Why it matters for a UK bar or pub
Britain is busy with people who did not grow up speaking English. In 2024 the UK had 41.2 million inbound visits, with top markets including France and Germany (VisitBritain). A good number of those visitors reach for their phone before they reach your door: they call to check you are open, message to book a table, ask on Instagram whether you do food late. When that first contact comes in another language, the venue that answers it clearly is the one that gets the booking.
People book in the language they are answered in.
When a guest cannot make themselves understood, they do not usually wait or work harder at it. They quietly book somewhere they can. Every call you cannot take and every message you cannot read in the guest's language is a table handed to the bar down the road that could.
What "answering in their language" actually covers
- Voice: a number answered around the clock, in the caller's language, taking and confirming the booking from real availability.
- Chat and WhatsApp: website and messaging answered in seconds, in the guest's language, booking in the same conversation.
- Email: read by intent, replied to fast and in the guest's language, with confirmations sent.
- Social: Instagram and Facebook messages and comments answered before the lead goes cold.
- One knowledge base: every channel reads from the same source of truth, so answers match across languages.
An AI guest agent vs the usual workarounds
Most bars already have a way of coping with a guest who does not speak English. Here is how those hold up against an agent built for it.
| Option | Speaks the guest's language | Around the clock | Takes the booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| A staff member who happens to speak it | Only that language, only on shift | No | Sometimes |
| Tell the guest to message in English | No | No | Rarely, and many simply move on |
| A translation app passed around the floor | Clumsy, not while it is busy | No | No |
| An AI guest agent (Sorino) | Yes, many languages | Yes | Yes, and hands hard cases to your team |
The difference that matters: the workarounds are slow, patchy and gone when that one bilingual bartender leaves. An agent answers every language you set, on every channel, day and night, and hands anything delicate to a person.
What a good system will not do
Answering in a guest's language does not mean guessing in it. A system worth running is governed the same way in every language:
- It will not guess on menu, allergens or safety. Those are answered from your own written, checked record and passed to the kitchen, never invented, and the guest is told when a person will confirm.
- It will not pretend to be human or handle a complaint on its own. It hands over cleanly, with the full conversation passed across.
- It will not replace your bar staff or front of house. It covers the calls and messages they cannot get to, keeps everything on the record, and leaves a person in charge of the hard calls.
Frequently asked
Which languages can it handle?
The common European and world languages your guests actually use, set when you go live. It answers in the language the guest wrote or spoke in.
Will it sound like a robot?
No. It answers in your venue's own voice and tone, from your own information, and hands anything delicate to a person.
Is it safe for allergen and dietary questions?
Those are answered from a written, checked record and passed to the kitchen, never guessed, and the guest is told when a person will confirm. That rule holds in every language.
How quickly can it go live?
You build your venue's agent on the site and ask it the awkward questions yourself before you commit. Setup loads your menu, hours and booking policy and sets the escalation rules, then voice and chat go live, and email and social are added.
Want more plain, sourced reads on putting AI to work behind the bar? Browse the Sorino blog.
Read the Sorino blogThe short version
- Yes, an AI guest agent answers your guests in the language they reach out in, on voice, chat, WhatsApp, email and social.
- Britain is full of guests who do not speak English first, and they book the venue that answers them clearly.
- Every channel reads from one knowledge base, so the answer matches across languages and stays in your voice.
- Menu and allergens are answered from a checked record, never guessed, in any language, and hard cases go to a person.
- It works alongside your team, not instead of them, and you can hear it answer before you commit.
Sources
We do not publish a figure unless it is real and attributable. The number on this page is:
- The UK had 41.2 million inbound visits in 2024, with top markets including the USA, France and Germany. VisitBritain, 2024. visitbritain.org/research-insights/inbound-visits-and-spend-annual-uk