AI phone receptionist for cleaning services
Quick summary
- The person who would pick up is driving to the next house, or already inside a kitchen with gloves on.
- Ask regular house, one-off or Airbnb turnaround first — those take different times and cannot share the same morning.
- An Airbnb checkout at eleven and a next guest at three is a window, not a free afternoon.
- A caller who reaches voicemail rings the next crew. They needed today, not a message tomorrow.
- It checks your calendar before it offers a time, writes the visit in, and texts the confirmation.
- Do not quote a deep clean from a description. Rooms, after-builders and a weekly wipe are not one figure.
TL;DR
You run a cleaning crew in Greece. The people who would answer are already in a house, or they are driving to the next one, and the phone is in the van. The caller wants a regular Tuesday, a one-off deep clean, or an Airbnb turnaround before the next guest. Those are three different jobs. They will not wait on voicemail. An assistant answers every line at once, asks which job it is, then rooms or checkout time, checks the real calendar, books the visit, and texts the confirmation. It will not quote a deep clean from a description, and it will not put a same-day turnaround on a morning a regular house already occupies.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the number already on the cards and the listings, with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so you still take the call if you have pulled over.
- Give it three job families first: regular house, one-off, Airbnb turnaround — and how long each actually takes.
- For a short-let it must ask checkout and next check-in, then the area, before it offers a time.
- Mark the days a regular house already occupies, so a same-day turnaround cannot land on that Tuesday.
- Tell it not to quote unseen one-off work. It takes rooms, access and a callback.
- Write the access rule you actually use: lockbox, keys, building code. It repeats what you wrote. It does not invent a hiding place.
What an AI phone receptionist does here
An AI phone receptionist answers the number on the cards and the listings, talks the way you would if you had pulled over, and then does something with what it heard. It books a visit, sends the confirmation, or writes down what the caller asked for and puts that note in front of you when the next house is done.
The first thing it has to get right is the job. A regular Tuesday, a one-off deep clean and an Airbnb turnaround before the next guest go to different mornings, take different times, and need different access. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” will put a three-hour move-out on a morning that already has two weekly houses. It asks which of those three the caller means. For a short-let it then asks checkout and the next check-in, then the area. After that it checks the calendar you already use, offers only a time that is free, books it, texts the confirmation, and says the cancel notice you actually use.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
The van, the house you are already in, and the phone nobody can reach
Late morning. The people who would answer are already inside a house, or they are on the road to the next one. The phone is in the cup holder, or it is in a pocket and stays there, because you do not take a booking call in someone else’s kitchen with gloves on.
Nobody can pick up. Both hands are wet, or on the wheel, or carrying a caddy up a stairwell, and the house you are in cannot be left half done so you can talk.
Hosts ring when they see the checkout photos. A tenant names a move-out day. A regular realises they will not be home tomorrow. Hiring someone else to clean does not put anyone on the phone. A second line in the same van still leaves the third caller listening to a busy tone.
The caller who wanted today is already scrolling. They have your number and two others from the same search. They are not going to wait on voicemail. They hang up and ring the next crew.
How long the work takes is not a single line you can print. A “house clean” is wrong the moment it is after builders, or it includes the oven, or it is a two-hour turnaround before a three o’clock guest. An assistant that skips which job it is puts a deep clean into a gap that was meant for a weekly wipe.
Plenty of you have no desk. The person who would have picked up is driving, or already in a house. The assistant does not need a roster you do not have. It needs the days, the areas, and the three job families.
Regular house, one-off, or Airbnb — then the window that actually fits
Regular house. Same day, often the same person, a time the household already plans around. The assistant can offer the usual day once it knows that house is on the list. A new regular is not a one-off that happens to come back. It is a day that has to stay free every week, so it must not be filled with a same-day short-let the first time a host sounds urgent.
One-off. Move-out, deep clean, after builders, a house nobody on your list has seen. A two-bedroom wipe and an after-builders flat with paint dust are two different visits. The assistant asks which, then how many rooms, then the area, and only then looks at times that fit. If nobody has seen the house, it does not pick the short time to be helpful.
Airbnb turnaround. A window, not an afternoon. Checkout at eleven and a next guest at three is the job. The assistant asks both times before it offers anything. It asks the area, because a one-hour gap on the calendar is not a one-hour job if the last house was across the city. It only offers a stretch that starts after checkout and ends before check-in. If that stretch is not free, it takes a callback. It does not slide the visit onto a morning a regular already occupies.
The first question has to be written down. One sentence is enough: “Is this a regular house, a one-off, or a short-let turnaround?” The answer decides which morning can take it. An assistant that skips it books two kinds of work into a gap that fits one.
Ironing, ovens and windows are extras on any of the three. They change how long the visit takes. If the caller wants them added to a weekly, the assistant notes it and only keeps the usual day if you said that day still fits. If you did not say, it takes a callback rather than leaving the next house waiting.
A regular who has been on Tuesday for a year is not a gap. That morning is work. A host who asks “can you do today?” wants someone in that flat after checkout and before the next guest. An assistant that answers with Thursday at 16:00 has not heard the checkout. Mark the regulars the way you already mark them on paper. A house that pauses for August should be marked as paused.
A weekly at nine and a turnaround at eleven only works if the first house is near the second and the first visit actually ends. The assistant should not guess the drive. If only some of you do after-builders, write that down. If you do not do ironing, say so.
Keys, lockboxes, and a code nobody should invent
If the door does not open, the visit does not start.
A regular often leaves a lockbox, a building code, or a key with a porter. A host often texts a code that changes with the guest. A move-out may still have the tenant inside until noon. These are not the same instruction.
The assistant repeats the access rule you wrote for that house. It can ask “where should they collect the keys?” when you told it to ask. It must not suggest a mat, a plant pot, or the neighbour on the second floor. A hiding place invented on the phone is a drive to a locked door and a caller who is already in a taxi to the airport.
New houses with no access note are a callback or a note for you. Alarm codes and building doors belong in what you entered, not in a guess. If the guest is still inside, the assistant books from checkout, not from “this morning”. Arriving while the guest is packing is how a turnaround starts late.
A price nobody can give from a description
When someone describes a house on the phone — dusty, after the builders, the tenants left it filthy — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one. Rooms, pets, whether the oven is included, and whether anyone has stood in the hallway all change the work. A number quoted before that is a number you then have to take back.
It can repeat a published item you gave it. A weekly you already do can have a listed figure. A turnaround on a flat you already service can have a listed figure. Unseen one-off work cannot, not honestly. The assistant takes the rooms, the area and the access, and books a look or a callback, depending on what you allow. Leave the number to someone who can see the house.
Do not put a deep-clean tariff in the notes and hope the assistant will “use judgement”. It will read the number out. A caller who asks for an invoice is a request, not a tax question. The assistant takes the name and what they need sent. It does not decide VAT.
“Can you come today”, extras, and what it must not decide
The assistant may only offer today after it has the job type, the area, and — for a short-let — both ends of the window. Then it looks at the calendar you already use. A gap between two houses is not today if those houses are not in the same part of the city. If today is not free, it says so and offers the next window that fits, or it takes a callback. It does not say “we’ll squeeze it in” over a Tuesday that already has a regular.
A guest who extends one more night is a different same-day call. The turnaround moves. The assistant takes the new checkout and looks again. It does not leave Wednesday booked and Thursday empty. It does not invent a change fee. You decide what that change costs, after you have seen it.
A caller says last week’s visit missed the bathroom glass. A caller wants the oven added tomorrow. A caller asks which product you use, because someone in the house has an allergy. The assistant does not offer a free redo from the phone. It takes the name and what they said. An extra that no longer fits before the next house is a note, not the old time kept in hope. It does not say which bottle to use. A complaint about something broken is taken verbatim. You decide.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the cards. A forwarding rule at the provider sends what you do not answer. Calls you pick up between houses never leave your phone.
- Every line is answered at once. A morning burst is a set of conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the work you described. Which jobs you take, which days the regulars occupy, whether you do after-builders, how access works, which areas you cover.
- It asks which job it is, then the window or the rooms, then the area, then looks at the book. A time is offered only after those facts exist.
- It checks the real calendar before it offers a time, and writes the visit into the same book you already use.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind before the visit.
- It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — an unseen deep clean, a locked-door problem, a complaint — as a tagged note, not as a guess.
- You get the transcript, the summary, and the job the caller named.
What it will not do
It will not look at the house. A caller who wants a price on an after-builders flat gets a look or a callback, not a number.
It will not invent access. A lockbox code you did not write down is not something it should invent to sound finished.
It will not invent how long the work takes. If the caller cannot say whether they want a weekly wipe or a deep clean, it does not pick the short time.
It will not treat a checkout window and a regular Tuesday as the same morning. It will not decide a redo, a change fee, or a product. It takes the request. A human decides.
What these calls sound like
The order is the job, then the window or the rooms, then the area, then the offer, then the access question you actually use. If the assistant is friendly and still puts a turnaround on a morning a regular already occupies, the regular waits and the next guest walks into a wet bathroom.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the cards with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a pull-over between houses still takes the call. Then the three job families, the days the regulars already occupy, the checkout question, the areas you cover, and the cancel notice you already ask for.
Give the assistant the published figures it may repeat — the weekly on a known house, the listed turnaround on a flat you already do — and do not give it a one-off figure it would read out. Write one line that forbids product advice and invented hiding places.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone between houses | Every line answered at once | If they can pull over | Depends who was rostered |
| Asks regular, one-off or Airbnb first | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Checkout and next check-in | Asks, then only offers inside the window | Yes — they know the next guest | Treats it as a free afternoon |
| Tuesday regular already on the list | Leaves that morning alone | Yes, if they remember the list | Books over it |
| Quote on an unseen deep clean | Takes rooms and a callback | Can go and look | Reads a list price aloud |
| Speaks the host's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Invent a price or a key hiding place | Can see the house | Reads whatever was on the sheet |
What one unanswered weekday morning costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- A weekday morning in Greece. The people who would pick up are already inside a house or on the road to the next one.
- About 18 inbound calls that day — put your own number in.
- About 6 of them arrive between nine and twelve, when nobody can stop.
- Of the calls nobody reaches, 4 are new same-day turnarounds or new regulars.
- A two-bedroom turnaround is worth about €65 to you — YOUR figure will differ, and this is the number to change first.
- Three of those four callers ring another crew instead of leaving a message.
- 4 new same-day or new-regular calls reach voicemail on a normal weekday morning.
- 3 of them do not call back and book someone else.
- 3 × €65 = €195 of that morning's work, gone before noon.
- If a morning like that happens once a week, put the weeks you actually take this work — not a year we invented. 40 × €195 is only the sum if both numbers are yours.
About €7,800 a year from one recurring morning window — only if your weeks and your figure match. Change both.
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 cards?
No. You keep the number on the cards, the listings and the WhatsApp profile. You add one forwarding rule with your telephony provider — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If you pick up between houses, the call never leaves your phone and is never charged.
Can it tell a caller what a deep clean will cost?
It can repeat a published item you gave it — a listed weekly for a known house, a listed turnaround for a flat you already do. It must not invent a one-off price from “it’s dirty” or “after the builders”. Rooms, pets, oven, windows and whether anyone has seen the house all change the work. A number spoken before that is a number you then have to take back. It takes the request and books a look or a callback, depending on what you allow.
Will it put an Airbnb on a morning a regular already has?
Not if you marked the regulars. It asks regular house, one-off or turnaround first, then checkout and check-in for a short-let, then the area. It only offers a stretch of time that is free and inside that window. If the calendar cannot confirm it, it takes a callback rather than sliding the job onto a Tuesday that already has a house.
What about keys, lockboxes and building codes?
The assistant repeats the access rule you wrote for that house or that host. It can ask where the keys are if you told it to ask. It must not invent a plant pot, a mat or a neighbour. A wrong hiding place is a wasted drive and a host who then calls you from the airport. New houses without an access note are a callback, not a guess.
Hosts ring in English. The crew speaks Greek.
The assistant works in 70+ languages. A host who rang in English gets the confirmation SMS in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The visit still goes to whoever you already send to that area.
What do we see after a call?
A transcript, a short summary, the job the caller asked for — regular, one-off or turnaround — the area, checkout time if it was a short-let, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call. You read tomorrow’s list the way you already do, except the ones nobody could pick up are on it too.
