Handling 800+ Calls a Month With Canary’s AI Voice at Hotel Zephyr

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s iconic Fisherman’s Wharf, Hotel Zephyr is a boutique lifestyle hotel known for its playful, shipyard-inspired design and guest-focused approach. Already a longtime Canary customer, the hotel was among the first adopters of Canary’s AI Voice solution to enhance the guest experience and streamline operations.

Since adding AI Voice to their suite of Canary products, which includes Mobile Check-In, Dynamic Upsells and more, Hotel Zephyr has created even more efficiency across their business. To learn more about how well these solutions work together, we sat down with General Manager Joyce Yun to chat about time savings, efficiency gains and more. 

Handling 800+ Guest Calls a Month

Hotel Zephyr previously relied on a digital switchboard system (often called IP PBX or VoIP) that caused long hold times and dropped calls. Now, every call is answered immediately. In April alone, Canary's AI Voice handled over 800 guest calls, amounting to nearly 40 hours of conversation time. And when a transfer is needed, staff already have full context before picking up.

“When a call is transferred to the team, the AI has already captured the guest’s information and reason for the call, so our staff can jump right into helping,” Joyce said. “It creates a much smoother experience, saves everyone time and lets us focus on addressing the guest’s needs rather than collecting the same information.”

Trained for the Complex and the Common

Canary AI pulls from a central hub of information, known as the AI Knowledge Base. Hotel Zephyr populated their Knowledge Base with answers to real guest questions from day one, ranging from common requests to highly-specific inquiries (like local birdwatching recommendations). This set them up with tighter workflows and smarter internal routing from the start.

“Not every guest question is straightforward, so we continuously train the AI with real-world scenarios and unique requests” Joyce said. “As we’ve done this, we’ve seen a noticeable reduction in phone calls reaching our staff. That allows our team to spend more time delivering personalized service to guests in the hotel while still ensuring callers receive fast, accurate answers.”

Fewer Chargebacks and Less Administrative Work

Hotel Zephyr uses Canary's Digital Authorizations to streamline payment workflows and cut time spent on chargeback disputes. Before Canary, the accounting team manually reviewed chargebacks, validated guest information and compiled documentation for rebuttals, which took up a significant portion of the team’s time.

“Prior to Canary, we had to manually review everything, check cameras, confirm check-ins and fight chargebacks with the bank,” Joyce said. “Now we rarely get chargebacks, and if we do, the process is much more efficient for our team.”

“Prior to Canary, our team spent considerable time researching chargebacks,” Joyce said. “With Canary’s Digital Authorizations, chargebacks have become much less frequent — and when they do occur, we have documentation readily available. It’s significantly reduced administrative work, improved efficiency and allowed us to focus on higher-value tasks.”

Up to $130,000 in Ancillary Revenue

Rather than leaving upsell revenue to chance, Hotel Zephyr built it into the guest journey using Canary's Dynamic Upsells. Offers are sent automatically as part of AI-powered communications, staff get incentivized for fulfilling them and the property now brings in around $130,000 in ancillary revenue each year.

“Every dollar counts, and every guest interaction is an opportunity,” Joyce said. “Canary has made upselling much simpler. We can clearly track what’s working, recognize our staff for great performance and create additional revenue while offering guests options that genuinely enhance their stay. It’s been a win for both our team and our guests.”