Book hotel stays, pickups and late arrivals by phone
Quick summary
- A hotel booking is not a time of day. It is a stay, a pickup, or a late arrival — three different things to write down.
- Ask which of the three it is before anyone names dates. A late ferry is not a new room.
- A stay goes into the book you already use, and only if that book shows a free room of the type they asked for.
- A pickup is its own request, against a driver and a last run, not against an empty bed.
- A late arrival is a note on a stay that already exists. Opening a second room for the same guest blocks a bed you still need.
- The SMS goes out after the stay is in the book, in the language of the call. No book, no text.
TL;DR
Someone rings to put two nights in the book, or to be collected from the airport, or to say the ferry is late. Those are three different bookings. The person who would write them down has a passport open and a key in their hand. The assistant asks stay, pickup or late arrival first, then takes the facts that belong to that request, then looks at the book you already use. It writes a stay only if that book shows a free room. It does not invent a driver. It does not open a new stay for a guest who is already on tonight’s list. The confirmation text goes out after the book is written, in the language of the call — 70+ languages.
Key takeaways
- Write the first question as stay, airport pickup, or late arrival. Nothing useful goes into the book before that.
- Connect the book you already use. A stay is written only when that book shows a free room of the type they named.
- Treat a pickup as its own request. A driver is promised only if you already run transfers and someone is free.
- A late arrival finds the stay that is already there. It does not open a second room, and it does not invent a person at the door.
- A date change is one change: find the stay, release the old nights, write the new ones. A stay that started on a booking site is a request, not a move.
- A cancel has to go back on the book the same hour, or the next caller is told you are full and the room is empty.
The caller wants two nights. You have a key in your hand.
Someone rings to put a stay in the book. You are halfway through a name on a passport. The key for the person in front of you is still in the board. You cannot write and check in at the same time.
The caller does not want a time of day. They want two nights, or a lift from the airport, or to know if anyone will still be there after the last boat. Those are three different things to write down. An assistant that opens with “what dates would you like?” has already chosen the wrong book.
A stay needs nights, how many people, and what kind of room. A pickup needs a landing time, a place, and a driver you actually have. A late arrival needs the stay that is already there and the rule you use after the desk closes. Mix them and you have a family on the kerb with a reservation, or two names on one room, or a guest at a locked door who thinks someone is waiting.
This is the booking work on a small Greek hotel: nights, a car, or a key after dark.
Stay, pickup, or late arrival — then the facts
That is the order. Nothing goes into the book until the assistant knows which of the three it is. Dates are not the first question, not until it knows this is a stay.
A stay. Arrival date, departure date, how many people, what kind of room. Then the book. Not a yes before the book. Not a price before a published figure you typed in.
A pickup. Flight or boat, landing time, bags, and whether you run a transfer at all. A free double on the twentieth does not mean anyone is standing at arrivals at four.
A late arrival. They already have a bed, or they think they do. The ferry from Piraeus ran late. They want the last check-in time, the key box, or a number to ring at the door. This is a note on a stay that exists. It is not a new stay.
A single call can hold two of these. “A double for Friday, and can you collect us at eleven?” is a stay and a pickup. Hear both. Write both. Confirm neither until the right book shows it.
Write the first question the way you would for a new person on the desk. One sentence. Skip it and the wrong night goes in.
A stay is nights, not a time
Two nights for two adults is not one night for four. A third person on an extra bed is not a double. A cot is not an extra bed. Sea view and the room at the back are not interchangeable just because both sleep two. The assistant takes the facts in that order, then looks at the book you already use.
It offers a room only if that book shows one of the type they named, for those nights, at that moment. If the last double was sold on the channel while you were writing a name, the book shows it. The assistant does not fill the gap with a yes. It takes the dates and a number and stops.
Do not give it a hopeful sentence. “We usually have something in June” will be read out. If a room is not free until you have looked, do not leave a sentence that sounds as if it is.
A hold is a rule you already have, or it is nothing. The assistant follows what you wrote. It does not invent a hold to keep the caller on the line. Connecting rooms are a type, not a wish. If the book does not show them, it does not promise a door between the beds.
A walk-in who rings from the corner and a guest who already paid on the site are not the same person. The first needs a free room. The second needs the reservation that is already there. Ask which they are before anyone talks about writing a new stay.
A pickup is its own book
The room book does not show whether anyone can drive to the airport. That is a roster, a last run, and a yes or no you already live with.
If you do not offer transfers, say so in one line. The assistant repeats it. It does not offer “we will see if someone can come”. A family who heard a maybe will wait at arrivals.
If you do offer them, write the last pickup you will do, where you meet people, and whether the run is private or shared. A landing at 23:40 is not a landing at 11:00. The last boat is not a flight. Bags for four are not a cabin case. The assistant takes those facts and only promises a driver when the roster says someone is free.
A pickup for a guest who already has a stay is still a pickup. It is not a reason to open a second room. If you only collect for your own guests, the assistant has to know, or it will send a car for a name that is sleeping in the next house.
Do not let a pickup become a stay because the stay questions are the ones it knows. “Can you collect us at four?” is not “do you have a double?”. Answer the question they asked.
A late arrival is not a new stay
Find the name. Find the nights. Then say the rule you actually use.
Last check-in at a time you set. A key box with a code you send after the stay exists. A mobile that still rings. Or no, you do not take arrivals after that boat. Those are short answers. They have to be true. “Someone will wait” when you are asleep is a guest in the street at one in the morning.
The assistant does not invent a lock box you do not have. It does not text a code for a stay that is not in the book. It does not promise a person at the door if you do not wait.
If it cannot find the stay — wrong name, booked under a husband, booked on the site under a different spelling — it takes the name they are travelling under, the dates they think they have, and a number. It does not guess a reservation and read out a key-box code.
A no-show in the morning is a different call. The assistant does not release the bed or offer it unless you wrote that down.
One call, two requests
“A double for the twelfth, and can you collect us at eleven?” Stay and pickup. “We booked yesterday, the boat is late” is a late arrival, even if they also ask about breakfast. “Can we leave bags at ten?” is early arrival, not a new stay.
Hear every request. Write each one against the thing it belongs to. Confirm each one only when that thing allows it. If the stay is in the book and the driver is not free, say that. The caller can take a taxi if they know. They cannot if they were told someone is coming.
Moving dates is one change
Find the stay. Release the old nights. Write the new ones. Then text. That is one change, in that order.
Split it — cancel first, then hunt — and their own nights still show as taken under their name. If the new dates are gone, they have lost the old ones too. Two people moving from a double to a family room are not moving the same stay. If the new type is not free, the old nights stay until they agree to let them go.
A stay that started on a booking site is not something the assistant moves on the phone. It takes the reference and the new dates and stops. Test a move on a real name before it runs on the book you use. Watch whether their own room blocks them. If it does, fix the order.
A cancel has to go back on the book
People ring in the morning to say they are not coming tomorrow. On a small house that is often two nights you can still sell, if the book shows them as free before the next availability call.
If the cancel is only in a notebook, or in a transcript for the evening, the next caller is told you do not have the room. They ring the next house on the street. At six you have an empty double and a full book on paper.
The assistant writes the cancel into the same book it writes stays into, the same hour. Then the next person who asks for those nights can be offered them.
Say the cancel rule when the stay is written, if you have one. Do not let the assistant describe a charge you will not make. A rule you do not enforce is a sentence that will be read back to you at the desk, with the bags in the hall.
What the confirmation may say
The text goes out after the stay is in the book. Dates, room type, name, in the language of the call. A caller who rang in German gets the text in German. The assistant works in 70+ languages. You do not set a language per room.
A pickup that is still a request does not belong in that text as if a driver is coming. “We have noted a pickup at four” is honest. “See you at the airport” is not. Do not send a key-box code for a room that was never written. If the book cannot be reached, there is no text. The desk finishes it.
Questions that are not bookings
Breakfast hours, bags after checkout, parking, the walk from the port — those answers live in what you typed in. The assistant may repeat them. It may not invent a shuttle you do not have.
“Can we arrive at eleven?” on a day they already have a room is early arrival, not a new stay. Do not let that call become a second reservation. A complaint about last night’s room is a note. Not a new room. Not a free night.
How CITT handles it
- Stay, pickup, or late arrival first. Then the facts that belong to that request. Dates are not the opening question.
- It reads the book you already use before it says a room is free, and writes the stay into that same book.
- A pickup is a second check against the transfer you run and who can drive. A late arrival finds the stay that exists and says the night rule you wrote.
- A move is one change on a stay that started with you. A site booking is a request. A cancel goes back on the book the same hour.
- Several calls are answered at once. A check-in burst is not a stack of busy tones.
- It texts after the book is written, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and only for what was actually confirmed.
- What the call cannot finish becomes a tagged note — an unpublished rate, a room the book will not confirm, a pickup nobody can take, a date change on a site stay.
What it will not do
It will not invent a free room, a rate, a driver, a hold, or a person waiting at a locked door. If the book does not show a room, the caller gets a request taken, not a yes.
It will not open a new stay for a guest who is already on the list. It will not move a stay that lives on a booking site. It will not release a no-show or offer a free night because the caller is unhappy.
It will not send a confirmation for a stay that is not in the book, or treat two nights for two people as one night for four to make the dates fit.
What these calls sound like
The kind of call first. Then the facts. Then the book. Then only the sentence that is true — the stay is written, the pickup is a request, the door rule is the one you use.
There is no “I’m sure we can collect you at four” when you do not run a transfer. There is no “someone will wait” when the desk is locked. There is no text for a double the book did not show.
If it still writes the last double twice, two parties arrive for one bed. Put the person who rang about the twentieth to the twenty-second on a room the book shows, and keep the pickup as its own request.
What you set up first
Forward unanswered rings from the number on the card, so whoever is free at the desk still picks up. Then the first split — stay, pickup, late arrival — and the book you already use. Give it only the published rates it may repeat.
Write the pickup rule, or one sentence that you do not run a transfer. Write the late-arrival rule: last check-in, key box or no key box, who still answers. Write how a move and a cancel go back into the same book, and that a site booking is a request. Breakfast, bags, parking, the door from the port. One line that forbids a free night or a new room from the phone.
Then read the first fifty stays yourself. Kind of call, nights, room type, whether a pickup was promised, whether a late arrival opened a second room. You are looking for the extra bed, the transfer you do not run, the ferry that was treated as a new booking.
Rates for the service 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First question | Stay, pickup, or late arrival | Yes — they can hear it | Often jumps to dates |
| Writes a stay | Only if the book shows a free room | If they can see the book | From a sheet that may be stale |
| Pickup vs a room | Two requests, two checks | Yes | Books a room and hopes |
| Late arrival | Note on the stay that exists | Yes, if they remember the name | Opens a new booking |
| Mixed stay and pickup | Hears both, confirms neither early | Yes | Writes one of them |
| Date change | One change on a house stay | Yes | Cancel, then a new note |
| Cancel written back | Same hour, room on offer again | If they can reach the book | A message for the morning |
What a cancel is worth if the room never goes back on the book
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- A small guesthouse, eight rooms. July. Put your own house size in.
- About 4 phone cancels a week with at least a day’s notice — a family changing islands, a ferry they missed, a stay they booked twice. Check your own week.
- A two-night stay is worth about €180 to the house. YOUR figure will differ, and this is the number to change first.
- If the cancel is written back the same hour, the next inbound availability call can be offered that room. This example assumes 2 of those 4 would have been refilled. Change that if yours is lower.
- Not every cancel is a stay you could have sold again. Keep the 2 if that is honest; drop it if it is not.
- 4 cancels reach the phone in a week. 2 of them could have been sold again if the nights were free in the book.
- Those 2 stay empty because the cancel was only written in a notebook, so the next caller was told you were full and rang the next house.
- 2 × €180 = €360 of empty beds in one July week.
- A 10-week high season at that rate — 10 × €360. Put your own weeks in.
About €3,600 in one summer, from cancels you already heard about and never put back on the book. Change the €180 and the two refills before you trust 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
Can it tell a caller the room is booked?
It can write the stay only if the book you connected shows a free room of that type for those nights. If the book is silent, slow, or down, it takes the dates, the room type, and a number, and leaves the yes to you. A text that goes out before the book is written is how two parties arrive for one bed.
They want a stay and a lift from the airport in the same call. What happens?
That is two requests. The assistant has to hear both. The stay is checked against the room book. The pickup is checked against whether you run transfers and whether anyone is free at that landing time. Confirming the bed and inventing a driver leaves a family on the kerb at the airport with a reservation in their pocket.
The ferry is late and they already have a room. Is that a new booking?
No. That is a late arrival. The assistant finds the stay that is already there and follows the rule you wrote — last check-in, key box, who to ring after midnight, or no, you do not take arrivals after that boat. Opening a second room for the same name blocks a bed and still leaves them at a locked door if the rule was wrong.
Can it move dates on a stay they booked on the site?
Not as a finished change. A stay that started on a booking site is a request. The assistant takes the new dates and the existing reference and leaves the move to you or to the channel. A stay that started on your own book can be moved as one change: find it, release the old nights, write the new ones, then text.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the call, and only after the stay is in the book. A pickup that is still a request does not get a sentence that sounds like a driver is coming. No stay in the book, no text. A reminder the day before is useful in July, when people change islands overnight.
We do not offer airport pickup. Does the first question still matter?
Yes. People still ring and ask. The assistant has to know you do not run a transfer, say so, and keep that call from becoming a room it was never meant to be. The first split is still stay, pickup, or late arrival. Pickup then ends in a clear no, not in a hopeful “we will see”.
