Every direct booking saves
15–20% OTA commission.
While check-in, breakfast and concierge run at full speed, the phone keeps ringing. Whoever does not pick up loses the guest to Booking.com. fonea answers room enquiries 24/7 in five languages — and your reception stays with the guest in front of them.
What is fonea for hotels?
fonea is an AI phone assistant that takes room enquiries for Swiss hotels 24/7 in five languages, answers questions about parking, breakfast, pets and wellness, captures booking requests structurally, and syncs everything to your PMS or reservations team — FADP-compliant with data hosted in Switzerland.
The hospitality reality
Why reception cannot pick up
Check-in rush and phone at the same time
Between 2 pm and 5 pm guests stand at reception — and exactly then the phone rings most. One or two staff cannot serve both at once. The guest in front always comes first.
HotellerieSuisse industry report
Every missed call becomes an OTA booking
A caller who rings three times without reaching anyone books on Booking.com or Expedia within 30 seconds — the same hotel, the same rooms, but with 15–20% commission. The phone is the most expensive direct channel you can neglect.
CHF 101M in annual OTA commissions in Switzerland
International guests call around the clock
A business traveller in New York, a tourist in Tokyo, a wedding planner in Mumbai — they all call in their time zone. Without a night porter (CHF 4,000–5,000/month), your hotel is silent at night.
Multilingual service a must in Zermatt, Lucerne, Interlaken
In tourism regions, guests call in German, French, Italian, English and Spanish. No single receptionist covers all languages — and international group enquiries are lost.
What changes
How fonea grows your direct bookings
100% availability — day and night
fonea takes every call: during the check-in rush, during breakfast service, at 3 am. No busy tone, no voicemail, no caller migrating to Booking.com.
Five languages without extra staff
German, French, Italian, English, Spanish — fonea detects the language automatically. A guest from Milan or Geneva is welcomed in their language, even when reception only speaks German.
Booking requests structured into your PMS
Travel dates, room type, party size, special requests, add-ons — captured structurally and synced to your PMS or reservations team. React in minutes instead of checking voicemail.
Commission savings straight to your account
With two rescued direct bookings per day you save CHF 2,200–3,700 per month in OTA commissions. fonea pays off within the first week.
Set up in 30 minutes
How we set up fonea for your hotel
Kick-off
We discuss room types, pricing structure, seasonality, add-ons (parking, breakfast, spa, pets) and your typical guest mix.
Scripting
We write responses for availability requests, add-ons and FAQs in German, French, Italian, English and Spanish.
Integration
Connect to your PMS or send structured emails to your reservations team. Call forwarding via Swisscom, Sunrise, or Salt — your existing number stays.
Go-live
Test calls in all languages, fine-tune escalation paths (emergency, VIP guest, group enquiry), handover. You keep full control.
Typical call scenarios
How fonea handles guest calls in practice
Availability enquiry with dates
Structured capture of all booking data — straight into the PMS or by email to the reservations team.
Add-on questions
Standard questions answered correctly 24/7 — in five languages, without reception picking up.
Booking change with cancellation question
fonea recognises: change and cancellation questions need a reservations decision. Clean handover with scheduled callback, no false promises.
FADP, guest privacy and Swiss hospitality
Why fonea is the right partner for Swiss hoteliers
Data hosted in Switzerland
All persistent guest data (travel dates, transcripts, special requests) is hosted with our Swiss partner Supabase. No guest data leaves Switzerland persistently.
No credit card data over voice
fonea deliberately does not capture credit card data by phone. Payment details are collected afterwards via a secure link or by your reception — PCI-DSS compliant.
Transparent subprocessors
Full list of all vendors (Supabase, Telnyx, ElevenLabs, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI) with data residency and DPF status. 30-day advance notice on every change.
Reception remains the heart
fonea does not replace your reception — it steps in when your team cannot. Regulars who want to speak with you personally are always transferred. Swiss hospitality with digital reinforcement.
Pricing
Transparent pricing
Included
- 120 minutes AI talk time included
- DE, FR, IT, EN, ES + Swiss German
- Calendar integration & appointment booking
- AI answering machine 24/7
- Interactive AI for customer service
- Email & SMS notifications
- Cancel monthly, no commitment
Included
- 500 minutes AI talk time
- 3 concurrent calls
- 3 phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Basic
- Outbound calls
Included
- From 2,000 minutes
- Custom concurrent calls
- Custom phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Professional
- Custom voice
- Zero Data Retention
- Custom SLA
Frequently asked
What hoteliers need to know before using fonea
How does fonea handle reception opening hours and night shifts?
fonea works 24/7. You define when it acts as first responder (e.g. whenever reception does not pick up within three rings) and when as backup. At night (10 pm–7 am) fonea takes over completely, during the day it complements your reception — without the CHF 4,000–5,000/month cost of a night porter.
How good are the languages really?
fonea speaks fluent German (incl. Swiss Standard German), French, Italian, English and Spanish — near-native pronunciation thanks to state-of-the-art voice synthesis. In Zermatt, Lucerne, Geneva or Lugano the assistant switches to the caller's language automatically, even mid-conversation.
Does fonea integrate with my PMS?
Yes. fonea syncs booking requests structurally to your PMS (Mews, Apaleo, protel and others) or sends a formatted email to your reservations team. Direct booking integration is available on request — in the default configuration your team still confirms the final booking manually.
Is fonea FADP-compliant for a Swiss hotel?
Yes. All persistent guest data is hosted in Switzerland (Supabase, infrastructure in Geneva). Transient voice processing (STT, LLM, TTS) runs on European servers in Germany with DPF or SCC safeguards. The revised FADP (effective 1 September 2023) and the GDPR are fully respected. For EU guest data, the solution is additionally GDPR-compliant.
How does fonea handle seasonality?
fonea takes arbitrarily many parallel calls — during high season in January in Zermatt, in August in Interlaken, or during Art Basel. No busy tone, no queue. Seasonal rates, minimum stays and blackout dates are configured in the system.
What happens with VIP guests or emergencies?
fonea recognises defined keywords and VIP numbers and transfers immediately to the duty manager — to mobile, radio, or via SMS alert. For emergencies (medical, security), escalation is defined within seconds. Standard enquiries are captured structurally and forwarded with priority.
Will fonea irritate our regulars?
fonea introduces itself as an AI assistant (FDPIC requirement), but sounds natural and professional. Regulars who want to speak with you personally are always transferred to reception. The expectation is clear: guests prefer an immediate, competent answer over a voicemail — regulars included.
Can we switch fonea off after the season?
Yes. The contract is monthly with no minimum term. Many hotels keep fonea running year-round because the commission savings are noticeable off-season too — but that is your call.
Further reading
Hotels: Direktbuchungen statt OTA-Provisionen
KI-Telefonassistent für Schweizer Hotels: Direktbuchungen steigern, OTA-Provisionen sparen, 24/7 mehrsprachig erreichbar. Ab CHF 90/Monat.
Viersprachig am Telefon: KI für die Schweiz
Mehrsprachiger KI-Telefonassistent: Automatische Spracherkennung, Sprachwechsel DE/FR/IT/EN und Schweizerdeutsch-Verständnis.
24/7 erreichbar ohne Nachtschicht: 5 Wege für KMU
24/7 erreichbar als Schweizer KMU: 5 Ansätze von Mobilweiterleitung bis KI-Telefonassistent. Mit Kostenvergleich und Entscheidungshilfe.
Ready for more direct bookings?
30-day money-back guarantee. Live in 7 days. No minimum term.
Get started