Concierge, booking app, translator or AI call: which one, when

You’re somewhere you don’t speak the language, and you need something that normally takes a phone call: a table, an appointment, a quick question answered. There are more ways to handle that than there were a few years ago. Here’s how they compare, including the cases where we’d pick something other than our own app.

Ask the concierge

If your hotel has a concierge desk, it’s still the best option for hard-to-get places. They speak the language, they know which restaurants are worth it, and they deal with those restaurants all the time. Japan’s national tourism organisation says it plainly: when a phone booking is the only option, “hotel concierges or travel agents may be able to assist.”

The catch is that you need to be staying somewhere with a concierge, and it runs on their hours. It’s also less suited to small things, like asking a garage whether it’s open on Sunday.

Book online where you can

If the place is on OpenTable, TheFork, Tabelog or a local equivalent, book there. You see what’s free, you get it in writing, and nobody has to talk to anybody.

The limit is coverage. Japan is a good example. Tabelog lists about 890,000 restaurants and says over 70,000 of them can be booked instantly online. That’s fewer than one in ten. Online booking is growing fast there: on TableCheck’s figures, the online share of bookings went from 36% in 2016 to 56% in 2023. That still leaves a lot happening another way, mostly by phone. Tabelog’s English booking also needs a payment method and charges a system fee of ¥440 per person.

And for anything that isn’t a restaurant, like a massage, a clinic or a mechanic, there’s often nothing to click at all.

Translate the call yourself

This is what’s changed most. Several phones now translate an ordinary phone call while it happens.

• Apple’s Live Translation in the Phone app, on iPhones that support Apple Intelligence. Both people are told the call is being translated, and the other person hears a spoken translation of what you say. Call languages include English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.
• Samsung’s Live Translate on recent Galaxy phones. Samsung’s support page lists 13 languages, including Thai and Japanese, and it announced in October 2026 that the feature is coming to 24. Samsung says its basic Galaxy AI features are free.
• Google’s Voice translate on Pixel 10 and later, between English and French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish or Swedish.

Where these beat us: they’re built in, they don’t cost extra, and you’re in the conversation yourself. If the restaurant asks something unexpected, you can answer it on the spot.

Where they’re harder: you still have to make the call and keep up in real time, with a translation step in the middle. You need a recent phone, and your language pair has to be on the list. None of the three lists Swiss German, and only Samsung lists Thai. We go into this in more detail in our post on where live call translation struggles.

Hand the call to an AI

The newest option is not making the call at all. Google has two versions, both US only. In Search, “Have AI check pricing” phones businesses such as auto repair shops, hair salons and pet groomers and emails you what they said; Google says it “will not create a booking”. Gemini’s “Call for me”, on Pixel 11 in the US, can book and manage appointments and reservations from your own number, and introduces itself as “an AI assistant from Google calling on a recorded line on your behalf.”

Alfred sits here too. It calls the place in its own language, says it’s an AI assistant, and gives you the result in yours, and it isn’t limited to US numbers. The trade-off against live translation: you’re not on the line to improvise, and calls cost per minute.

So which one?

• A sought-after restaurant and a hotel with a concierge: ask the concierge.
• The place is on a booking platform: book online.
• You’re fine on the phone and your languages are supported: try your phone’s live translation.
• The language isn’t covered, or you’d rather not make the call: hand it over.