Multilingual phone reception for airport transfers
Quick summary
- A published Greek number already takes English, German, French and Italian in the same night bank.
- The assistant hears the language on the first sentence and continues in it. It covers 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix.
- New pickup or change is still the first question. A name in German does not tell you which job it is.
- A fare question in English is still a fare question. Fluency does not let it invent a number.
- The spoken rule does not change: the office will look at the run sheet. A description is not a fare.
- The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call, with the meeting point you actually use.
TL;DR
You are on the radio when a family rings in German from the aircraft, or in English from the belt. They want a pickup, or they want to know where the board is. They will not wait for the colleague who is comfortable in German to come off the radio. An assistant answers in the language it hears — 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix Greek and English on the same call. It asks new pickup or change first, takes the flight number, the hotel and the bags, writes the note or books a slot that is free, and refuses anything that sounds like a fare invented from a description. It will not read a Greek hotel name aloud and invent the Latin one.
Key takeaways
- Leave language detection on. Pinning the line to Greek is how the 23:40 German call never reaches you.
- Put the pickup-or-change question in every language you actually hear, not only the two you staff.
- Write the fare sentence once and never vary it: the office will look at the run sheet.
- Do not let it invent a Latin hotel name, a fare, or a wait because they asked in English.
- Send the SMS in the language of the conversation, with the meeting point for that airport.
- Read the first multilingual transcripts with a dispatcher. That is where a soft fare sentence creeps in.
They start in German while you are on the radio in Greek
The night bank at a Greek airport is not a Greek hour. It is English from the belt, German from the aircraft, French from a villa, Italian from a ferry that became a flight. The person who would answer is on the radio, in Greek, with a driver who cannot find a name.
The family will not hold for the colleague who spent a winter in Munich. They will not record a message after a Greek beep. They have two other vans in the same search, in their language. They hang up.
So language here is not a nice extra on a pickup script. It is how the first sentence either becomes a flight number on a note, or becomes a short ring in the provider’s log.
The assistant hears the first sentence and continues in it. 70+ languages. It can switch if they mix. You do not set a language per airport, and you do not pin the published number to Greek because the office is in Greek.
Pickup or change is still the first question
A fluent greeting that jumps to “what time?” in German is still the wrong first question. A late landing is not a new August booking. A family already at the exit is not a return at 05:40.
Put the split in every language you actually hear. Not only the two you staff. The night you skip French is the night a villa rings from a different island.
After the split, the same three facts: flight number, hotel name, bags. Fluency does not replace them. A long German sentence about a holiday still has to land on a flight code.
If they give the hotel in German and you only know the Latin listing, take what they said. Ask once for a second form if they have one. Do not invent the listing. A van at the wrong door at 01:20 is a review in their language, which is the language other families read.
A fare in English is still a fare
The temptation on a foreign-language call is to be extra helpful. Helpful is how a round figure gets said in German because the colleague who speaks German is not there to stop it.
The rule does not change with the language. A published figure you typed in and marked as speakable may be repeated in the language of the call. A description of four people, two seats and a villa may not. A number said in French is still your number on the recorded line.
“Can you wait?”, “is there a child seat?”, “is the driver already there?” are the same promises they are in Greek. Note them. Do not confirm stock you cannot see. Do not invent a wait because you understood the question perfectly.
Write the refusal once. Use it in every language. If the transcripts show a softer sentence in English than in Greek, the English one is the one that will be quoted back at the curb.
Hotel names, boards, and the spelling on the SMS
Hotel names move between Greek, English and a German pronunciation that matches neither listing. The assistant is a taker of names, not a translator of inventories.
Take both forms if they give both. Keep punctuation. Do not “correct” Metropolis into a different house on the same street.
The name board is a staffing fact, not a language fact. A German family still only gets a board if you staff the hall at that hour. Do not promise a board in German that you would not promise in Greek.
The SMS follows the call. A Greek text after a German booking is how they stand at the wrong exit with a message they only half read. Put the meeting point you actually use in that same language. Do not let the assistant invent a door number in English because the Greek hall sign was hard to translate.
Gate codes for villas do not go onto a recording, in any language.
Already landed, in a language you do not staff
This is the call that cannot wait for a bilingual colleague. They are at an exit. The children are tired. They are speaking French.
The assistant still flags a phone. It still does not invent a wait or a door. It collects a name and a number while it connects. It can keep speaking French on the way to you. Fluency is not permission to estimate.
If you have no one who can take that live transfer, the note still has to be right: flight, where they say they are, how many people. A wrong hall in fluent English is worse than a slow callback.
What you do not explain, even fluently
It does not explain Greek driving rules. It does not say who may sit in the front. It does not say what a taxi should cost instead. It does not say they are allowed to wait on the curb. Those sentences sound like help and become advice.
It does not invent a shared shuttle in German to make two families fit. It does not tell them their ferry ticket is still valid. It takes the pickup they asked for.
If they mix a hotel stay into the same call — “can you also book the room?” — that is not your sheet. Take the transfer facts. Do not open a stay. The neighbour trade is a hotel. This desk is vans.
What you configure first
Leave detection on. Write the split and the fare refusal in the languages you actually hear on a July night, not only in Greek and English. Mark hotel-name behaviour: take as said, do not translate the inventory.
Set SMS to follow the call, with meeting points per airport in those languages. Route already-landed to a phone regardless of language.
Then read the first multilingual transcripts with the person who stands on the radio. You are listening for a fare that appeared because the German was good, a hotel that was “helpfully” translated, and a wait that was invented to keep a tired family calm.
A desk that answers in seventy languages and still invents a number has only made the wrong sentence travel further.
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 in the caller's language | 70+ languages, including a switch mid-call | Greek, and English if they have it | Whoever is on that shift |
| Pickup or change first, in that language | Yes — before the run sheet | Yes, if they understood the start | Often jumps to dates in English |
| Invents a fare because they asked in German | Never | Not from a description either | Sometimes reads a range to be helpful |
| Hotel name as they said it | Takes both Greek and Latin if they give both | Writes what they heard | Often picks the English listing |
| SMS language | Same as the call | If they remember to switch | Often Greek regardless |
| Already-landed in a language you do not staff | Flags a phone, still no invented wait | If someone who speaks it is free | Holds them in English |
| Child-seat request in French | Notes it as a request, not a yes | Yes, if they caught it | Sometimes confirms to keep the booking |
What one unanswered German night call costs a transfer desk
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- A July night bank. About 8 of the inbound calls that hour start in German or English.
- The person who would take those is on the radio. Two of those 8 ring out.
- A private night pickup that stays is worth about €70 — put your own figure in, this is the number to change first.
- This example treats both unanswered foreign-language calls as new pickups that then went to the next van.
- 2 German or English pickup calls reach nobody in one night bank.
- Both families dial the next number rather than leave a Greek voicemail.
- 2 × €70 = €140 that night.
- Night banks, over a 16-week summer — 16 × €140. Put your own weeks in.
About €2,240 a season from language alone on that window — and only if you accept the conversion. 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 set a language per airport?
No. The assistant hears the first sentence and continues in that language. It can switch if they mix. You do not pin Heraklion to German and Eleftherios to English. A night bank is several languages on the same number. Pinning the line to Greek is how the aircraft call never becomes a note.
They said the hotel in German. Can it translate the name?
It takes the name as they said it, and a second form if they offer one. It does not invent the Latin listing from a German sentence, or the Greek listing from an English one. A wrong hotel at night is a van at the wrong door. If the name is unclear, it asks once and then leaves the spelling for the desk.
Can it quote a fare in their language to keep them?
Fluency does not create a tariff. A published figure you marked as speakable may be repeated in the language of the call. A description of four people and a villa may not, in any language. A number said in German is still your number.
What if they mix Greek and English on the same call?
It can switch. The flight number still comes first. The hotel and the bags still have to be on the note. Mixing languages is not a reason to skip the split, and not a reason to guess the drop.
Will the SMS be in German if they rang in German?
Yes. The confirmation follows the language of the call, with the meeting point you actually use. A Greek SMS after a German conversation is how they ring again from the belt, or how they wait at the wrong exit.
Can it explain Greek driving rules or who may sit in front?
No. It takes the pickup. It does not give legal advice, customs advice, or a rule about who sits where. If they ask, it writes the question down. A fluent answer that is wrong is worse than a callback.
