AI phone receptionist for airport transfers
Quick summary
- You are on the radio with a driver at arrivals. That is when the published number rings.
- The first question is new pickup, return, or a change to a run you already have.
- It takes the flight number, the hotel name and how many bags. It never invents a fare from a description.
- A family still in the air will not wait on voicemail. They ring the next van on the same search.
- It checks the run sheet before it offers a slot, writes the pickup in, and texts the confirmation.
- A delayed night landing and a charter dump put several families on the line at once. It answers every line at once.
TL;DR
You are on the radio with a driver at arrivals, waiting for a name that has not come through yet. The published number rings. The family still in the air will not leave a message. The villa that wants a 01:10 pickup will not leave one either. They dial the next van on the same search. An assistant answers in the caller's language, asks whether this is a new pickup, a return, or a change to a run you already have, takes the flight number, the hotel name and how many bags, books the pickup only if that slot is free, and never invents a fare from a description of the ride. It does not invent a child seat. It does not guess a wait time from a delayed landing.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the published number with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call.
- Teach it the first question: new pickup, return, or a change — and do not let it jump to a time before that split.
- On a new pickup it takes the flight number, the hotel name and how many bags. Give it the sentence: it cannot invent a fare from a description.
- Let it book pickups and returns that the run sheet shows as free. Keep fares, child-seat stock and wait-time promises as a callback unless you typed a published figure.
- After a delayed night bank, or when a charter dumps three families at once, shorten the ring-time before forwarding.
- Give it the line verbatim: the office will look at the run sheet. It does not invent a fare from four people and a villa.
What an AI phone receptionist does at a transfer desk
You are on the radio with a driver in the arrivals hall. The name on the board has not come through yet. The published number rings. You cannot drop the radio. The other van is already on the road with a family and their bags. There is no third pair of hands.
You put the assistant on the number already on the website, on the Google listing, and on the card at the hotel desk. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It takes a pickup request. Or it books a slot that the run sheet actually shows as free.
The first question is whether this is a new pickup, a return, or a change to a run you already have. A family still in Munich is not a return at 05:40. A return is not “the flight is two hours late, is the driver still coming?”. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” will put a delayed landing into a morning slot and leave four people on the curb with no name on a board.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in German gets it in German. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
On the radio at arrivals, and the phone still ringing
One of you is already talking a driver through a hall that has two exits and a name that does not match the booking. The other van is loaded. The published number still rings.
It is a burst. A delayed night bank. A charter that dumps three families at once. The afternoon the wind diverted a flight and everyone rings from a different island. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third family on a busy tone.
The family still in the air will not wait on voicemail. They have your card and two other vans in the same search. They hang up and dial the next number. The villa that wants a 01:10 pickup will not leave a message either. They need a yes tonight, not a callback in the morning when they are already on the road.
People whose return is already on the sheet will often wait. A person who cannot start a new night pickup, and a person standing at arrivals with no board, will not. If those two wait behind the radio call you are already on, the new pickup is gone, and the family in the hall writes the review before you have their name.
Whoever takes the first pickup often takes the return. That is why a missed night call is not only a missed slot.
New pickup, return, or a change — then the flight number
New pickup. They do not have a run with you yet. Flight number, landing time they were told, hotel name or villa, how many people, how many bags, child seats if they need them. The assistant takes those facts. It looks at the run sheet. It does not invent a fare from a description of the ride. It does not invent a driver. If you have closed new work for that night, it says so on the first call, from the line you typed in.
Return. They already have an outbound, or they think they do. The assistant asks for the name on the booking and the hotel they are leaving from, then the flight they need to make. A 05:40 check-in is not a 14:00 slot. Mark them as different kinds of run, or you will send a van at noon for a family that needed to leave the hotel at four in the morning.
Change. The flight is delayed. The hotel changed. They want an extra stop at a supermarket. They landed and nobody is there. The assistant takes the flight number first, then what changed, then a name and a number. It does not tell them the driver is still coming unless the sheet says so. It does not invent a new wait. If they are already in the hall, that is a flag to a phone you actually hold.
People remember the flight number. They do not remember your booking code. Ask for the flight number first. If they offer the hotel and the bags, take those too. One identifier is enough to put the note on the right run. None is still a note, not a guess.
A hotel name is a hotel name. “Near the beach” is not a drop. A villa needs a gate, a road, sometimes a code. The assistant takes what they actually said. It does not turn a villa into a hotel because hotels are easier to write down.
A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say
“How much is it?” is the question on this phone. It comes from the aircraft, from a hotel lobby, from a villa WhatsApp that has already failed, and from a family of four describing bags and child seats as if that were a tariff.
The assistant does not answer it from a description. Not with a round figure. Not with “for that it is usually…”. Not with last summer’s zone. A sentence that sounds like a fare, said on the recorded line, is a sentence the desk now owns, and the assistant cannot see the zone, the vehicle, the night supplement you actually charge, or whether a child seat is even in a van.
The line you give it is short: the office will look at the run sheet. A published figure you typed in and marked as speakable may be repeated. A description of a ride is not a published figure.
“Can you wait if we are late?”, “is there a seat for the toddler?”, and “can you do a supermarket stop on the way?” are still promises about stock and time. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the decision unless you wrote a rule it may repeat.
Do not put a handwritten zone list in the notes and leave it unmarked. It will read the list out.
Night banks, charter dumps, and everyone at once
A delayed night bank. By twenty-three hundred, people have started ringing from the aircraft. You are already on the radio about the first family whose name is not on the board. The pad is already a list of flight numbers.
A charter dump is a smaller, uglier version of the same hour. Three families land together. They all ring. They all want a name board. They will not take a shared van unless you actually run one, and the assistant must not invent a shared van to clear the queue.
The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your radio call. A new pickup in that hour is a slot or a callback. A change — “we have landed, where is the driver?” — is a flag. If the assistant parks the family who wants a new night pickup behind the tenth “where is the van” call, that family rings the next number.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding on those nights. After a delayed bank the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in February is people asking for next August, and one person left in the office.
A fare nobody can give from a description of the ride
When someone describes a ride on the phone — four adults, a villa towards Sounio, they think two large bags and a buggy, landing around one — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.
Zone, night, vehicle, child seats, extra stop and how long the driver must wait all change the work. A number quoted before anyone has seen the flight, the drop and the bags is a number you then spend the arrival taking back on the curb.
It can repeat a published starting figure you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen villa work, a night supplement you have not written down, a shared-versus-private question, a stop at a supermarket — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the slot, or takes a callback. Last year’s price to Hersonissos is not this year’s price. The assistant does not quote it.
If they press — “just a round figure, we are at the belt” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a slot is free. Flag it if they have already landed.
Standing in the hall
Some of these callers are already through passport control, at a named exit, on a curb, with children and bags, looking for a board that is not there. They want to know which door, how long, whether to take a taxi.
The assistant is not in the hall. It cannot see the board. It cannot see the van.
What it can take, if they have it: the flight number, the name on the booking, where they are standing in their words, how many people are with them. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: wait at the named meeting point, do not leave the hall, the desk is being flagged. Take a taxi or wait is yours, after you have the radio.
If they say they have been waiting a long time, or a child is unwell, or they cannot find the exit they were told, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: already landed, waiting too long, someone is unwell. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not invent a new estimate to fill the wait.
A caller who is still at home, with a flight tomorrow, is a pickup request and, if the sheet is free, a slot.
Child seats, villas, extra stops, and “is the driver still coming?”
Child seats. They need two. The assistant takes ages if they give them, and how many seats. It does not say a seat is in a van. Stock is a physical thing in a boot. If you are out, it says so from the line you typed. If you do not know, it is a callback.
Villa. Not a hotel with a reception. The assistant takes the name they use, the area, a gate or a pin if they have one. It does not turn it into the nearest hotel because that is easier to find on a map. A code left on a voicemail is a problem. Do not let it read a gate code into a recording.
Extra stop. A supermarket, a pharmacy, a second hotel. The assistant notes the stop. It does not add a fare for it. It does not say yes, the driver will wait in the car park, unless that is a rule you wrote.
“Is the driver still coming?” Delayed flight. Diverted flight. They are at a different airport. The assistant takes the new flight number and the new time they were told. It does not say the driver is still coming. It does not guess a wait from a delay they named. The sheet decides, or you do, on a flagged phone.
August and the islands need their own last-run times. Do not let the assistant book a 01:10 pickup on a night when the last van is already home.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the site and on the card at the hotel desk. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the office.
- Every line is answered at once. A delayed night bank is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the desk you described. What you offer, whether you take new night work, how a pickup note should look, who is on the radio after midnight.
- It asks new pickup, return, or change first, then the flight number, the hotel name and the bags, and only then looks at the run sheet.
- It takes a fare question as a callback, unless you typed a published figure it may repeat, and never as a number invented from a description.
- It checks the real run sheet before it offers a slot, and writes the pickup into the same calendar the desk already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them of the meeting point you actually use.
- It escalates already-landed, unwell, and “where is the van” as a tagged note or a transfer.
- You get the transcript, the summary, the flight number, and what the caller asked for.
What it will not do
It will not invent a fare from a description of the ride. It will not invent a child seat, a name board in a hall you do not staff, or a wait on a delay. It will not say the driver is still coming unless the sheet says so. It will not turn a villa into a hotel. It will not read a gate code onto a recording. It will not treat a new pickup, a 05:40 return and a change to a delayed landing as the same slot.
What these calls sound like
The order is the split, then the flight number, then the hotel and the bags, then the slot or the refusal said out loud. There is no round figure over a villa nobody has mapped. There is no “yes, we will wait” to a family still in the air. There is no “the driver is downstairs” to a person standing at the wrong exit.
If the assistant is friendly and still answers the fare question, you own that sentence. Put the family who rang about A3 204 at 23:10 on a pickup note, not on the next van’s list.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the site with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call. Then the three-way split, the flight-number question, and the sentence that forbids a fare invented from a description.
Write down what you actually offer and whether you are taking new night work this week. Give it the pickup fields you want on every note: flight number, landing time they were told, hotel or villa, people, bags, child seats, extra stop. Mark two kinds of run: a night pickup that needs a driver who is still out, and a daytime slot.
Give it the same-hour phone list: already landed, waiting too long, someone unwell, last run of the night. Do not give it a zone sheet it would read out unless you marked those figures as speakable. Write one line that forbids invented fares, invented seats and invented waits. Add last-run times per airport, who is on the radio after midnight, August dates, the meeting point you actually use.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while you are on the radio with a driver | Always | Only between radio calls | Yes |
| Several families at once after a delayed bank | Every line at once | One | Depends on the plan |
| Asks new pickup, return or change first | Yes — before it looks at the run sheet | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Invents a fare from a description of the ride | Never | Quotes after the zone and the vehicle | Often reads a range |
| Invents a child seat or a wait time | Never — takes the request | Checks the van, then says | Sometimes says yes to keep the booking |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Invent a fare, a seat, a driver or a wait | Looks at the sheet, still does not guess a zone | Reads a script |
What one unanswered night bank costs a two-van transfer desk
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two drivers and one person on the radio, a July night with a delayed bank, roughly 28 inbound calls between 22:00 and 02:00.
- About a third arrive while you are talking a driver through arrivals and the other van is already loaded.
- Of the calls nobody reaches, 6 are new private pickups for a hotel or a villa.
- A private night pickup that stays is worth about €70 to the desk — put your own figure in, this is the number to change first.
- This example assumes 4 of the 6 never leave a message and ring the next van on the same search.
- 6 new pickup requests reach nobody in one delayed night bank.
- 4 of them do not call back.
- 4 × €70 = €280 of work, that night.
- Night banks like that, over a 16-week summer — 16 × €280. Put your own weeks in.
About €4,480 a season, from the same night window repeating — and only if you accept the conversion above. Change it.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up the number on the site and the cards?
No. You keep the number on the website, the Google listing and the card at the hotel desk. You set one forwarding rule — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If someone at the desk picks up, the call never leaves the office and is never charged.
Can it quote a fare if they describe the ride?
No. Four people, two child seats, a villa in Vouliagmeni and a flight that might be late are not a fare. A number said before anyone has seen the zone, the vehicle and the bags is a number the desk then has to take back at the curb. It can repeat a published figure you typed in and marked as speakable. Anything else is a callback.
Can it tell them a driver is already waiting?
Only if the run sheet you connected shows a free driver for that flight at that moment. If the sheet is silent, stale, or unreachable, the assistant does not guess. It takes the flight number, the hotel and the bags, and leaves the confirmation to you. Saying a van is waiting when the driver is still on the previous family is worse than a missed call.
What if they land after midnight?
That is a night pickup, not a daytime slot with a different greeting. The assistant follows the rule you wrote: last run, meet-and-greet or curb, who still answers the radio, whether a child seat is still in a van. It does not promise a name board in the hall if you do not staff the hall after a certain hour. A family on a delayed charter needs the true last run, not a hopeful one.
Someone is already standing at arrivals. Can it tell them where to wait?
It can repeat the meeting point you typed in for that airport — arrivals hall, a named exit, the curb. It cannot see the hall. It does not invent a door number. If they say they have been waiting twenty minutes, that is a flag to a phone you actually hold, not a new estimate invented to keep them calm.
What do we actually see afterwards?
A transcript, a short summary, whether this was a new pickup, a return or a change, the flight number, the hotel name, the bag count if they gave one, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call.
