Demo build, no clientReal test numbers

AI Voice Receptionist: books safely, never guesses, hands off cleanly

The booking brain behind a phone receptionist: real availability, no double-booking, FAQ answers only from the owner's list, and a clear hand-off note when a person needs to step in.

AI Voice Receptionist cover: a call booking a haircut, test numbers

TypeProductised build (our own kit)

ClientNone yet: demo build

Platformn8n + Vapi or Retell

Live demoTalk to it in your browser

Problem

Salons, lash and beauty studios and day spas miss calls while they work. A voice AI can pick up, but the risky part is what happens behind it: booking a slot that is already taken, inventing an answer about prices or policies, letting anyone cancel anyone's appointment, or ending an urgent call without telling a human.

What we built

Six tools for the voice AI (check availability, book, cancel, answer FAQ, take message, escalate), served by one n8n webhook that reads and writes the owner's Google Sheet.
Safe booking: opening hours, buffers, minimum notice, blocked times and a re-check at booking time, so a slot taken mid-call is refused with the nearest alternatives. Retried tool calls return the same booking, not a duplicate.
No guessing: answers only from the owner's FAQ; anything else is logged to FAQ_Gaps and offered as a message.
Caller checks and hand-off: only the number that booked can cancel; "talk to a person" transfers during staffed hours, otherwise takes an urgent message and alerts the owner.
After the call: call log with outcome, daily report, Google Calendar mirror and error alerts.
New in this demo: talk to it with your browser's speech recognition (typing works the same), hear replies, and see the call record and staff hand-off note each call produces.

Result (tests, not client outcomes)

38 / 38unit tests: booking engine, parsing, FAQ, escalation, reports, workflow checks

26 + 12end-to-end tests on n8n 2.44.6 (live webhooks + scheduled workflows), all passing, with Google, Slack and email mocked

7 / 7tool paths correct on n8n Cloud with a real Google Sheet and Calendar (27 Oct 2026), about 1.7 to 5.7 s per call

Also: the Vapi setup script passed 10/10 tests against a fake Vapi API. Not tested yet: a real phone call (voice quality, speech recognition on a phone line, how well the AI model follows the prompt), because that needs a paid voice-platform account. There are no client results yet.

Stack

n8nVapi / Retell tool callsGoogle SheetsGoogle CalendarSlack + email alertsLuxon (time zones)Web Speech API (demo only)

Honest notes

This is our own kit turned into a demo, not client work. Maple Street Salon, its prices and its callers are fictional, with 555 phone numbers.
The demo runs the kit's real booking engine in the browser. Understanding the caller is done by simple keyword rules written for the demo; in production the voice AI on Vapi or Retell picks the tool. Speech uses your browser's own recognition and voice; no AI model or paid API is called.
AI tools helped write the code and this page. Every number above comes from our own test reports.

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