Comparison
Best AI Receptionist for Hotels in 2026: 8 Options Compared
The short answer
The best AI receptionist for a hotel sells while it answers, picks up the phone and shows its price. Timo is the AI concierge built for that: it offers the right extra and writes the order into your PMS, for 8-10 EUR per room per month. Of eight options in 2026, four answer live calls and two of those publish a price.
At a glance
| Tool | Built around | Sells while it answers | Picks up the phone | Price you can see | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothis is us | Reception that sells: an AI concierge on phone, WhatsApp and email | Yes. Offers the right extra in the call or chat and writes the order into your PMS | Yes, in the same price as WhatsApp and email | 8-10 EUR per room per month, no commitment | Has a public demo line you can call before talking to anyone: +420 910 928 927 |
| HiJiffy | One console for messaging channels, for hotel groups | Automated upsell campaigns, listed on Premium | Live call answering not stated. Voice means voice messages on chat channels | From 99 EUR per month for website chat, on yearly payment | Voice means voice messages in chat. PMS integration is on Premium, from 319 EUR a month plus setup |
| Asksuite | Reservations: the conversation before the booking | Sells the room: quotes and follow-ups before the booking | AI call answering not named on its site | None. Quoted per hotel | Built for the reservations team. Mews is not named on its integrations page |
| Canary Technologies | A full guest management suite for hotels and brands | Dynamic upsells, a separate product in the suite | Yes, as a separate AI Voice product | None. Three bundles, each with a quote button | Pricing is by quote, and AI Voice is not part of its three published bundles |
| Akia | A suite in three tiers plus add-on modules, for hotels and vacation rentals | Upsells in the conversation; marketing is an add-on module | Yes, on Max, its highest tier | None. All three tiers end in Talk to Sales | Pricing is by quote, phone answering is on its top tier, and WhatsApp onboarding can take 2-4 weeks |
| Conduit | A platform of AI agents, priced by portfolio | Upgrade offers through its workflows product | Yes. Voice usage draws on credits | 899 USD per month for 0-25 units; from 18 USD per unit per month above that | Usage runs on credits (8 per AI voice minute). First automations typically take two to four weeks |
| Duve | A guest app and online check-in, with AI messaging attached | Upsells through the guest app, on its Premium package | Phone call answering not named on its site | Minimum packages from 120 USD per month; messaging hub from 150, upsells from 200 | A guest app and messaging product. Phone call answering is not named on its site |
| Quinta (formerly Quicktext) | Hotel data distribution, with the Velma chat assistant beside it | Velma is sold as an AI booking assistant | Phone call answering not named on its site | Data services from $599 per month | Now leads with hotel data distribution rather than guest answering |
What each column means, and why it decides anything
- Built around
- Every tool here answers guest questions. What separates them is the job they were designed to win at, and that is the thing you are actually buying.
- Sells while it answers
- Answering guests saves you money. Selling to them makes you money. That is the difference between a cost and a sales channel, so look at how each tool sells: in the conversation, or in a campaign.
- Picks up the phone
- The phone is where a hotel still loses its evenings and its night shift. Vendors use the word voice for very different things, so check whether a live call is actually answered.
- Price you can see
- If you cannot see the price, you cannot budget and you cannot compare. You can only sit through a demo.
- Worth knowing
- What is easy to miss on a homepage: where the phone sits, how pricing works, how long setup takes. Read off each vendor's pricing page and help centre.
The options in detail
Timo
Our productThe AI concierge that turns guest questions into revenue: it sells the early check-in, the upgrade and the airport transfer while it answers, 24/7 on phone, WhatsApp and email.
Best for: Hotels, hostels and serviced apartments that want reception to stop being a cost and start being a sales channel, this month.
Timo is a concierge, not an answering machine. It knows the booking, offers the right extra at the right moment, on the call or in the chat, and writes the order into your PMS. It picks up the phone and replies on WhatsApp and email in the guest's language, from one unified inbox with the full guest history. It reaches out first too: arrival instructions, the early check-in offer, the late checkout the night before. What needs a person goes to your team with the whole conversation attached, and every call and message lands in one dashboard with recordings, transcripts and what was sold. Timo is trained on 18,500+ AI upsell calls and is live in 5 properties with guests from 20+ countries. At Ambiente Apartments in Bratislava it is the first line for 60+ apartments: a 9.0 guest rating, 30% fewer repetitive messages at the front desk and 3-5% extra revenue from upsells. It works with Mews today, a first version can be live within a day, and it costs 8-10 EUR per room per month with no commitment and 0 EUR implementation on a PMS we already have connected.
HiJiffy
Checked Oct 12, 2026A guest communications platform for hotel groups that pulls messaging channels into one console and automates the FAQ layer.
Best for: Hotel groups that want every chat channel in one console.
HiJiffy's homepage calls it the guest communications platform for hotel groups and says its AI handles up to 90% of guest conversations automatically across web, social, WhatsApp and OTA channels. It publishes 2,600+ hotels and 100+ integrations. On the phone, its plan table lists voice messaging, which its channels page describes as understanding voice clips guests send on messaging channels; it does not state that it answers live phone calls. Its prices are public: on yearly payment Basic starts from 99 EUR per month for website chat with up to 25 standard FAQ topics, Pro from 159 EUR, and Premium, where PMS integration and automated WhatsApp campaigns are listed, from 319 EUR, each with a setup fee per five properties of 99, 399 and 599 EUR.
Source: hijiffy.com/plans-and-pricing
Asksuite
Checked Oct 12, 2026An AI reservation assistant built around the conversation that happens before the booking.
Best for: Hotels and chains whose leak is the enquiry that never becomes a booking, with a reservations team to run it.
Asksuite positions itself as an AI reservation assistant and omnichannel platform: webchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and email, 50+ languages, and a copilot for reservation agents. It publishes 5,500+ hotels in more than 80 countries. It does not name AI call answering; the telephony it does name is VoIP for reservation agents in Brazil. Mews is not named on its integrations page. It publishes no prices: its own FAQ says pricing depends on your hotel's needs.
Source: asksuite.com
Canary Technologies
Checked Oct 12, 2026A guest management suite for hotels and brands: check-in, upsells, payments, messaging and voice from one vendor.
Best for: Groups and brands that want the whole guest stack from one supplier.
Canary sells a guest management system: mobile check-in, kiosks, mobile keys, dynamic upsells, digital tipping, payments, AI Guest Messaging, AI Webchat and AI Voice, which it describes as answering every call 24/7. It publishes over 20,000 hotels in 125+ countries and shows brands including Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Choice Hotels on its homepage. Its pricing page is headed Get Custom Pricing: three bundles, Core, Advanced and Pro, each with a quote button and no amount, and AI Voice appears in none of the three.
Source: canarytechnologies.com/pricing
Akia
Checked Oct 12, 2026An AI agent for hotels and vacation rentals covering guest messaging, phone calls and reviews, sold in three tiers plus add-on modules.
Best for: Hotels and vacation rental operators that want a broad suite with many channels and PMS connections.
Akia describes itself as the AI agent built for hospitality, covering guest messaging, phone calls and reviews for hotels and vacation rentals, and publishes 2,000+ customers. Its pricing page shows no amounts: three tiers, Basic, Pro and Max, each end in Talk to Sales, and the tier it describes as the one where Akia answers the phone is Max, the highest. Marketing, Reputation and Device Hub are add-on modules on top. Its help centre says WhatsApp is its primary platform for customers outside the United States and Canada, and that WhatsApp is a separate onboarding process that can take 2-4 weeks.
Source: akia.com/pricing
Conduit
Checked Oct 12, 2026A platform of AI agents for guest operations in hotels and vacation rentals, with pricing that scales with an operator's portfolio.
Best for: Operators with a portfolio of units, and groups that want AI agents acting across many connected systems.
Conduit describes itself as AI agents for guest operations, for hotels and vacation rentals. Its pricing page says pricing scales with a hospitality operator's portfolio: a Startup plan for 0 to 25 units costs 899 USD per month, and four packages start at 18 to 48 USD per unit per month. Usage runs on credits, and its documentation says an AI voice minute uses 8 credits. Its company page says first automations typically take two to four weeks, followed by another four to eight weeks of review. In its own roundup it writes that Conduit is a platform, not a single-purpose phone bot, so if all you want is an after-hours answering service it is more than you need. Its ranking of hotel voice agents calls Timo the cheaper entry point.
Source: conduit.ai/pricing
Duve
Checked Oct 12, 2026A guest experience platform built around the guest app and online check-in, with AI messaging attached.
Best for: Properties that want a guest app, digital keys and online check-in, with messaging attached.
Duve calls itself a unified hotel guest experience platform and leads with online check-in, digital keys, upsells and a guest app that needs no download. DuveAI answers messages across WhatsApp, SMS, email, in-app chat and Airbnb and Booking.com messaging. Phone call answering is not named on its site. It publishes 3,450+ customers in 96+ countries and real prices: minimum packages from 120 USD per month for Basic, 150 USD for Pro, which adds the communication hub, and 200 USD for Premium, which adds upsells.
Source: duve.com/pricing
Quinta (formerly Quicktext)
Checked Oct 12, 2026A hotel data platform that distributes what a property knows about itself to OTAs, metasearch and AI assistants.
Best for: Hotels whose priority is being found in AI assistants and metasearch.
Quicktext now trades as Quinta and leads with hotel data distribution: it describes collecting more than 4,200 data points per hotel and synchronising them with OTAs, GDS, metasearch and AI assistants including ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Its Velma assistant is still sold, on live chat, Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat and Instagram. Phone call answering is not named on its site. It publishes a starting price: Quinta Data Services from $599 per month.
Source: quinta.im/pricing
Your reception costs money. Ours makes it.
Most AI receptionists are sold as a way to answer faster. Fine. Answering faster saves you a little. Selling while you answer pays for the whole thing.
Timo is a concierge, not an answering machine. A guest writes at 06:52 that they land at nine. Timo sees the booking, sees the room is free, offers early check-in for 25 EUR, and puts it on the reservation in your PMS. Reception finds it in the system in the morning. Nobody had to remember to ask.
- Early check-in and late checkout, sold the day before, not explained at the desk.
- Room upgrades, offered when the better room is actually free.
- Parking, transfers, breakfast, spa, added to the stay in one sentence.
This is not a slide. Timo is trained on 18,500+ AI upsell calls. At Ambiente Apartments in Bratislava, where it is the first line for 60+ apartments, it brings 3-5% extra revenue from upsells, with a 9.0 guest rating and 30% fewer repetitive messages at the front desk.
Your guests want to spend more. Is anyone asking them?
Eight options. The short list is shorter than it looks.
Hey hotel managers, you do not need a three month evaluation. You need three questions.
| Question | Who is left |
|---|---|
| Does it pick up the phone when a guest calls? | Timo, Canary, Akia, Conduit |
| Does it show you a price before a sales call? | Timo, Conduit |
| Which of those two prices is lower? | Timo: 8-10 EUR per room per month, against 899 USD a month for up to 25 units |
The other four are strong at a different job. HiJiffy runs chat channels for hotel groups. Asksuite converts enquiries before the stay. Duve is a guest app with online check-in. Quinta distributes hotel data to AI assistants and metasearch. None of them names live call answering by its AI.
Of the two that answer the phone and publish a price, Conduit is a platform priced by portfolio that typically takes weeks to roll out, and Timo is a concierge for a single property that can be live within a day.
Which one fits which hotel
| If you need | Look at |
|---|---|
| Extras sold in every conversation and the phone answered, at a per-room price | Timo |
| Every chat channel in one console, for a hotel group | HiJiffy |
| More bookings from enquiries before the stay | Asksuite |
| The whole guest stack from one vendor | Canary Technologies |
| A broad suite across hotels and vacation rentals | Akia |
| An AI agent platform for a portfolio of units | Conduit |
| A guest app, digital keys and online check-in | Duve |
| Visibility in AI assistants and metasearch | Quinta |
What an AI receptionist has to do before it is worth paying for
Most demos look identical. The differences show up in the four places a hotel actually feels them.
It has to earn something. A receptionist that only saves time is a cost you made smaller. One that sells the late checkout the night before is a sales channel you did not have. Timo offers the extra in the conversation and writes it into your PMS.
It has to pick up the phone. A guest who booked on an OTA messages on WhatsApp. A corporate booker emails. Somebody whose flight just landed calls. A tool that covers two of those three leaves the third with your night porter. Timo covers all three from one inbox with the full guest history, so a guest who messaged at nine and calls at ten does not start again.
It has to know the booking. An assistant that cannot see the reservation can tell a guest when breakfast ends and nothing else. Timo reads the booking in your PMS and writes back what it sold.
It has to know when to stop. Complaints and judgement calls belong with a person. Timo hands them to your team with the whole conversation attached, and you decide what it offers and when your staff take over.
Less than one salary. More than one receptionist.
Nights, weekends, high season, the fifth language. Those are the shifts you cannot staff, and they are exactly the ones Timo takes.
8-10 EUR per room per month. Monthly subscription, no commitment. Phone, WhatsApp and email in the same price. 0 EUR implementation on a PMS we already have connected. A first version can be live within a day.
For comparison: Asksuite, Canary and Akia quote on request, Conduit's Startup plan is 899 USD a month for up to 25 units, and HiJiffy and Duve publish entry prices for messaging products.
There is a calculator that tells you what Timo saves at your number of rooms. It asks one question.
Do not take our word for it. Call her.
We could describe what Timo sounds like on the phone. Or you could find out in the next minute.
Call Timea, our AI concierge: +420 910 928 927. Ask her anything you would ask a receptionist.
By calling, you agree to talk to an AI agent, that the call may be recorded, and that we may contact you afterwards about Timo.
Want it head to head? Timo vs HiJiffy and Timo vs Asksuite.
Where the facts come from
We build Timo, and this page is our case for it. What it says about the other seven vendors was read on each vendor's own public website on 12 October 2026, and each card names its source. Where a vendor does not name a capability, the table says "not named on its site" rather than "no". Pricing pages change. If you work at one of these companies and something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI receptionist sell extras to guests, or only answer questions?
It depends on the tool. Timo sells in the conversation itself: it knows the booking, offers early check-in, a late checkout, an upgrade or a transfer at the right moment, on the call or in the chat, and writes the order into the PMS. At Ambiente Apartments that brings 3-5% extra revenue. Akia also upsells in conversation, HiJiffy runs upsell campaigns on its Premium plan, Duve sells through its guest app, Canary sells dynamic upsells as a separate product and Conduit offers upgrades through workflows.
What is an AI receptionist for a hotel?
An AI receptionist handles guest communication the way a front desk agent does: it answers questions on the phone, WhatsApp and email around the clock, looks up the reservation in the PMS, guides check-in, and passes anything sensitive to a human with the conversation attached. The good ones are concierges rather than answering machines: they also sell the early check-in, the upgrade and the transfer, and write the order into the PMS.
What is the best AI receptionist for hotels in 2026?
It depends on the job. For a hotel that wants reception to sell as well as answer, with the phone picked up and a published per-room price, Timo. For hotel groups consolidating chat channels, HiJiffy. For reservation conversion, Asksuite. For a full guest management suite, Canary Technologies. For a broad suite across hotels and vacation rentals, Akia. For portfolio operators who want an agent platform, Conduit. For a guest app and online check-in, Duve. For hotel data distribution, Quinta.
How much does an AI receptionist for hotels cost in 2026?
Timo costs 8-10 EUR per room per month with no commitment, phone included. Conduit lists a Startup plan at 899 USD per month for up to 25 units, with usage on credits. HiJiffy starts at 99 EUR per month for website chat on yearly payment, with PMS integration from 319 EUR plus setup. Duve's packages start at 120 USD per month and Quinta's data services at $599. Asksuite, Canary and Akia quote on request.
Can an AI receptionist answer the phone, or only messages?
It depends entirely on the vendor, and it is the biggest split in this category. Four of the eight tools here say they answer live calls: Timo, Canary Technologies, Akia and Conduit. HiJiffy lists voice messaging but does not state live call answering, Asksuite names only VoIP telephony for reservation agents in Brazil, and Duve and Quinta do not name it. You can test Timo on the phone right now: +420 910 928 927.
Does an AI receptionist replace my front desk team?
It covers the shifts you cannot staff: nights, weekends, peak season. Timo takes over repetitive questions and simple requests for less than one salary. Some properties use that to run a leaner desk, others to free their team for complex situations, VIP guests and real hospitality. Where your people matter most is your call.
Which AI receptionist is best for a small independent hotel?
A small hotel needs extras sold without adding staff, the phone answered, a price it can budget, and no long project. Timo sells in every conversation, costs 8-10 EUR per room per month with no commitment and can be live within a day. Conduit's own ranking of hotel voice agents calls Timo the cheaper entry point and suggests a single independent property start with it.
How long does it take to get an AI receptionist live?
A first version of Timo can be live within a day: your FAQs and house rules go in, you test it by calling, and you switch it on. Conduit says first automations typically take two to four weeks, followed by four to eight weeks of review. Akia's help centre says WhatsApp onboarding alone can take 2-4 weeks. Duve says it can go live in as little as 10 days.
Or skip the form and hear it yourself: call Timea, our AI concierge, on +420 910 928 927.
Book a call with Timo