This page shows the working for both, using the published 2026/27 rates from GOV.UK. You can check every figure against the sources at the bottom.
What does a part-time person really cost in 2026?
Not the hourly rate. The hourly rate is the start of the number, not the number.
For one person, 20 hours a week, at the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour:
| Cost | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Wage | 20 hours × 52 weeks × £12.71 | £13,218.40 |
| Employer National Insurance | 15% of pay above £5,000 | £1,232.76 |
| Employer pension | 3% of pay above £6,240 | £209.35 |
| Total a year | £14,660.51 |
That is the floor. It does not include recruitment, training, uniform, payroll admin or your own time spent managing someone.
How many hours does "20 hours a week" actually cover?
928 hours a year, not 1,040.
Almost every worker is legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. So you pay for 52 weeks and get 46.4 weeks of someone actually being there.
- 46.4 weeks × 20 hours = 928 hours of cover.
What is the real cost of an hour of cover?
£15.80 an hour.
Our maths using GOV.UK rates, 2026. Working shown above.
£14,660.51 divided by 928 hours of cover is £15.80. So a £12.71 hour costs about 24% more than the rate on the rota once National Insurance, pension and holiday are counted.
Work it out for your own rota: hourly rate × weekly hours × 52, then add 15% of everything above £5,000, then add 3% of everything above £6,240. Divide the total by (weekly hours × 46.4).
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Sorino starts at £500 a month, which is £6,000 a year. It is priced per property and the first month is free. The exact figure is confirmed after a conversation, because a single bar and a group are not the same job.
That covers every hour: the 2am call, the Sunday, the 11pm message on a Friday.
AI receptionist vs a part-time person vs an answering service vs doing it yourself
| Option | Cost a year | Hours covered | What it can do | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part-time person | £14,660 | 928 | Everything. Pulls pints, reads a room, calms an upset customer | Be there at 2am, or on the 5.6 weeks they are on holiday |
| AI agent (Sorino) | From £6,000 | Every hour | Answers calls, chats, emails and messages; takes bookings; answers from your own knowledge base | Anything physical. Anything that needs real human judgement or care |
| Answering service | Varies, typically per call or per minute | Their opening hours | Takes a message from a human | Usually cannot see your availability, so it takes a message rather than a booking |
| Doing it yourself | £0 in cash | Whatever is left of you | Everything, in your own voice | Scale. The phone rings at 7:40pm while you are behind the bar, and it will keep ringing |
Is an AI receptionist actually cheaper than hiring?
On cost, yes: £6,000 against £14,660, and it covers every hour rather than 928 of them.
But that comparison is only fair for the work an agent can actually do. The honest way to read it:
- If you need hands on the floor, hire. An agent does nothing for you at eight on a Saturday. This is not the fix for that problem.
- If what you are missing is the phone and the messages, then adding a person at £15.80 an hour of cover is an expensive way to solve it, and they still go home at some point.
When is an AI receptionist the wrong answer?
Four cases where we would tell you not to bother:
- Your problem is the floor, not the phone. Recruit instead.
- You take very few calls. If the phone rings four times a week, £500 a month is a bad deal. Do not do it.
- You cannot keep your information current. An agent reading a menu from March will confidently tell people about a dish you took off. Wrong answers delivered fast are worse than a voicemail.
- Your customers love that you personally always pick up. That is your product. Protect it.
What does an AI receptionist actually do?
One agent, four ways in, all reading from the same knowledge base:
- Voice. Picks up the phone, answers the question, takes the booking.
- Chat. Handles the website visitor deciding right now.
- Email. Answers the enquiry that would otherwise sit unread until morning.
- Social. Replies to the direct message that is now how people book.
- Knowledge base. Your menus, hours, policies and availability, feeding all four so they all say the same thing.
It does not guess. If something is not in the knowledge base it says it will find out and passes it to a person. Allergens come from your record or not at all. Anyone who wants a human gets one.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small bar?
From £500 a month, priced per property, first month free. A single bar and a group are priced differently, so the figure is confirmed after a conversation.
Is it cheaper than a part-time employee?
Yes on cost. £6,000 a year against £14,660 for 20 hours a week, and the agent covers every hour rather than 928. They do different jobs though, so the comparison only holds for phone and message work.
What is the true hourly cost of a minimum wage employee in the UK in 2026?
About £15.80 an hour of actual cover, against a £12.71 headline rate. The difference is 15% employer National Insurance above £5,000, 3% pension above £6,240, and the fact that 5.6 weeks of the year are paid holiday. That £15.80 is our own arithmetic from the published GOV.UK rates, not a published statistic.
Does an AI receptionist replace staff?
No, and if that is what you need it for, it is the wrong product. It takes the phone calls and messages off the people you already have. 69% of hospitality businesses are already operating at or below the capacity they need, so for most bars this is about covering hours that have already gone, not removing anyone.
Can it take a booking, or does it just take a message?
It takes the booking. That is the difference between an agent working from your live availability and an answering service leaving you a note to call someone back.
What happens if it does not know the answer?
It says so and hands to a person. It does not invent an answer.
This is the bars edition. There is a wider report on what a part-time person really costs, covering hotels, restaurants and bars together.
Read the full reportSources
We do not publish a figure unless it is real and attributable. The numbers on this page are:
- National Living Wage (21 and over) is £12.71 an hour from April 2026. GOV.UK, 2026. gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
- Employer National Insurance is 15%, with a secondary threshold of £5,000 a year. HM Revenue & Customs, 2026/27. gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027
- Employer minimum pension contribution is 3% of qualifying earnings, £6,240 to £50,270. GOV.UK. gov.uk/workplace-pensions
- Statutory holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks. GOV.UK. gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights
- 69% of businesses are operating at or below 85% of required capacity. UKHospitality members' survey. ukhospitality.org.uk
The £14,660.51, the 928 hours and the £15.80 an hour are our own arithmetic from the four GOV.UK sources above. The working is shown above so you can check it. They are not published statistics and we are not presenting them as such.