Pour the wine,we'll take the booking.

Yes. Zavo connects to the booking system you already run — ResDiary, OpenTable, SevenRooms, or Quandoo — so it books and turns covers against your live availability and writes every reservation straight back, with nothing to re-key. The diary you and your host stand already trust stays the single source of truth, and Zavo simply answers the calls you can't reach in service. If you still run the night from a paper reservation book, that's no problem either: it captures each booking in a clean, structured format and sends it to a shared screen or sheet your team checks. Tell us how you take bookings now and we'll set it up around your floor rather than asking a busy team to switch systems mid-service.

Yes — this is its core job. Zavo reads your diary and reserves covers against live availability, and it understands your seatings, so it offers the early or the late sitting and only a time that genuinely turns in service. That means the second sitting fills as fast as the first instead of sitting half-empty because nobody answered the phone. It takes the date, the time, the party size, and any preference — a booth, the window, a high chair — confirms by text, and writes the booking back instantly. Reschedules and cancellations update the diary in real time, so a freed table can be re-let. The reservation calls that used to ring out while your waiters ran plates now get answered and booked every time.

Yes — these are the bookings Zavo is keenest to catch, because a birthday for twelve, a christening lunch, or an office dinner is high-spend and the easiest to lose to a missed call. For a big booking it takes the date and the numbers, talks the caller through your set menu, recommends from the wine list, and routes the enquiry to your manager with everything attached so you can confirm the detail. When you'd like a deposit to secure the table, it sends a secure link on the spot. Because it answers at peak and long after service, the family planning a celebration late in the evening is captured rather than lost. Winning more of these group tables is, for most trattorias, one of the quickest paybacks.

Yes. If you run a pizzeria alongside the dining room, the collection trade rings on the same line, and Zavo takes it without tying up the pass. It captures the order — the pizzas, the pasta, the sides — reads it back to confirm, gives a collection time, and sends it to the kitchen. It checks any gluten-free base or substitution against your menu before it confirms, so the kitchen isn't surprised. The everyday questions get answered too: where you are, whether you cater for coeliacs, and what's on the specials board tonight. So a collection customer and a table booking can ring at the same moment in the middle of service and both get a clear, accurate answer rather than an engaged tone.

Zavo handles a full diary gracefully rather than just turning callers away. When the sitting they want is gone, it offers the nearest alternative — an earlier or later seating, a different night, or the bar if you take walk-ins there — so a keen diner stays with you instead of ringing the next restaurant. Where you keep a waiting list, it can add the caller with their details and party size, then let them know if a table frees up. You decide the rules: how tight to run each sitting, whether to overbook slightly for expected no-shows, and what to offer when you're full. The aim is that a busy night still converts demand into future bookings rather than losing it to a flat no.

Yes — and you decide exactly what reaches a person. Zavo spots the bookings that warrant a human — a party of fourteen, a private-dining enquiry, a wedding rehearsal dinner — and routes them to whoever you've named, with a short briefing on what was discussed. Routine two- and four-tops are simply booked, so your manager isn't interrupted mid-service for an ordinary reservation. You set the rules: the party size that rings straight through, what waits for a callback, and who takes which kind of enquiry. A big celebration no longer sits in voicemail until someone checks after close — your nominated contact is flagged in seconds and can call back while the guest is still deciding where to book.

Yes. Because the host repeats only what you've configured, your food-safety duties are kept on every call. You tell it the allergens recorded against each dish — the gluten in the pasta and the bread, the nuts in the pesto, the dairy in a sauce — and it tells a coeliac or allergic guest plainly which dishes are safe, never guessing an ingredient or claiming a dish is free of something it isn't. A question only the kitchen can settle is noted and passed to you. Every call is logged with a transcript, so you have a clean record of exactly what a guest was told, which matters for allergen compliance whether the booking is dine-in or a collection. The agent works within the rules you set rather than relying on a rushed answer across a busy floor.

Yes. Calls are encrypted the whole way and in storage, access is permission-based and logged, and the host passes on only what you've configured. Guest names, numbers, and booking details are handled to enterprise standards, never sold on or used to train third-party models. Where a deposit is taken to hold a celebration table, it runs through a secure payment link, so card details never pass over a busy reservation call or sit in a book by the host stand. Every call leaves an audit trail, so meeting your data-protection duties and reviewing how a booking was taken is straightforward. If you have a specific policy on how long booking or deposit records are kept, we'll set Zavo's retention to match before you go live.

Always — and that's when a lot of the value sits. Zavo answers around the clock, including the Friday and Saturday dinner rush and the Sunday family lunch, which is precisely when your floor is fullest and a ringing phone goes ignored. The reservations and celebration enquiries that used to hit voicemail at the weekend now get answered, booked, and confirmed, so you don't start the week behind a rival who happened to pick up. There's no rota to run and no dip in service late on a Saturday — a diner gets the same warm, professional answer at 9pm as at 9am. For a restaurant that currently lets the weekend phone ring out in service, this alone usually changes how many covers it fills.

Yes. If you run a group or a second site, Zavo can answer for each restaurant with its own diary, menu, seatings, and routing, while giving you a single view of every call across the group. A caller reaches a host who knows that restaurant's availability and specials, not a generic line. You can set different opening hours, different managers to escalate to, and different handling per site, so a city-centre trattoria and a neighbourhood pizzeria run completely differently under one system. Reporting rolls up, so you can compare covers booked and calls answered site by site. Whether you're a single independent or a small group, every guest is answered consistently and their booking lands in the right restaurant's diary.

It helps on two fronts that feed each other. First, the dropped calls stop: the reservations, celebration enquiries, and collection orders that used to ring out in service now get answered and booked, so more of the demand you already have converts. Second, deposits and reminders mean the bookings you take actually arrive, so a full diary holds rather than leaking to no-shows. Most Italian restaurants see more covers booked and more group tables held within the first few weeks, simply because nothing is being dropped. We'd rather your own takings decided it, so Zavo tracks every call, booking, deposit, and collection across a month — the covers it adds sit right beside what you pay, on your numbers rather than ours.

No. Zavo books only against your live availability, so it can't seat a table you don't have or double-book a sitting, and it says nothing you haven't configured it to say. It works from your menu, your seatings, your wine list, and your rules, so it won't invent a dish, promise a table you're holding, or quote a set menu you've changed. Anything it hasn't been told is recorded and routed to you instead of guessed, which counts most around allergens and special requests. You can listen back to any call, see exactly what was said, and refine its answers whenever your specials or wine list change. Routine bookings and questions are handled fast and accurately, while anything needing real judgement still reaches a person.

Yes. The moment a table is booked, Zavo sends a confirmation by text, and it sends a reminder before the night, so a guest who booked a fortnight ago actually turns up. On the larger bookings it holds a deposit by secure link, so a table of twelve doesn't quietly vanish and leave your best section empty on a Saturday. If a guest needs to cancel, the diary updates in real time and the table can be re-let rather than lost. After a celebration it can follow up to invite the party back, so a one-off becomes a regular booking. All of this runs automatically, so your diary holds firmer and your floor spends the night with the guests rather than ringing round to confirm.

Most Italian restaurants are live within a few days, and there's nothing to buy or install. You redirect your existing number to Zavo, connect your reservation system, and brief it on your menu, your seatings, your wine list, and how you like the big tables handled. From the first call it answers in your restaurant's voice, clear and warm whatever the floor is doing, and you can listen back to conversations and refine its answers as your specials change. Wiring it into your booking system is on us. Most owners find the main ongoing task is simply keeping the specials board and the wine list current — which, like a well-run pass, just keeps the whole front of house sharper.

That's fine — plenty of trattorias do. Zavo integrates with the main reservation platforms out of the box, yet it isn't tied to one. If you run the night from a paper book at the host stand, it can still take every booking, capture it as a clean, structured record, and route it to you however suits your floor — synced where it can be, or sent to a shared screen your team checks before each service — so nothing is lost and you keep control. Where an older setup won't take a full integration, we build the closest workable link as we onboard you. You're never forced to change how your restaurant runs to stop missing the reservations that fill your tables.