As a hotelier, you know that one of your top priorities should be ensuring that your guests have a comfortable and enjoyable experience.
Since almost 54% of travelers wish for contactless check-ins and – outs, closely followed by contactless payments at 50%, turning to mobile apps to enhance your guests’ stay seems like a go-to solution.
Read on to see our curated list of 10 best hotel guest apps to improve the guest experience.
What Is A Hotel Guest App?
A guest app allows guests to access a variety of hotel services and amenities through their mobile devices.
Furthermore, it serves as a convenient communication tool between you and your guests, aiming to enhance their overall experience during the stay.
Why Should You Implement A Guest App?
Implementing a guest app isn’t only about improving guest experience. On the contrary, its use brings more benefits, such as:
- Streamlined Operations – Reduce administrative workload for the staff and automate many routine front desk tasks.
- Increased Revenue – Offering upselling opportunities, room upgrades, and in-app purchases can increase ancillary revenue.
- Valuable Analytics – Guest apps memorize and analyze guest behavior and preferences and help you create personalized and targeted messages.
- Improved Guest Engagement – By sending customized messages and offers, you can increase guest loyalty and encourage repeat visits.
10 Best Hotel Guest Apps You Should Try
Before we dig deeper into our list, here’s a quick overview of each app’s highlights.
* All pros and cons are based on user reviews on HotelTechReport and Capterra.
1. OTA SYNC – Best For All-in-One Hotel Management
OTA SYNC is an all-in-one hotel management software that allows you to:
- Simplify your reservation and booking processes,
- Manage your rooms and rates, and
- Streamline other hotel operations.
Furthermore, the software hosts robust features including Channel Manager and Booking Engine, covering every step of the booking process for multiple properties.
Regarding integrations, OTA SYNC provides a 2-way connection with major OTAs but also offers an iCal link generator and open API for other channels.
In addition, the software’s functionality doesn’t compromise guest experience and satisfaction, thanks to the Guest App, a multifaceted app that optimizes the guest journey without requiring guests to install it.
Moreover, it integrates reservation management for streamlined bookings and check-ins, syncing with property management systems.
OTA SYNC supports multiple languages, ensuring easier booking for your guests.
Key Features
✨Promo Codes – Use promotional and discount codes to say “thank you” or attract new guests with promotional offers.
✨ Up-Selling – Enables you to sell your services and products via the booking engine or add any additional service or amenity you are offering to your guests.
✨ Ask Concierge – An up-to-date online guest book that provides your guests with all the relevant info.
✨ Event Management – Streamlines the planning and execution of events and banquets and facilitates efficient coordination of tasks such as venue booking, scheduling, catering arrangements, and guest management.
✨ Payment Processing – An integrated payment processor that supports multiple currencies and instantly processes transactions.
✨ Plug and Play Revenue Booster – Allows you to set dynamic pricing depending on various factors, such as seasonality, demand, etc.
✨ Multi-Property hub integration – Enables you to connect a customized booking engine to your website and increase the booking rates.
Pricing
OTA SYNC has 4 Premium Plans, each with a 14-day Free Trial, with access to all features.
Prices start from €55, and the Starter Plan covers 15 units.
2. Akia – Best For Guest Communication
Akia is guest messaging software whose services fall into 3 main categories:
- Mini Apps
- Automation, and
- Integrations.
The software uses an AI-powered chatbot to interact with guests and send automatic messages and replies.
You can integrate Akia into your existing PMS and over 50 other systems spanning Property Management, CRM, Payments, and other categories.
Key Features
✨ Personalized messaging – Allows you to automate communication based on specific guest attributes, such as payment status or age.
✨ Contactless Check-In – Lets guests check in on their own terms prior to arriving at your property.
✨ Unified Inbox – Enables you to check multiple channels for guest messages in one place.
✨ Arrival Guide Mini App – Helps you personalize and design a digital guide about specific rules or policies of the property, arrival instructions, etc.
✨ Registration Cards – Minimize wait times at the front desk, and help you gather info during check-ins you can use later for marketing purposes.
Pricing
Akia has 4 Premium Plans, depending on the functionalities you need. There is no Free Trial, and the pricing is custom.
3. HotelFriend – Best For Room Service
HotelFriend is a hotel guest service app that offers digital room service ordering and concierge services, as well as the option to request amenities.
Furthermore, it helps you manage multiple sales channels in real time via multiple OTAs integrations and sell your rooms at flexible rates.
HotelFriend also provides integrations with various email marketing, revenue and guest management, analytics, etc. platforms.
Key Features
✨ Self-Service Kiosk – Lets you display information about your hotel, facilitates document scanning procedures, and offers instant check-in services.
✨ Mobile Concierge Guest App – Provides digital ordering services and instant payment processing.
✨ HotelFriend AI – Helps you with live chat conversations, automated first replies, creating and translating room and service descriptions, etc.
✨ Event Management – Assists in managing event spaces, allocating resources, services, catering, and other aspects of event coordination.
✨ POS System – Helps with table management, delivery, and takeaway services and provides your guests with customized orders, including options and extras.
Pricing
HotelFriend has 1 Plan with a 30-day Free Trial and 3 Premium Plans, starting at $8,69 per room per month.
4. Goki – Best For Keyless Entry
Goki is a mobile key software that allows guests to access their room with a digital key via their mobile devices.
Goki’s products span 3 categories:
- Devices
- Software
- Dashboard.
The app also offers SDK or API to generate access to your Hotel App and connect the apps for reservations, check-in, messaging, reviews, and payments.
Key Features
✨ Goki Dashboard – Gives guests more options, such as SmartKey, Wallet, DoorCode, and Keycard, on how they want to access their room.
✨ Autopilot Access – Provides a centralized hub for managing staff access at your property.
✨ Reporting – Enables you to pull lock data to grasp battery status, access details, wifi connectivity, and the types of access guests are using.
✨ Group Management – Automatically generates access for groups from the PMS so you can apply rules based on gender or age restriction.
Pricing
Goki’s devices’ pricing starts at $179 and requires a Basic $6 subscription.
The software, including the Dashboard, staff app and guest app, has a Basic fee of $6 per space per month.
In addition, you can try the software for free for 30 days, but you’ll have to pay to have a device sent to your property for the trial period.
5. Oaky – Best For Upselling
Oaky is the upselling software that provides guests with personalized offers and recommendations based on their preferences and past experiences.
Furthermore, it automates the upselling process throughout the guest journey and offers segmentation, personalization, and dynamic pricing to boost revenue.
Its products belong to the 3 main groups:
- Pre-Stay Upsell
- Front Desk Upsell, and
- In-Stay Upsell.
Key Features
✨ Automation – Lets your guests access upselling deals and upgrades through QR codes or in-stay messaging.
✨ Recommendation Engine – Enables you to offer guests relevant room upgrades and services upon check-in.
✨ Dynamic room upgrade pricing – Enables guests to automatically receive offers for available room upgrades at the optimal price.
✨ Guest Communication – Lets you reach out to your guests via various channels: live chat, text message, chatbots, email, etc.
✨ Segmentation – Showcases deals relevant to your guests based on stay duration, check-in and check-out day, hotel room type, etc.
Pricing
Although Oaky doesn’t include pricing information, it is based on performance, whereas for hotel chains, it is custom.
6. ImpulsePoint by Impulsify – Best For Retail Point of Sale
ImpulsePoint is A front desk POS that automates front desk transactions and inventory management for unattended grab-and-go markets.
It also allows you to process and track sales by scanning product barcodes to see all item details, including price, tax category, product description, etc.
Key Features
✨ Shoppop – A self-service kiosk that allows your guests to scan and pay for retail items in-store with a credit card or room charge.
✨ Guest Programs – Allow your guests to account for a rewards program giveaway, service recovery giveaways, promotions, discounts, etc.
✨ Inventory Management – Adds low inventory items to an automatic shopping list to simplify replenishment and reduce out-of-stock items.
✨ Reporting – Enables you to monitor best sellers, slow movers, profit margins, etc.
Pricing
ImpulsePoint has 4 Premium Plans, which start from $2599 per year.
7. Intelity – Best For Centralising Hotel Management
Intelity is a guest experience intelligence platform that combines hotel management with streamlining service requests.
Thus, it provides services and amenities before, during, and after your guests’ stay.
The core platform hosts:
1. Mobile Apps
2. Smart Rooms
3. Platform API, and
4. GEMS Staff Operations Hub.
Intelity has integrations with multiple PMS, POS, Ticketing systems, etc.
Key Features
✨ Mobile Check-In & Checkout – Allows guests to check in from anywhere and
access rooms with a Mobile Key.
✨ Mobile Key – Allows your guests to use their mobile device as a digital room key.
✨ Guest Messaging – Lets you connect with your guests in-app messages and provide them with updates, automated arrival messages, personalized offers, etc.
✨ Guest Marketing – Enables you to create special offers and promotions based on rate codes, guest buying habits and preferences, etc.
Pricing
Infelity doesn’t include pricing details, but the pricing depends on add-ons and modules.
8. Duve – Best For Instant Messaging
Duve is guest messaging software that provides various self-service options to boost communication with guests.
It focuses on solutions to enhance guest experience and caters to hotels, hostels, and vacation rentals.
Duve integrates with multiple PMSs, Channel Managers, Payment Providers, Mobile Key Solutions, etc.
Key Features
✨ Guest Communication – Allows you to send, receive, track, and manage cross-channel communications, such as email, WhatsApp, SMS, and chats from OTAs from one hub.
✨ Online Check-In – Allows you to collect all your guests’ details before their arrival.
✨ Guest App – Provides customized branded solutions with suggestions, attractions, instructions, etc. your guests will need.
✨ AI Agents – Automatically analyze conversations and mark urgent ones based on the tone of voice, stage in the guest’s journey, and the inquiry topic.
✨ Mobile Keys – Provide keyless entry systems your guests can directly use via the guest app, a card dispenser kiosk, or a download.
Pricing
Duve has 4 Premium Plans, starting from $6 per room per month. There is no Free Trial.
9. Revinate – Best For Feedback Management
Revinate is a guest experience platform offering solutions to personalize guest experiences, collect feedback, and upsell offers for rooms and amenities.
Regarding integrations, Revinate offers multiple integrations with revenue management systems, PMS systems, booking engines, etc.
Key Features
✨ Revinate Marketing – Allows you to send personalized email marketing campaigns, room upgrade offers, and see loyalty data.
✨ Reservation Sales – Enables you to build a leads database through outbound selling triggers and reminders, etc.
✨ Revinate Ivy – An AI-powered text messaging solution that responds to guests’ questions, queries, and requests.
✨ Revinate Guest Feedback – Lets you manage, measure, and optimize your online reviews and send customized segmented surveys to your audience.
Pricing
Revinate doesn’t include pricing, but it is available upon request.
10. Stay – Best For Hotel Chains
Stay is the guest experience platform that allows guests to access all hotel services via their smartphones.
It provides various apps, such as a Guest App, Staff App, Web App, etc. In addition, its features range from task manager over mobile room keys to analytics.
Regarding integrations, Stay connects with various PMS, POS, Surveys, and other platforms.
Key Features
✨ Concierge Chat – Allows you to accept or reject requests, manage room service orders, etc.
✨ Upselling – Shows promotions on an interactive sliding menu related to your services or products.
✨ Direct Bookings – Allows guests to do direct service bookings and access the hotel’s range of services.
✨ Instant feedback – Allows you to customize your thank-you messages, locate responses, track requests, etc.
✨ Analytics – Provides real-time data on your hotel’s performance.
Pricing
The pricing info isn’t available, but it is custom-based.
Which Hotel Guest App Should You Pick?
The above solutions excel in their respective categories, and each can be a great go-to option if you search for a specific use.
However, running a hotel is a complex business requiring a solution that addresses more than just 1 functionality.
One solution that offers full hotel management is OTA SYNC. ?
Why Go For OTA SYNC?
OTA SYNC is an all-encompassing solution that helps you facilitate and automate the management of all property sizes.
Packed with robust features, OTA SYNC can enhance guest experience and allow you to:
✅ Do check-ins and -outs seamlessly in a single “click,”
✅ Get all the necessary info regarding their stay, house rules, etc.,
✅ Address requests and feedback in real-time,
✅ Get tailored suggestions on what to do, visit, where to eat out, etc.
Furthermore, you can:
? Set minimum and maximum stays and apply special rules for specific periods and seasons.
? Use the Bidding Feature to allow your potential guests to offer your ‘bid’ price so you don’t lose them if they want to pay a slightly lower price.
? Auto-generate and print out guest registration forms.
And so much more.
Ready to jump on OTA SYNC’s bandwagon?
Sign up for OTA SYNC for free today and revolutionize the way your guests interact with your hotel.
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