what you've got left. A six-top at eight on a Friday either exists or it doesn't, and your caller hears which rather than a promise to call back.
Read the allergen policy exactly
Your own wording about coeliac, nut and dairy handling, read exactly as you wrote it. It never improvises about what your kitchen can do, and the booking carries the flag through to your pass.
Answer the repetitive questions properly
Kitchen close, last orders, parking, the set menu, whether dogs are allowed on your terrace. All fixed facts, all supplied by you, all answered without a host walking off your floor.
Take large parties to a person
Anything over the size you set, plus private hire and events, goes to your manager with the details rather than getting booked automatically.
How reservations reach your book
Your reservation platform stays the source of truth. Here's how each one receives a phone booking.
| Tool | How it connects | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Writes directly | Direct write, which works for a small room run on a calendar. |
| Outlook Calendar | Writes directly | Direct write, same behavior. |
| OpenTable | Email or webhook | The booking is captured with covers, time and notes, and your host enters it. |
| Resy | Email or webhook | Your host adds the reservation from the call summary. |
| SevenRooms | Email or webhook | Allergen flags and party size arrive with the request, ready to enter. |
| Toast | Email or webhook | Hours and menu questions are answered from your brief, and bookings reach your host. |
Against the tables that rang out
Count the calls you didn't answer on one Friday service and the arithmetic does itself.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
Starter is $49 a month for 200 answered calls, then 45 cents each, which fits you if you're a small room taking overflow during service. A busy single site normally needs Professional at $149 for 750 calls, then 35 cents, and if you run a group look at the multi-location pricing instead.
Slang.ai holds $399 per location as of September 2026 and leaves its overage rate off the pricing page. GreetKeeper's Professional plan answers 750 calls a month for $149, with booking included and every rate printed.
Keep the phone on bookings and questions
Point takeaway callers to your ordering platform in one line of the brief. The assistant then keeps the phone free for reservations and the questions that fill a Friday.
Allergen handling works best as a flag. It reads your policy word for word and marks the booking, so your kitchen talks to the guest before the dish is made.
Set the party-size threshold once. Anything above it goes to your manager with the date, the covers and the contact number.
What operators ask
Will it double-book my room?
It books against the availability it can read. On your calendar that's a direct write. On OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms the reservation is captured and your host enters it, which keeps your platform the source of truth.
Can it answer allergen questions?
It reads your policy word for word and flags the booking for your kitchen. It won't judge whether a dish is safe, and no phone system should.
What about a party of twenty?
You set the threshold, and anything above it routes to your manager with the party size, the date and the contact. Large parties and private hire are a conversation, not a form.
Can it answer when three people ring at once?
Yes. Calls that arrive together are each answered at the same time, so the eight o'clock rush never queues behind one line.
How does it compare to Slang.ai?
Slang is built for restaurants and priced around $399 a location as of September 2026, with its overage rate left off the page. GreetKeeper starts at $49, books on every plan and prints its overage rate. It also covers a catering line or a second venue under one account.
Other rooms and front desks
Hear it take a Friday booking
Your covers, your allergen wording, two minutes.