Client

Industry

Hospitality

Service

Voice AI Development

Duration

8 Weeks

The Ivy — AI-Powered Restaurant Receptionist

The Ivy is a voice AI receptionist built for restaurants. It handles reservations, answers guest questions, manages dietary requirements, and delivers a white-glove experience 24/7, Built on LiveKit for real-time audio, ElevenLabs for natural speech synthesis, and OpenAI for conversation intelligence. Restaurants using Ivy recover an average of $18K in monthly revenue from missed and after-hours calls.

The Challenge

During peak service hours, staff cannot manage the floor and answer phones simultaneously. Calls go unanswered, bookings are missed, and after-hours reservation intent disappears entirely. There was no cost-effective way to capture every call without pulling staff away from in-house guests and the revenue impact was measurable: 30–40 missed calls per week, zero after-hours bookings, and a guest experience that started inconsistently before anyone walked through the door.

The Solution

We built The Ivy on LiveKit for real-time audio infrastructure, ElevenLabs for natural-sounding voice synthesis, and OpenAI for conversation intelligence — trained specifically on the restaurant's menu, brand voice, and booking policies. Ivy answers every inbound call in under 2 seconds, handles the full reservation flow including dietary requirements and special occasions, and transfers complex requests to staff with complete context. Restaurants get 24/7 coverage, zero missed calls, and staff fully focused on in-house guests — without hiring a single additional person.

Smart Reservation Management

Ivy books tables in real time — capturing party size, dietary requirements, occasion details, and special requests in a single natural conversation without any manual input from staff.

24/7 Call Answering

Every inbound call is answered instantly during service, after hours, and on public holidays. No call goes to voicemail, no booking opportunity is missed.

Guest Recognition & Personalisation

Ivy recognises returning guests, recalls their preferences, dietary restrictions, and past visits delivering a personalised experience that makes guests feel known before they walk through the door.

Automated Confirmation & Reminder Messages

Ivy sends booking confirmations and pre-visit reminders automatically reducing no-show rates by up to 60% and freeing staff from follow-up calls entirely.

Real-Time Analytics Dashboard

Restaurant owners get full visibility into call volumes, booking conversion rates, peak call times, and missed opportunity data enabling smarter staffing and operational decisions.

The Impact

Restaurants using The Ivy recover an average of $18K in monthly revenue from calls that previously went unanswered. Booking conversion rates hit 94%, no-show rates dropped by 60% through automated reminders, and staff hours previously lost to phone handling were fully redirected to in-house service. Guest satisfaction scores averaged 4.9/5 — with guests consistently unaware they were speaking to AI. For multi-location operators, the impact compounds: three locations, one Ivy, zero additional reception headcount.

%+

Intent Recognition Accuracy

$K+

Avg. Monthly Revenue Recovered

%+

Reduction in No-Show Rate

++

Languages Supported

Key Features

WebRTC audio infrastructure built on LiveKit for sub-2-second call response and concurrent call handling without audio degradation.

Natural speech synthesis powered by ElevenLabs guests consistently rate Ivy's voice as indistinguishable from a real person.

OpenAI-powered conversation engine trained on restaurant-specific menus, policies, and brand voice for contextually accurate responses.

Real-time reservation booking with live availability checks, party configuration, dietary capture, and occasion tagging in a single call.

Guest memory system that recognises returning callers and personalises each interaction based on prior visit history and stated preferences.

Multilingual support across 12+ languages with natural fluency — no language barriers for international guests at any point in the booking flow.

Intelligent staff handoff that transfers complex calls with full conversation context, so the receiving staff member is immediately briefed.

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