Best AI Receptionists for Hotels
Ranked for independent hotels of 20 to 300 rooms. The test call: 4pm, the desk swamped, a guest on hold with the Booking.com app open.
The verdict
For an independent hotel that wants the phone answered and the booking written into the PMS this month, Akia is the strongest packaged pick: it answers calls, quotes rates, books the room and takes payment mid-call, and its published marketplace covers Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA, Apaleo, Little Hotelier and Guesty. You accept its plan structure and its rules with it. A custom guest desk from Hashlogics keeps what the packaged tools do well and runs it on your own number, with your own escalation rules, against whatever systems you already run. The trade-off is that it is built for you rather than switched on.
Hotel AI tools split into two families that read alike on a pricing page. Voice products answer the phone. Messaging products answer WhatsApp, SMS and webchat while the phone keeps ringing. Both get sold as receptionists, so this page separates them before ranking anything.
Vendor automation rates are marketing until proven on your line, so treat every published figure as a ceiling and test against your own call log. And whatever you buy, safety calls are not an AI's to finish. Fire, medical and security should reach a person every time, by rule.
What we compared
Verified
We build custom guest-desk systems, so we're not neutral. We sell none of the subscriptions below, we put ourselves last, and we name the hotels a subscription serves better than a build.
We read every capability claim on the vendor's own site on 2026-09-01. Product pages, integration lists and pricing pages only; nothing from resellers or review farms. Integration lists change monthly, so confirm yours the week you sign.
- Answers the phone
- Whether the product picks up a voice call, or handles messages only while the phone rings through to voicemail.
- Books, or takes a message
- A rate quoted and a reservation written into your PMS, or a request logged for your desk to re-key.
- Published PMS integrations
- Whether Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA Cloud, Apaleo or your system appears on the vendor's own integrations page, not in a sales deck.
- Escalation to a person
- What happens when a call is about safety or goes past the script, and how fast a human is on the line.
- Pricing model
- Per-room, tiered by property, or quote-based. Models only: figures change too fast to print, and a per-room headline rate is rarely what you end up paying.
The field at a glance
Published capabilities as read on each vendor's own site, 2026-09-01. Check the integration list again before you sign.
| Tool | Answers phone calls | Books into the PMS | PMS list published | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akia | Yes, AI voice module | Quotes rates, books, takes payment in-call | Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA, Apaleo, Little Hotelier, Guesty | Tiered plans; voice priced via sales |
| Canary Technologies | Yes, AI Voice product | New bookings and modifications by AI | Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA, Little Hotelier, 50+ | Quote-based, three tiers |
| HiJiffy | No, chat and messaging only | Books stays in chat | Cloudbeds, Apaleo, 80+ mostly European | Tiered by room count, published, setup fee |
| Viqal | No, WhatsApp, SMS, email, webchat | Stay changes priced live, written to PMS | Cloudbeds, Mews live; others lower-profile | Per-room monthly, published, no setup fee |
| Duve | No, messaging channels only | No; upsells from live availability | Cloudbeds, Mews, Oracle Hospitality | Subscription scaled by property size |
| Runnr.ai | Claimed as a channel; no product page | No; requests and upsells | Cloudbeds, Mews, Apaleo, Oracle, ~20 total | Per-unit tiers plus WhatsApp usage, published |
| Annette (Travel Outlook) | Yes, voice-first | No; routes to human agents who book | None published | Quote-based by size and call volume |
| Custom-built guest desk | Yes, on your own number | Into whatever PMS you run | Your stack is the list | Fixed-fee Blueprint, then fixed price per milestone |
Ranked for independent hotels
Best fit first, judged on the reservations call and the PMS write-back rather than demo polish.
- 01
Akia ↗
Answers the phone, quotes rates, books and takes payment
Akia answers the call, quotes rates and availability, and books the room. Payment happens in-call through a PCI-compliant link, so the card is never spoken aloud. That same agent runs your messages. For a front desk of one, it covers most of the job.
Its marketplace listed Cloudbeds, Mews, Oracle Opera, Apaleo, Little Hotelier and Guesty when we checked on 2026-09-01. Voice is a module on top of tiered plans, priced through sales rather than published. You'll need that sales call before you can budget.
Best for
- Independent hotels on a listed PMS that want calls booked, not summarized
Not for
- Owners who want the voice module's price on paper before a sales call
- Phone booking
- Rates, reservation and payment in one call
AI Voice inside a full guest platform
Canary sells a whole guest platform: AI Voice on the phone line, guest messaging with translation into 100+ languages, mobile check-in, upsells and digital tipping. Its voice product takes new bookings and modifications around the clock, and routes the call to your team when it should. Live rate-quoting isn't claimed on the page. Ask about it on the demo.
Proof skews to groups and flags. Marriott, Wyndham and IHG sit on its homepage, and pricing is quote-based across three tiers with no figures published. You get real capability here, wrapped in an enterprise sales motion. Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA and Little Hotelier appear among its 50+ listed integrations; Apaleo and Guesty didn't.
Best for
- Hotels that want voice, messaging and check-in from one vendor
Not for
- Owners who want published pricing and a self-serve start
- Platform
- Voice, messaging, check-in, upsells
Chat and messaging desk with published room-based tiers
HiJiffy is a messaging desk, not a phone one: its channels are webchat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, email, SMS and the OTA inboxes. It claims up to 90% of guest conversations handled automatically and books stays in chat. Anything else reaches your team with a suggested reply ready. Note the in-chat voice feature transcribes guest voice clips; it doesn't answer telephone calls.
Pricing is published in tiers by room or bed count with a per-property setup fee, which is rare candor in this field. Among its 80+ integrations, mostly European, Cloudbeds and Apaleo appear; Mews and OPERA didn't when we checked. If your guests message more than they call, it carries the load. Your phone line still needs an answer.
Best for
- European independents whose guests live on WhatsApp and webchat
Not for
- A hotel whose bookings still arrive by phone
- Channels
- Chat and messaging only, no phone
- 04
Viqal ↗
WhatsApp-first messaging with live-priced PMS write-back
Viqal runs guest messaging on WhatsApp, SMS, email and webchat. Its write-back claim is the sharpest of the messaging tools: a stay extension priced live and pushed straight to the PMS. New reservations from scratch aren't what its pages show; this is request handling and upsells done properly. Escalations land in a shared team inbox with full guest context.
You also get the clearest pricing model on this page: per room per month, falling as committed counts rise. No setup fee, and you can adjust the committed count at renewal. Cloudbeds and Mews are listed live, and its own examples run from about 32 rooms to over 100. There's no voice product; your phone stays yours to answer.
Best for
- 20 to 300-room independents on Cloudbeds or Mews automating messages on a published per-room model
Not for
- Hotels shopping for phone answering
- Write-back
- Stay changes priced live, pushed to PMS
- 05
Duve ↗
Guest messaging hub with the most explicit escalation design
Duve's AI agents answer guests across WhatsApp, SMS, email, in-app chat and the OTA inboxes, in the guest's own language, from one shared inbox. Its escalation design is the most explicit we read. Auto-answer hands anything uncertain to a person with full context. Suggestion mode lets the AI draft while a human sends. Urgency detection routes complaints straight to staff.
It doesn't answer the phone and doesn't book rooms; the AI offers bookable upsells from live availability instead. Pricing is a subscription that scales with property size, with no per-message fee. Mews, Cloudbeds and Oracle Hospitality appear among its homepage integrations, and it cites 3,450+ properties across 96+ countries.
Best for
- Hotels that want tight human control over what the AI sends
Not for
- Hotels that want the AI to quote a rate or write a reservation
- Escalation
- Auto-answer, suggest, or urgency routing
Messaging concierge with a voice channel on the roadmap's edge
Runnr.ai automates guest messages on WhatsApp, SMS, email, the OTA inboxes and a chat widget. It translates automatically and notifies your staff to take over when a thread gets complex. Its integrations page listed Cloudbeds, Mews, Apaleo and Oracle among roughly 20 systems. Pricing is published as tiered per-unit plans plus WhatsApp usage.
Its pages also claim AI voice calls as a channel, but there's no dedicated voice product page behind the claim. If the phone matters to you, ask for a live demo of exactly that before weighting it. And it starts at about 10 units, so the smallest inns sit below the floor.
Best for
- Independents and small groups automating message channels on published per-unit pricing
Not for
- Buying it for the phone line on the strength of a one-line voice claim
- Pricing
- Per-unit tiers, published
Voice-first agent that answers FAQs and routes; humans book
Annette is a voice product first. It's an AI phone agent tuned for hotel calls, accents and background noise, claiming up to 60% of front-desk calls answered. It handles the FAQs you configure, transfers to departments and extensions, and always offers a live-agent option.
Annette doesn't take the booking itself; reservations route to Travel Outlook's human call-center agents. That's a staffed service, not PMS write-back. No PMS integrations are published, pricing is quote-based by size and call volume, and the named properties lean upscale.
Best for
- Hotels that want the phone answered by AI and reservations closed by a staffed call center
Not for
- Hotels that want the AI itself to quote rates and write into the PMS
- Model
- AI answers and routes; human agents book
Hashlogics: the answering and booking above, on your stack and rules
Every subscription above works inside its supported list. Some hotels sit outside it. Your PMS may be on nobody's list. Phone, WhatsApp and email may need to act as one desk on one number, under escalation rules you write as policy. In anything we ship, fire, medical and security calls always route to a person. That's engineered into the system, not a toggle in a settings menu.
We've built this problem shape before. For Go Real Travel, a travel concierge platform, automation behind human planners cut itinerary planning time by 60% and lifted customer satisfaction 45%. TomoDomo, a Swiss coliving operator, runs bookings, rooms and payments on one dashboard we built. Same machinery a guest desk needs: live availability, a booking written back, a person woken by rule.
A build starts with a fixed-fee Blueprint. A senior engineer reads your call log, your PMS and your escalation rules, then writes the plan with a fixed price per milestone. The fee is credited in full against the build. After that you run the desk live on your number for 30 days before you decide to keep it.
Best for
- Hotels whose PMS or channel mix sits outside every list on this page
- Operators who want safety escalation as written policy, tested before go-live
Not for
- A single property on a supported PMS with routine calls; a subscription above serves it well
- Builder
- Hashlogics
- Voice or chat?Phone answered, or messages only.
- Books or logs?A reservation in your PMS, or a note.
- Who gets woken?Fire, medical, security: a person, always.
- Your PMS listed?On their public page, not the pitch.
Ask each vendor these with last week's call log open.
Where a subscription stops fitting
A packaged receptionist earns its fee for one property on a supported PMS with routine calls. If that's your hotel, pick from the list above and spend the difference on the guests.
Three things break the fit. A PMS outside every integration list. Escalation you need as written policy, with fire, medical and security wired to a person and tested before go-live. And the channel split itself: most hotel AI is messaging-first, so the 4pm caller who won't touch WhatsApp still lands on your desk. What we build for hotels beyond the phone line is on our hotel software page.
- 01One property, supported PMS, routine calls: buy a subscription above.
- 02Voice and messaging on one number under your own escalation rules: that's a build.
- 03An unlisted PMS or a small group needing one desk across properties: check the vendor's public list before signing anything.
Some of the systems we have shipped
Hear it answer a reservations call
Tell us your PMS and what the desk misses after 6pm. A senior engineer will say honestly whether a subscription above covers it. If a build fits, it starts with a fixed-fee Blueprint, credited in full against the build, and you run it live on your number for 30 days before you decide.
What hoteliers ask
01What is the best AI receptionist for a hotel?+
Akia, if you want the phone answered, the rate quoted and the booking written into a PMS on its published list. Canary Technologies, if you want voice plus messaging, check-in and upsells from one vendor. HiJiffy, Viqal, Duve and Runnr.ai cover messaging channels only, and Annette answers calls but hands bookings to human agents. A custom build fits when your PMS or your escalation rules sit outside what those tools support.
02Can an AI receptionist handle a fire or a medical call?+
No, and it shouldn't try. A well-built agent recognizes the category instantly and puts a person on the line, every time, with no exceptions after hours. Ask any vendor to walk you through a smoke-alarm call step by step, including what happens when the manager on call doesn't pick up.
03Will it book into Cloudbeds, Mews or OPERA Cloud?+
Depends on the vendor, so check the published integration page rather than the pitch. On 2026-09-01, Akia's marketplace listed Cloudbeds, Mews, Oracle Opera, Apaleo, Little Hotelier and Guesty; Canary's integrations page listed Cloudbeds, Mews, OPERA and Little Hotelier among 50+. Messaging tools cover narrower sets, and Annette publishes no PMS list at all.
04How much does an AI receptionist for a hotel cost?+
Pricing runs on a few models. Viqal publishes per room per month. HiJiffy and Runnr.ai tier by room or unit count, and Duve scales a subscription by property size. Akia sells tiered plans with voice quoted by sales; Canary and Annette are quote-based. A per-room headline rate is a starting point, not your price; committed counts, channels and setup fees change it. Check each vendor's pricing page the week you decide.
05What's the difference between an AI receptionist and guest messaging software?+
An AI receptionist answers the telephone; guest messaging software answers WhatsApp, SMS, email and webchat. Much of the hotel AI market is messaging-only: of the tools on this page, Akia, Canary and Annette answer phone calls. Reservations still arrive by phone at most independents, so if the channel list has no phone on it, your front desk keeps that job.
06Why is a vendor I've seen advertised not on this list?+
We ranked tools whose capabilities and integrations we could verify on the vendor's own site on 2026-09-01. Two well-known AI receptionists publish no hotel offering, so they were left out. One legacy hotel messaging product lost its product page and went too. This market adds and renames products monthly. Absence is a limit of verification, not a judgement.
Keep reading
- Software for hotels →What we build for independent hotels beyond the phone line.
- The AI guest desk →The service page this ranking sits underneath.
- How should a hotel handle the 4pm check-in wave? →The moment most of these tools are bought for.
- AI receptionist vs answering service →The decision one level up from this ranking.
- Voice AI agent development →How a custom voice agent gets designed, built and answered for.
