How to automate your car rental phone system with AI
Bota is both an AI phone system and a voice agent that books: it answers your number, routes to your team whatever needs a person and closes bookings by voice. This guide covers every way to connect it, whether you want a new number, your existing one, or a PBX you don't want to touch.
Before you start: three questions
How you connect Bota depends on three things. None of them forces you to change your reservation system or your number: Bota adapts to what you already have.
- Do you want a new number or to keep the one you have?
- Do you have a PBX (on-premise, hosted or your carrier's) that should stay in front?
- When a person is needed, where should it ring: a mobile, office desk phones, the browser or an extension?
Option 1 · A new number in your Telnyx account
Bota talks on the phone over Telnyx, a voice-over-IP network with numbers in dozens of countries. You open a Telnyx account with your company's details, so the number is yours and in your name, connect it from the Bota dashboard and buy the number from the same setup wizard. Telnyx bills you for the number and minutes at carrier rates, with no markup from us. When you finish, Bota calls your mobile to check everything is connected.
- Telnyx verifies the company before selling numbers (it can take up to 48 h)
- Some countries require paperwork for the number (in Spain, about 72 h)
- The same number can run WhatsApp Business, and a call can continue on WhatsApp
Option 2 · Your existing number, forwarded or ported
If your customers already know your number, keep it. The quickest way is to ask your carrier to forward calls to Bota's number in Telnyx: all calls, only unanswered ones, when busy or after hours. Your carrier bills the forwarded leg as it does today. If you'd rather have the number live in Telnyx, you can port it from their portal and then connect it to Bota.
- Full forwarding: Bota answers every call
- Conditional forwarding: only calls your team doesn't pick up, or after-hours calls
- Porting: the number moves to your Telnyx account, no forwarding
Option 3 · Your PBX over SIP, without touching the number
If you already have a PBX (3CX, Asterisk or FreePBX, or your carrier's hosted PBX) you can connect it with the SIP Connection. Bota gives you a SIP address, a username and a password; in your PBX you route to that address the option or extension you want Bota to handle, for example "bookings", and keep the caller's number so Bota knows who is calling. No Telnyx account and no forwarding over the phone network: the call leaves your PBX and goes back to it when a person is needed.
- Works with any PBX that can route to a SIP address with username and password
- Bota tells you which addresses to allow in your PBX
- To reach a person, Bota sends the call back to an extension on your PBX
Where Bota sits in your phone system
Bota can take the whole phone line or just part of it. Most companies start with Bota behind the PBX, taking what the team can't pick up, and widen it once the team has seen how it handles calls.
- Main number: Bota answers every call and routes to a person what needs one
- Behind your PBX: it answers what your team doesn't pick up
- One menu option: for example, bookings
- After hours: nights, weekends and holidays
How a call reaches a person
Bota handles questions and bookings on its own; when the customer asks for a person or the case needs one, it hands the call over with a summary of the conversation. You decide where it goes and what happens if nobody answers.
- Forward to a phone: the on-call mobile or an office landline
- Office desk phones: IP phones (Yealink, Grandstream…) or softphones connected to your Telnyx account; they ring together and the first to pick up takes it
- In the browser: the call rings in Bota's Live chat, with hold music in the meantime
- With the SIP Connection: Bota sends it back to an extension on your PBX
- If nobody answers: Bota takes the call back, continues on WhatsApp or records a transcribed voicemail
WhatsApp calls
Many customers call from WhatsApp's call button instead of dialling a number. If your WhatsApp Business number is connected to Bota, you can let Bota answer those calls too, with the same agent and the same rules. Meta allows it for verified accounts with a messaging limit of at least 2,000 conversations a day.
What you pay for the phone
Bookings are paid as in the rest of Bota: free up to 6 a month, then 1.9% per confirmed booking. What changes with each setup is who bills you for call minutes.
- Everything in your Telnyx account (number and Telnyx voice engine): Telnyx bills the number, calls and its engine (about $0.05 per minute as of September 2026). Bota charges nothing per minute
- Telnyx number with Bota's voice engine: Telnyx bills the number and calls; Bota bills $0.05 per minute handled by the engine
- SIP Connection: you pay nothing to Telnyx. Bota bills the engine ($0.05 per minute) and the connection ($0.01 per call minute); your carrier keeps billing your line as today
If Telnyx has no numbers in your country
That's fine. You can forward your number to a Telnyx number in another country (your carrier bills the international leg) or, better, connect your PBX or carrier with the SIP Connection, which doesn't depend on Telnyx selling numbers in your country.
Try it live
See how Bota replies in a real chat, using the same booking flow.
Is Bota an AI phone system or a voice agent?
Both. As a phone system, it answers your number without "press 1" menus and routes each call to the right person. As a voice agent, it checks your real availability and rates in your reservation system and confirms the booking on the same call. And if you already have a PBX, Bota sits behind it as the agent.
Can I keep my phone number?
Yes, in three ways: forwarding your number to Bota's (all calls or only the ones you miss), porting it to your Telnyx account, or connecting your PBX over SIP, which doesn't touch the number at all.
Does it work with 3CX, Asterisk or my carrier's hosted PBX?
If your PBX can route an option or extension to a SIP address with a username and password, yes. 3CX, Asterisk, FreePBX and most hosted PBXs can. Bota gives you the address, username, password and the addresses to allow.
Can the office desk phones keep ringing?
Yes. With a Telnyx number, the office IP phones or softphones connect to your account and ring together when Bota hands a call over; you can limit it to the customer's office. With the SIP Connection, the phones stay on your PBX and Bota sends the call to their extension.
Which languages does it speak on the phone?
Six: Spanish, English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese. It starts in the language that matches the caller's country code and switches on the fly if the customer speaks another.
Why Telnyx?
Because the number stays yours, in your company's name, at carrier rates and with no middleman: Bota doesn't resell numbers or mark up your minutes. If you don't want a Telnyx account, the SIP Connection works with your current PBX or carrier.
How long does it take to go live?
With a Telnyx account, as long as Telnyx takes to verify your company (up to 48 h) and, in some countries, the number's paperwork. With forwarding or the SIP Connection, as long as it takes to set up the forwarding or the PBX: usually the same day.
No card. Free up to 6 bookings a month.
Put Bota to work selling for you
Start free for up to 6 bookings a month. You only pay 1.9% per booking when Bota sells. No lock-in, no setup fees.