Multilingual receptionist for travel agencies

They started in English on the street

Late morning. One of you is on hold with the airline. The phone rings. The caller starts in English, or German, or French — the language they walked up the street in. You do not have that language while the airline is still in your ear.

They will not leave a long Greek message. They hang up and dial the next office on the street. If a fluent voice then invents a cabin, a fare, or a visa answer, they will keep that sentence.

This is a normal July morning in a small Greek travel office. English from a couple off the Athens flight who want a boat tonight. German from a family who have your name on a paper in the hire car. French, Italian, Dutch, in the same week. Greek from the cousin in Athens who is booking for someone else. You may have enough English to finish the couple at the counter. You do not have enough of everything, and you do not have it with the airline on hold.

The number they rang is the one on the window, the Google profile, and the card in the hire car. They did not look for a bilingual receptionist. They looked for Friday’s boat. Three names came back on the same street. They will tap the next one if this goes to a Greek greeting and a beep.

Two ways this call goes wrong

They hang up. That is the first way. They heard Greek, or four rings and a tone, and they went back to the pavement. You listen later and the box is almost empty, and you conclude that German guests write. Some of them do. The ones who rang wanted a cabin tonight, or a yes about Friday, and they already had another office in the same glance.

They get an answer that is too helpful. That is the second way, and it costs the booking rather than a lead. An assistant that speaks German well will want to close the loop: yes, a cabin, yes, around that price, yes, the child can travel on the parent’s document, yes, come in at eleven. Said clearly, it sounds like an office that is ready. It is still an invented cabin, an invented figure, invented entry advice, and an invented hour in the collect window. The caller will keep the sentence. The couple at the counter will not care that the voice was not you.

A third thing sits next to those. People who are not in the country yet ask whether they can pay on arrival, whether you take cards, whether a third adult can share the cabin. The assistant repeats what you typed in. It does not guess an office rule because it can say the German sentence.

Package, ferry, last-minute — still three jobs

The language changes. The jobs do not.

A package is departure city, dates, how many rooms, board, and the ages of children. The assistant takes those facts. It does not skip to a hotel that “should have space” because the English was friendly. It does not skip to a brochure price because the German was clear. If nobody has built the quote, it takes a name and a number and leaves the answer to you.

A ferry is a route, a sailing date, cabin or seats, and the names as on the ID. Friday night to Naxos and Saturday morning to Naxos are two sailings. An outside cabin and a deck seat are two tickets. Hearing that in a language you only half have is how a deck seat gets written down and a couple arrives expecting a bed. The assistant asks which they mean. It does not say there is a cabin left.

Last-minute is either of those, plus today or tomorrow. These callers will not hold and will not leave a Greek name on voicemail. Take the facts and either book a time to come in the same day, or say someone will check the system and ring back. Treat that call as next month, in any language, and they are already speaking to the office next door.

A single call can hold two of these, and it often does when the caller is not in Greek. “A week in Rhodes, and can you put us on Friday’s boat?” is a package and a ferry. “We booked — can we collect this afternoon?” is a collect, not a new quote. The assistant has to hear both, in their language, and confirm neither until the right screen has spoken.

Write the first question the way you would for a new person at the desk, then keep it in every language you actually hear: package, ferry, or last-minute. One sentence is enough. An assistant that skips it because the caller already sounded sure will put the wrong job on the pad.

A cabin they will keep in their language

A cabin open at nine can be gone at ten. The couple at the counter may be about to take the last outside cabin on Friday’s boat. If the assistant says a sailing is free because it could say so in French, they come in with cash and the bed is gone. They will have the sentence. The next office will have the booking.

It can repeat a published item you marked as live this morning. If the system is not in front of it, it does not fill the gap with a yes in their language. Fluency is not a second ferry screen.

Do not put a hopeful sentence in the notes. “We usually have something on Friday night” will be read out, in German, as if it were a cabin. If a bed is not free until you have looked, do not give the assistant a sentence that sounds like it is.

The same test covers the fare. An outside cabin and a deck seat are not the same price. July is not October. A child of six is not two adults. A number quoted in English before anyone has opened the operator is a number the desk then has to take back, often with the passports already on the wood, in a language you do not speak well.

It can repeat a published fare you typed in and marked live. If you have no live figure for that sailing or that package, it takes the request. Do not put a “from” price in the notes. It will read the number out, and they will keep it.

A complaint about last week’s transfer is the same kind of call in any language: take the name, take the booking reference, take what they said, put it in front of you. Do not offer a free night from the phone because the German was angry. You look at the file. You decide.

The names as they appear on the passport

One letter off and they will not board. That is true in every language, and it is worse when the name is not a name you hear every day.

The assistant asks for the names as they appear on the document, reads them back, and spells what it is unsure of. It does that in their language. Anna Weber is not Ana Veber. Kostas is not Costas until they say so. If the line is noisy, it asks again. Guessing to sound fluent is how they miss the boat.

Ages of children belong in the same pass. A child of six is not a child of twelve on most operators. “A child” in English is not enough to start the quote. Take the age. If they do not have it, take a callback. Do not invent an age to make the visit look ready.

If a third person comes on — a cousin in Athens, a colleague who “handles the money”, a parent who will pay — take their name and whether the confirmation should go to them. Do not lose the kind of call you already have.

The cousin who books in Greek for parents arriving from Munich is an office problem, not a polite extra. The people at the window speak German. If the visit text went to the cousin, or went to the parents in Greek, they stand at the door with a message they cannot read. Ask who is coming in, and in which language the text should go. The booking language and the arrival language are not always the same. The person who needs the hour is the person who will be at the desk.

The text they can read before they come in

The confirmation is not a courtesy. On a small office it is how they know the hour, which door, and that Friday’s boat is still a request.

If they booked in English and the text arrives in Greek, they will miss the visit, or they will stand at the window with a time they cannot use. If they booked in German and the callback note arrives in Greek, they will ring the next office because they thought nobody called. That is not a translation problem on a website. That is a couple on your step, or a couple two doors along.

The SMS follows the language of the call. The pad can stay in the language the desk already uses. The message to the person coming in cannot. Test this once with a number you hold. It is the thing offices forget, because the Greek text looks finished on your own phone.

Put the sentences they will need into what you type in: how to find the door, where to park, collect hours, who is in on Saturday. The assistant may repeat those. It may not invent a transfer you do not run, a Saturday you are closed, or a fare you have not marked live. If the door is down the lane and not on the main street, that sentence belongs in the first things it can say — in their language, not only in yours.

A fare that is still a request does not belong in that text as if a price were agreed. “We have noted Friday’s boat, cabin preferred” is honest. “The cabin is yours” is not, in any language.

Visa, insurance, and questions it must not answer

A caller asks if the passport has to be valid six months. Another wants to know if the child needs their own document on the boat. Another asks about Turkey, Egypt, a Schengen stay, or insurance. They ask it in English or German because that is the language of the ticket.

The assistant does not decide entry rules and it does not sell cover from the phone. Fluency does not change that. A clear French sentence about a stamp is still advice you did not authorise. Those calls are a note. They are never advice.

It can repeat a line you wrote. “Passport valid six months from the return date.” “We sell a policy at the desk.” If you did not write the line, it does not invent one, in any language.

Do not let a visa question become a booking because the booking questions are the ones it knows. “Does the child need a passport?” is not “do you have a cabin on Friday?”. Answer the question they asked, then stop.

When they switch, and when someone else booked

Couples ring together. One starts in English. The husband takes the phone in German. The assistant follows the language of the sentence it just heard. Dates already taken stay taken. A cabin preference already noted stays noted. It does not restart the first question as if a new person had rung. If the switch is messy, it reads the facts back once, in the language that is winning, and confirms. A lost date at the handover is how you write Friday and keep Saturday.

A walk-in who rings from the pavement in English and a guest who already paid in German are not the same person. The first needs the live system. The second needs the booking that is already there. Ask which they are, in their language, before anyone talks about a free cabin.

A change on a booking that already exists is still a request, in any language. “Can you move us to Sunday’s boat” is not a new sailing the assistant may invent. Take the reference. You open the operator screen.

The rule the assistant must obey

Same facts, any language.

It may repeat a published fare you typed in and marked live. It may offer a time to come in if the calendar you connected shows the right person is free. It may tell the collect-hour rule you wrote. It may do those things in 70+ languages.

It may not invent a cabin because the French was clear. It may not invent a fare, convert a euro figure into pounds, or round an outside cabin down to a deck seat. It may not invent a Saturday you are not in. It may not send a Greek text after an English call. It may not decide a visa, a child’s document, or a policy. It may not move a booking that already lives with an operator. It may not offer a free night or a refund because the caller is unhappy.

When the system is not in front of it, the English sentence is the same as the Greek one: I cannot confirm a cabin from here; I have your names and the date; someone will check and call you. That sentence, in their language, is what keeps them off the next office without giving away a bed you do not have.

Several calls, one person on the airline

Late morning is when the languages arrive together. A couple at the counter in Greek. The airline in one ear. The phone in English. A second ring in German before the first has finished. A second line with the same two people still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.

The assistant answers several of these at once. The desk still takes the ones a free person can take. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the office.

The Friday before a long weekend is no quieter. Easter week is not quieter. Someone hired in February does not cover this morning, and they do not cover it in four languages.

These are not odd calls you staff with “the one who has English, when she is at the desk”. They are the ordinary July morning. English, German, French, Italian, Dutch. You do not set a language per screen. You put someone on the number who can continue the first sentence, and who will not invent a cabin because they can say it clearly.

What these calls sound like

The order is the language they started in, then the kind of job, then the facts, then the names read back, then a time to come in or a callback. There is no invented cabin and no invented price. There is no visa answer. There is no Greek text after an English call.

If the assistant is friendly and still says Friday’s cabin is free, they come in with cash and the bed is gone. Put the person who rang about Naxos on a request the desk can finish — in the language they used, with a text they can read on the street.

How CITT handles it

1. Your number stays on the window. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the office.
2. Several calls are answered at once. A July burst in three languages is a set of conversations, not a stack of busy tones against the airline.
3. It picks up the language from the first sentence and stays in it, including when they switch. 70+ languages. You do not configure a language per screen.
4. It asks package, ferry or last-minute first, in that language, then takes the facts that belong to that request.
5. It does not invent a cabin or a fare. If you have not marked a figure live, it takes a request or a callback.
6. It confirms by SMS in the language of the call — visit time, names as taken, how to find the door.
7. It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — an unpublished fare, a cabin nobody has checked, a visa question, a complaint — as a tagged note.
8. You get the transcript, the summary, and which of the three jobs the caller named, as fields the desk can use without speaking that language.

What it will not do

It will not invent a free cabin. If the system is not in front of it, the caller gets a request taken, not a yes, in any language.

It will not invent a fare, a Saturday you are not in, or a visa answer. Pickup of a ticket is only in the collect hours you wrote.

It will not send the visit text in a language they did not use. It will not move a booking that already lives with an operator. It will not offer a free night, a refund, or a different cabin because the caller is unhappy. It takes the request. A human decides.

What you set up first

Put the assistant on the number on the window with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free person at the counter still takes the call. Then:

1. The caller’s language as a working language on the published number. Not a second line. Not a note that says if they sound foreign, transfer.
2. The same first question in every language you expect to hear — package, ferry, last-minute — written so it cannot be skipped.
3. The calendar you already use, and who works which screen. If the hour is not free, the assistant takes a request. It does not invent one.
4. Only the published items it may repeat. Do not give it a number you would take back at the desk.
5. The collect-hour rule, written the way you would text a couple at ten. It will be read out in their language.
6. The sentences they need when they come in — door, parking, Saturday — and a line that forbids a cabin, a fare, a visa answer, or a free night from the phone.
7. The confirmation text follows the language of the call. Test this with a number you hold. Include who the text should go to when a cousin booked for someone else.

Then listen to the first twenty calls that did not start in Greek. You are not grading the accent. You are checking that the first question happened, that package and ferry were not mixed, that no cabin or fare appeared that is not live, that the names were read back, and that the text went out in the language of the call. If a call fails those, it failed, however smooth it sounded.

Rates for the service live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.