Early access. Now onboarding our first restaurants.
A reservation book that doesn't charge you per guest.
Hoststand runs the host stand: the book, the floor, the waitlist and online booking, for one flat monthly price. It was built so AI can take bookings too: a voice agent answering your phone books by the same rules as your host. And the guests who book with you stay yours.
One Friday night, start to finish
Most reservation software is sold on a feature list. Here's what Hoststand does over one busy service instead.
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The book is already full of the right bookings.
Guests booked from your Google listing, the Reserve button on Apple Maps, your Instagram bio and your website. Every channel books against the same tables and the same rules, so nothing gets double-booked.
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The phone rings while the host is seating a six-top.
An AI phone host picks up, checks the real book, holds a table and texts the guest a code to confirm. By the time the host looks up, the booking is on the screen. See how that works.
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The kitchen doesn't get 40 covers at once.
You set how many covers or parties can arrive in each time slot. Once 7:30 is full, online guests only see the times that still have room. The host can still override it for a regular.
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A four-top cancels, and nobody has to pick up the phone.
They tap the link in their confirmation text. The table opens up, and Hoststand can text it to the next party on the waitlist that fits.
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Walk-ins join the waitlist at the door.
They leave a name and a mobile number, then go have a drink. When a table opens they get a text and accept or decline from their phone. No pagers.
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A two-top is twenty minutes late.
The booking turns red on the book. If they call to say they're running late, the host marks it and the table is held until then. If they don't show, one tap marks the no-show and frees the table.
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A party of eight walks in.
Hoststand knows which tables sit next to each other and offers the ones that can be pushed together, not three two-tops at opposite ends of the room.
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Close out.
Covers, no-shows and where each booking came from are on one screen. Every change is recorded with who made it, so "who moved table 12?" has an answer. Export the night to a spreadsheet whenever you want.
Built for AI from the first line of code
Hoststand has a standard door for AI built in: MCP, the Model Context Protocol. Voice agents and AI assistants plug into it and get the same booking engine your host uses, with the limits a public channel needs. Nobody has to give a bot a login to the host screen.
What happens during an AI phone booking
Guest Do you have a table for four tomorrow, around seven?
check_availability
Returns the times that fit your rules: 7:00, 7:15, 7:45. The AI never sees table numbers or your floor plan, so it can't offer a table you don't sell.
AI I have 7:00 or 7:15. Which works for you?
Guest 7:15. It's Sam, 604-555-0142.
create_hold
Holds a table for a few minutes and texts Sam a six-digit code. Nothing is booked yet. If the call drops, the hold runs out and the table goes back on sale.
Guest The code is 482913.
confirm_reservation
Books it. Sam gets a confirmation text with a link to change or cancel, and the booking shows up on the host's screen with voice AI as its channel.
Guest, next day We're running about fifteen minutes late.
mark_running_late
Holds the table for them and flags it for the host. The phone system tells Hoststand who's calling, so Sam doesn't have to prove anything to say they're late.
What an AI agent can do
- Answer questions about hours, seating like the patio, and special events
- Check availability and book, confirmed by a texted code
- Look up, change or cancel the guest's own booking
- Tell you a guest is running late
- Put a guest on the waitlist, check their place, or take them off
- Give callers a walk-in wait estimate
- Re-send a lost confirmation link to the caller's phone
What it can't do
- See table numbers, your floor plan, or anyone else's booking
- Book tables you keep for walk-ins, or get around your pacing, last-seating and large-party rules
- Touch a booking without proof it's the guest's: the texted code or the link from their confirmation
- Seat parties, move tables or mark no-shows. Those stay with your staff.
- Hammer the system. Attempts are limited per phone number, and wrong codes cancel the hold.
- Work unseen. Everything it books carries voice AI as its channel, on the booking and in the record of who changed what.
Need a voice agent? VoiceAgent is our own AI phone host. Already have one? Any voice platform or AI assistant that supports MCP can connect to Hoststand.
Your floor plan comes from your POS
Nobody wants to redraw the dining room. Hoststand imports your tables, seats and sections from your POS layout, so the floor on the host's screen is the floor your servers already know.
When the layout changes, import it again. New tables come in, and the settings you've made in Hoststand, like walk-in-only tables or which tables join for big parties, stay as you left them.
Squirrel POS is supported today. On a different POS? Tell us which one; it decides what we build next.
Booking your restaurant shouldn't need an app
Guests pick a date, a party size and a time on your own booking page. There's no app to download and no account to create. They confirm with a code sent by text.
- One link, everywhere. Put it on your Google listing, the Reserve button on Apple Maps, Instagram and your website.
- Changes without phone calls. The confirmation text has a link to change the time, the party size, or cancel.
- Reminders. A text before the booking, with the same link.
- Full? They don't leave. When there's nothing left, the page offers the waitlist instead of a dead end.
Want the phone answered too? An AI phone host books into the same book, by the same rules. Here's how.
Your rules, the same on every channel
Set them once. The host, the booking page and the phone all follow them.
What does "per cover" add up to?
Many booking systems charge a fee for every guest seated through their network. It's a small number on each booking and a large one on the year.
Put in the figures from your last invoice. It's worth checking how many of those "network" guests found you on Google or Apple Maps first.
Hoststand is a flat monthly price. We don't charge per guest, and we never will.
Where Hoststand is today
We're early, and we'd rather tell you than have you find out.
Working now
- Reservation book and timeline
- Live floor plan, imported from Squirrel POS
- Online booking page for Maps, Instagram and your site
- AI booking for voice agents and assistants, over MCP
- Text confirmations, reminders and change links
- Waitlist with table offers by text
- Service periods, seating pace and house rules
- Several locations under one account
- Spreadsheet export
In progress
- Booking directly inside Google Maps (Reserve with Google)
- An AI assistant for your own staff: ask the book questions, or make changes, in plain English
- Native iPad app for the host stand (in testing; the web app runs on any iPad today)
- More POS systems, starting with whatever our founding restaurants use
Founding restaurants
We're starting with a small group of restaurants and working closely with each one. If that sounds like you, we'd like to talk.
- A flat monthly price per location. No per-cover fees, no commission on bookings. We'll quote it on the first call.
- Setup is on us. We import your floor plan, set up your hours and rules with you, and stay on call through your first weekend.
- Your founding rate stays yours.
- A direct line to the people building it. What you ask for shapes what we build next.
Questions restaurants ask us
Do my guests need to download anything?
No. They book on a web page from their phone or laptop, and everything after that happens by text message.
Do you take a cut of each booking?
No. You pay a flat monthly price per location. Busy months don't cost you more.
Can an AI agent double-book or invent a table?
No. It can only offer times Hoststand gives it, and every booking goes through the same engine and rules as your host. Nothing is booked until the guest enters the code we text them.
Do I have to use your AI phone host?
No. Any voice agent or AI assistant that supports MCP can connect. If you don't have one, VoiceAgent is ours. And if you'd rather keep AI off the phone, leave it off; everything else works the same.
Is my guest list mine?
Yes. You can export your bookings to a spreadsheet at any time. We don't run a diner marketplace, and we don't show your guests other restaurants.
Which POS systems do you work with?
Squirrel today. If you're on something else, tell us which one on the form below. The POS our founding restaurants use is where we go next.
What does it run on?
Any modern browser: an iPad at the host stand, a laptop in the office, a phone on the floor. A native iPad app is in testing.
How does switching work?
We plan it with you. We import your floor, set your hours and rules together, and pick a quiet night to switch over so nothing gets double-booked.
What does it cost?
A flat monthly price per location, quoted on the first call. Founding restaurants keep their rate.
Tell us about your restaurant
A few details help us come to the first call prepared. We'll reply within one business day.
Rather talk?
Call 604-800-5781
or email [email protected]