5 Must-Have Use Cases for a Reservation Booking Chat for Hotels

Intercom offers a versatile live‑chat and conversational marketing platform that many hotels use to engage guests before, during, and after their stay. The platform’s AI‑powered chatbot can answer booking questions, recommend room types, and provide local attraction suggestions, freeing up front‑desk staff to focus on personalized service. Intercom’s automation tools enable hotels to trigger targeted messages based on guest behavior—such as sending a welcome message after a booking confirmation or a post‑stay thank‑you email. Key to Intercom’s appeal is its deep integration ecosystem. Hotels can connect Intercom to booking engines, CRM systems, and payment gateways, allowing the chatbot to pull real‑time availability data and process reservations directly within the chat window. The platform also supports multi‑channel communication, so guests can transition from chat to email or social media within the same conversation thread. While Intercom’s visual customization is more limited compared to a dedicated WYSIWYG editor, its user interface is intuitive and comes with pre‑built templates that can be quickly adapted. The pricing starts at $39/month for the Essential plan, which includes basic chat functionality, and scales up to $99/month for the Advanced plan that adds more agents, automation rules, and integrations. Intercom is well-suited for hotels that already use its broader messaging suite for marketing and customer support, and that need a single platform to manage both marketing and booking interactions.

Drift positions itself as a conversation‑centric platform that helps hotels qualify leads and book reservations through real‑time chat. The platform offers a conversational AI that can answer availability questions, suggest room upgrades, and even schedule appointments for concierge services. Drift’s strength lies in its ability to generate high‑quality leads by capturing contact information and routing qualified prospects to the sales team via live chat or email. Drift’s UI provides a visual chat flow builder, allowing hotels to map out conversation paths without coding. The platform also supports dynamic content blocks that can pull data from the hotel’s property management system, ensuring accurate real‑time booking information. Drift’s pricing starts at $400/month for the Starter plan, which includes one chat flow and up to 10,000 messages, and scales to higher tiers for additional flows and message volume. Hotels that rely heavily on lead qualification and want a sophisticated sales pipeline integration often choose Drift. However, the platform’s focus on sales and marketing may mean fewer dedicated booking features compared to a specialized reservation chatbot.

LiveChat is a popular customer support solution that many hotels use for instant messaging with guests. The platform offers an AI chatbot that can handle routine inquiries such as room rates, amenities, and check‑in procedures. LiveChat’s strength is its simplicity and quick deployment; a single line of JavaScript places a chat widget on the hotel website, and the AI can be activated with minimal configuration. The platform includes a knowledge base integration that allows hotels to upload FAQs and product information, which the chatbot uses to generate accurate responses. LiveChat also supports live agent handoff, so if a guest needs human assistance, the conversation is seamlessly transferred. Pricing starts at $17/month for the Starter plan, with higher tiers adding more agents, advanced features, and API access. Hotels that need a straightforward, cost‑effective solution for real‑time guest support often turn to LiveChat. It offers a clean interface, easy integration, and basic AI capabilities without the complexity of larger platforms.

Zendesk Chat (now part of Zendesk Messaging) offers a flexible chat solution that integrates tightly with Zendesk’s broader customer support suite. For hotels, the platform can handle booking queries, provide rate information, and direct guests to booking pages or phone lines. The AI chatbot can answer common questions and route complex requests to live agents. Zendesk Chat supports a knowledge base that can be enriched with product and service documents, allowing the chatbot to retrieve accurate information. It also offers automated triggers and message templates for consistent communication. Integration with third‑party booking engines is possible through custom webhooks, though it requires some technical setup. The pricing model for Zendesk Chat starts at $14/month for the Starter plan, with higher tiers adding more agents, advanced automation, and additional features such as multilingual support. Hotels that already use Zendesk for ticketing and support often find Zendesk Chat a natural extension of their existing workflow.