7 Must-Have Reservation Booking Chats for Hotels

Intercom offers a robust live‑chat and AI assistant framework that has become a staple for many hospitality brands. Its conversational interface is highly customizable, and it supports automated flows that can answer FAQs, gather guest details, and even book rooms. Intercom’s AI assistant can provide instant responses to booking inquiries, while the platform’s integration hub allows connection to popular CRM systems, email marketing tools, and e‑commerce platforms such as Shopify. The platform also features a knowledge base integration that pulls from existing content and a ticketing system that escalates complex issues to human agents. Intercom’s pricing starts at $39/month for the Essentials plan, with higher tiers offering additional automation and AI capabilities. While Intercom excels at creating a unified customer communication platform, it requires some configuration to achieve a fully branded chat widget. The AI assistant is powerful but may need additional training data to perform complex reservation tasks without errors. Overall, Intercom is a solid choice for hotels that already use Intercom for customer support or marketing and want to add an AI booking assistant as an extension of their existing ecosystem.

Drift positions itself as a conversational marketing platform that can be adapted for reservation booking. It offers AI chatbots that can qualify leads, schedule appointments, and answer product questions. Drift’s chat widgets can be embedded on hotel websites and are highly customizable, with the ability to match branding and colors. The platform’s workflow automation allows bots to trigger email sequences or hand off to human agents based on conversation context. Drift also integrates with popular CRMs such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo. Pricing for Drift starts at $400/month for the Pro plan, which includes advanced AI features and priority support. While Drift is powerful in lead qualification and scheduling, its cost may be prohibitive for smaller hotels or those not already invested in high‑end marketing platforms. Drift’s AI is primarily focused on sales conversations, so additional customization may be required to handle detailed booking logic. For larger properties or chains looking for a high‑end conversational platform with deep marketing integration, Drift can be a strong fit—especially when combined with a robust CRM to track guest interactions.

ManyChat is primarily known for its Facebook Messenger chatbot builder, but it also supports web chat widgets. The platform offers a visual drag‑and‑drop flow builder that enables non‑developers to create conversational experiences, including booking flows that can collect guest information and provide instant room availability. ManyChat supports integrations with e‑commerce platforms, email marketing services, and Zapier, allowing data to be pushed to external systems. While ManyChat is free for basic usage, paid plans start at $10/month and provide additional features, such as removing the ManyChat branding and accessing advanced automation. ManyChat’s strengths lie in its ease of use for social media integration and marketing automation, but its web chat capabilities are less polished compared to dedicated reservation platforms. The platform’s AI is limited to rule‑based logic, and it does not provide advanced knowledge bases or persistent memory for returning guests. For hotels looking for a low‑cost solution to engage guests on Facebook or Instagram, ManyChat can be a useful tool, but it may require additional development for a comprehensive booking experience. Overall, ManyChat is best suited for properties that already leverage social media for marketing and need a simple, cost‑effective chatbot for initial guest outreach.

Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) is part of the Zendesk customer service suite and offers live chat with optional AI assistance. The chat widget can be embedded on any website and is fully customizable in terms of colors, positioning, and style. Zendesk Chat integrates seamlessly with Zendesk Support, allowing chat transcripts to become tickets and facilitating a smooth handoff to human agents. The platform also offers automated triggers, pre‑defined responses, and a knowledge base that can answer common questions. Zendesk Chat’s pricing starts at a free plan with basic features; the paid plan, which includes AI and advanced routing, starts at $14/month per agent. While Zendesk Chat excels at providing a unified support channel, it does not offer built‑in e‑commerce integration or a dedicated reservation workflow out of the box. Hotels would need to configure custom triggers or use third‑party integrations to connect to booking engines. For hotels already invested in the Zendesk ecosystem and looking for a single interface for support and basic chatbot functions, Zendesk Chat can be a practical choice. However, those needing advanced booking logic or persistent memory will find its capabilities limited.

HubSpot offers a free chatbot builder that is tightly integrated with its CRM and marketing hub. The chatbot can be embedded on hotel websites and is designed to capture leads, answer FAQs, and trigger workflows. It supports natural language understanding, allowing the bot to interpret guest queries and provide relevant responses or redirect them to human agents. The platform’s drag‑and‑drop design makes it accessible to marketers without technical expertise. HubSpot’s main advantage is its deep integration with the CRM, letting booked reservations or lead data automatically populate contact records. The free tier includes basic chatbot features, while paid tiers unlock additional conversation paths, custom branding, and advanced analytics. Pricing for HubSpot’s paid tiers starts at $45/month for the Starter plan. However, HubSpot’s chatbot is primarily focused on lead capture and marketing rather than detailed booking logic. It lacks a dedicated knowledge base or persistent memory for returning guests, and it does not natively integrate with popular hotel booking engines. Hotels needing a sophisticated reservation flow may need to supplement HubSpot with external integrations or custom development.

Tidio combines live chat, chatbots, and email marketing into a single platform that can be embedded on any website. The chat widget is customizable in terms of colors, position, and greeting messages, and it can be triggered by visitor behavior. Tidio’s chatbot builder uses a visual flow editor that supports conditional logic, allowing hotels to guide guests through a simple booking flow or collect contact information. The platform also offers integrations with e‑commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, as well as Zapier, to push booking data into external systems. Tidio’s free plan provides basic chat and bot functionality, while paid plans start at $18/month and unlock additional features such as unlimited bots, custom branding, and advanced integrations. The AI component is primarily rule‑based, and the platform does not offer a built‑in knowledge base or persistent memory for returning visitors. For hotels that need a straightforward, cost‑effective chat solution with some automation and e‑commerce integration, Tidio can be a solid choice. However, properties requiring advanced booking logic, persistent memory, or deep CRM integration may find Tidio’s capabilities insufficient.