Independent Hotels + Shopify
The AI receptionist for independent hotels that writes straight into Shopify.
After-hours enquiries are 30% of bookings. You don't have a 24-hour front desk.
How it works
Foan reads your Shopify product catalogue so the agent can answer "do you have X in stock" and check basic order status mid-call.
Why independent hotels miss calls.
Direct bookings save you 15 to 25% in OTA commission. Most go to Booking.com because nobody picked up the phone.
Tuesday evening, 9.04pm. A couple are sitting on the sofa booking a long weekend. They have your hotel open in one tab and Booking.com in another. They want to ring you to ask about parking, the dog policy, and whether you do early check-in. They prefer to book direct so they get the welcome drink and the proper room.
Your front desk closed at 8pm. The night porter is dealing with a guest who can't get the kettle to work. The phone rings four times and goes to voicemail. They don't leave one. Two minutes later they've booked through Booking.com instead. Three nights at £180. Booking.com takes £97 in commission. You wave goodbye to roughly a fifth of the room revenue and gain a guest you don't have an email for.
Foan picks up while your team is busy or off shift. Speaks the way your front desk would. Answers the parking question, confirms the dog policy from your house rules, and offers to take the booking direct. Drops the reservation straight into Mews or Cloudbeds. You wake up to a confirmed direct booking, not a 12% reduction in margin.
What you get on day one.
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Every call answered in two seconds. No queue, no missed-call voicemails, no "we'll get back to you tomorrow".
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Calls flow into Shopify automatically. No copy-paste from notepad. Whatever Shopify expects, Foan writes.
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UK phone number included. Take a new line or forward your existing business number. Either way, Foan picks up.
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Text or WhatsApp the second the call ends. You're on a job, you don't pick up — Foan does the work and tells you what was said.
Ready in 10 minutes.
Plans from £499/mo. Cancel any time. Number forwarding works on the existing line you already pay for.
Frequently asked
Does Foan really work for independent hotels using Shopify?
Yes. Direct bookings save you 15 to 25% in OTA commission. Most go to Booking.com because nobody picked up the phone. Foan answers calls live, qualifies them by asking the questions a independent hotel would ask, and writes the outcome into your Shopify automatically. There's nothing for you to copy across.
How does Foan + Shopify compare to hiring a receptionist?
A part-time receptionist costs around £1,800/mo and only covers business hours. Foan picks up 24/7 in two seconds, never misses a call during peak, and starts at £499/mo. Everything ends up in Shopify the same way a human assistant would log it — except instantly and without typos.
What if a caller asks a question Foan doesn't know the answer to?
Foan is configured with your business hours, services, prices and FAQs the moment it's set up — we scan your website automatically. For anything genuinely unknown, the agent admits it doesn't know, takes the caller's contact details, and pings you so you can ring back. Better than voicemail, every time.
How quickly can I get this live with Shopify?
Under 10 minutes. Sign up, connect Shopify via OAuth (one click), pick a UK phone number, point your existing business line at it. Foan starts answering on the next ring.
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