Despite the fact that in recent times it seems that phone calls are less and less common, almost 40% of restaurant reservations are still made by phone. To automate and facilitate these calls, as well as manage WhatsApp chats with clients, Joan Salvatella and Fede Buldin founded Bookline, a startup that develops virtual assistants that incorporate artificial intelligence to improve customer service.
Both, computer engineers by training and profession, met while working in the artificial intelligence department of the technology consultancy Accenture. In this company, they were in charge of projects in which they applied AI in call centers of large companies such as Telefónica. It was at that moment that both detected that this same service could also be useful for small and medium-sized companies. Thus, in 2019 they decided to create this startup to optimize resources in both restaurants and tourist accommodations such as hotels, hostels, or campsites. The tool already manages more than a million calls per month.
"We help our clients not to lose any reservation to maximize their billing. And we do it through virtual voice assistants that are available 24 hours a day and that, in addition, are capable of understanding the client thanks to artificial intelligence and executing orders such as reserving a table or a hotel room," summarizes its co-founder Joan Salvatella. To do this, the company offers, on the one hand, virtual assistants that are already pre-configured and that can be further developed in minutes by modifying up to 350 different parameters according to the client's taste and with which aspects can be configured such as, for example, whether the assistant should address the client informally (tú) or formally (usted).
On the other hand, they also offer assistants created from scratch in less than 36 hours to which functionalities can be added, such as incorporating the sound of ocean waves if it is a restaurant located on the beachfront. Although they offer a basic plan of 170 euros to restaurants, customers who wish can also contract the advanced package that allows adding functionalities such as an automatic WhatsApp Business chat or being able to connect reservations from several establishments of the same group so that if a customer calls a restaurant that is already fully booked, the assistant can offer them an alternative in an establishment of the same chain.
Likewise, another advantage of these virtual assistants is their ability to integrate into the different reservation management platforms used by each establishment, such as CoverManager or The Fork in the case of restaurants. They can also integrate into the establishment's contact database so that, if a regular customer contacts, the assistant can call them by name when answering by phone or WhatsApp.
All in all, these assistants allow automating up to 90% of calls, saving up to 20% of employees' time, in addition to offering the possibility of attending outside business hours or during peak lunch or dinner times, when workers are usually focused on their tasks in the dining room. But the tool goes even further than managing room or table reservations, also being able to manage transfers to the hotel if the client wishes or manage massage and spa services.
"Furthermore, these virtual assistants also help reinforce the brand and customer service. Establishments usually invest in websites or social media but, however, when you call by phone, no one answers or an answering machine picks up that doesn't help the client formalize their reservation," emphasizes Salvatella. Bookline's virtual assistants, however, ensure "that no reservation is lost." With all these functionalities, the company estimates that their assistants helped generate 100 million euros in reservations for restaurants throughout 2024.
Since 2019, Bookline has worked with more than 1,500 clients ---1,200 restaurants and 300 hotels, hostels and campsites---, a figure they expect to increase by the end of the year, closing 2025 with 2,000 restaurants and 500 tourist accommodations. With this increase in clients, Salvatella also expects to raise turnover to four million euros by the end of this fiscal year.
But the ambition of its founders does not stop here and they are confident that Bookline can grow even more, multiplying its turnover by 10 in the next three years, reaching a monthly turnover of 3 million euros and an annual turnover that could exceed 36 million euros by 2028.
A growth that they expect to occur thanks to, on the one hand, consolidating within the hotel sector, a sector in which they still have room to grow. In the future, they also do not rule out opening up to other sectors such as health or banking. On the other hand, they also trust in the international expansion of their services as a growth engine, since, after a few months adapting the tools to the needs of each region, they are beginning to deal with clients from both Southern Europe and Latin America. Currently, the company already operates in 16 countries but only 10% of clients are international, a figure they expect to grow rapidly in the coming years.
With this objective, the startup will also reinforce its commercial team, which is divided by regions to adapt to both the language and the preferences of each country in which they want to operate. A team they plan to increase in the coming years to accompany this international expansion: going from the current 50 employees to 65 by the end of the year and reaching 80 workers by the end of 2026. All in all, the countries in which they plan to strengthen are both European, with the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Portugal as main focuses, and Latin American, with Mexico, Colombia or Chile as priorities.
Likewise, they also work on "anticipating future consumer habits", who will increasingly abandon calls and text messages and opt to book through orders to the virtual assistants of their phones or smartwatches by voice.
In addition, and as a future objective, the startup also invests in improving and perfecting its virtual assistants so that they are increasingly active and, for example, are able to automatically call a customer who previously called to book a table if a space becomes available for the desired day and time. Likewise, they are also working to include more functionalities within the service with the aim of "automating all tasks and procedures that a person currently has to resolve," concludes Salvatella.