Voice AI solution grows call volume an average of 38% month-over-month since launch; new updates open Yelp Host to non-table-service restaurants for the first time
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, today announced that Yelp Host, the voice AI solution for restaurants, has handled more than 1 million calls—the equivalent of nearly 2 years of phone conversations and growing at an average of 38% month-over-month since its October 2025 launch through June 2026. Building on that momentum, Yelp introduced more than a dozen new updates to Yelp Host, including a new integration with OpenTable, native food ordering for pickup, 16 new languages, custom voice options, and enhanced analytics.
“Many restaurants struggle to answer every call, leading to missed reservations and lost orders that hurt their business," said Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, chief product officer at Yelp. "Grounded in Yelp's trusted business data and designed to get smarter with every interaction, Yelp Host addresses this need by helping restaurants manage every inquiry and understanding each restaurant’s needs in a way generic solutions can’t match. We remain devoted to evolving Yelp Host to meet the needs of restaurants, and now with reservations through OpenTable and native food ordering, we're able to serve even more types of restaurants—helping them save time, serve guests better, and operate more smoothly."
"We had no idea how many opportunities we were missing to connect with our guests. Missed calls meant missed catering inquiries, missed private events, and missed guest connections. Since turning on Yelp Host, we've saved 80 hours of staff time each week, allowing our team to redirect their focus to creating a better experience for every guest who walks through our doors," said Alyssa Gangeri, Pastry Chef & Operating Partner, The Butter Milk Ranch.
"What stands out about Yelp Host is how it handles everything at once—every call gets answered, no delays, no dropped inquiries," said Jongpil Kim, CEO of MUN Korean Steakhouse. "And the integration with Yelp Guest Manager makes it feel like one cohesive system rather than something bolted on."
Yelp Host and OpenTable bring AI-powered reservation management to more restaurants
Yelp Host now integrates with OpenTable, enabling restaurants in the US and Canada to handle OpenTable reservation calls automatically, around the clock. Callers can book, modify, and cancel reservations via Yelp Host, which syncs instantly with OpenTable, freeing staff from manual, phone-based tasks.
Yelp Host expands to non-table-service restaurants with native food ordering
Yelp Host now handles food ordering for pickup, enabling restaurants to accept takeout orders through the AI-powered voice agent without staff involvement. The update brings Yelp Host to counter service restaurants for the first time, including quick-service, fast-casual, and takeout-focused operations. Through restaurant integration platform Stream, Yelp Host connects with a restaurant's existing POS system—including Toast, Square, Clover, and others—to access the full menu, take orders conversationally, and route them directly to the kitchen with no manual entry required. Coming this summer, Yelp Host will also support food upselling and expanded payment settings, giving restaurants even more customizable options. Unlike other food ordering systems, Yelp Host charges zero commission fees to restaurants.
More personalization, additional languages, and simpler management
Yelp Host now offers new language, voice, call routing, reporting, and setup capabilities to help restaurants better serve guests and simplify day-to-day management, including:
- 16 new languages with Yelp Host automatically responding in the language detected from each caller
- Eight new voice options, along with support for fully customized voices designed to uniquely match a restaurant's brand
- Multiple handoff numbers route event requests, catering inquiries, vendor calls, and more, to the appropriate team member automatically
- Booking ability from both in-house and online availability for Yelp Guest Manager reservations, helping restaurants capture missed bookings even when a restaurant appears fully open
- New reporting tools surface call evaluation metrics, after-hours call volume, reservation conversion rates, food order volumes, and concurrent call handling
Yelp Host starts at $249 per month ($199 per month for Yelp Guest Manager customers). Restaurants can learn more and sign up in the "Yelp Host" tab when logged into their Yelp for Business account or on the Yelp Host website.
Additional information and assets
For more details on today's announcement, read the Yelp Host blog post. Assets and images are available here. For further information about Yelp, visit the company's Fast Facts page.
About Yelp Inc.
Yelp Inc. (yelp.com) is a community-driven platform that connects people with great local businesses. Millions rely on Yelp to inform their spending decisions and get things done. By combining authentic human content with AI technologies, including Yelp Assistant, Yelp helps people move seamlessly from discovery to taking action, whether it’s requesting quotes from service pros, making reservations, ordering food, scheduling appointments, or connecting with the right businesses for their needs. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in 2004.
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Yelp’s future product plans, including the ability of its investments and initiatives to drive profitable long-term growth and shareholder value, which are based on its current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences also include, but are not limited to, those factors that could affect Yelp’s business, operating results, and stock price included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Yelp’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at yelp-ir.com or the SEC’s website at sec.gov.
Contacts
Press Contact
Yelp Inc.
Julianne Rowe
press@yelp.com
