Top 7 Alternatives to LiveChat for Hotels

Zendesk Chat, the live‑chat solution from Zendesk’s broader customer service suite, has become a go‑to platform for hotels looking to provide real‑time support and capture leads. Built on a robust ticketing ecosystem, Zendesk Chat allows hotel staff to manage conversations, transfer chat sessions to agents, and auto‑capture leads for follow‑up in the Zendesk CRM. The platform supports a variety of widgets—from simple floating chat to embedded inline chat—and offers a wide array of customization options, including brand colors, chat welcome messages, and pre‑chat forms. One of Zendesk Chat’s strengths is its integration with the Zendesk marketplace. Hotels can connect the chat to other Zendesk products such as Zendesk Support, Zendesk Sell, and Zendesk Guide, creating a unified customer experience. The platform also supports mobile app integration, enabling front‑desk staff to respond to guest inquiries from smartphones. Zendesk Chat includes AI‑powered features such as chatbots that can answer common FAQs and route conversations to the appropriate agent. The system also offers real‑time analytics, allowing hotel managers to monitor chat volume, average response time, and agent performance. Custom scripting and APIs provide flexibility for hotels that need to tie chat data into internal booking systems or loyalty programs. Pricing for Zendesk Chat starts at $14/month per agent for the Essentials plan, with higher tiers offering advanced reporting, custom branding, and chatbot integration. While the platform is powerful, it can become costly for larger chains that require many simultaneous chat agents. Overall, Zendesk Chat is a solid choice for hotels that already use Zendesk or seek a tightly integrated support ecosystem. Its strengths lie in ticketing, analytics, and integration capabilities, but its pricing can be a hurdle for smaller properties.

Intercom offers a comprehensive customer messaging platform that blends live chat, help desk, and marketing automation. For hotels, Intercom’s chat widget can be embedded across a website, booking portal, or mobile app, providing instant answers to questions about room rates, amenities, and booking policies. Intercom’s flexible template system allows hotels to craft welcome messages, pre‑chat forms, and follow‑up emails that align with their brand. A key advantage of Intercom is its robust automation engine. Hotels can set up product tours, trigger messages based on visitor behavior, and segment guests by booking status. The platform’s chatbot, powered by a combination of rule‑based logic and machine learning, can handle routine inquiries, freeing staff to focus on more complex support tasks. Intercom’s integration ecosystem is extensive, connecting to popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk, as well as to e‑commerce platforms such as Shopify. This allows hotels to sync booking data, view guest history, and offer personalized upsells directly within the chat. Pricing for Intercom starts at $39/month for the "Essential" plan, which includes core chat and email features. The "Pro" plan adds advanced automation, chatbots, and integrations, while the "Premium" plan offers full marketing and sales automation capabilities. The cost can increase quickly as additional agents or advanced features are added. Overall, Intercom is a versatile platform suitable for hotels that need a unified messaging solution covering support, marketing, and sales. Its strengths lie in automation and integration, but the price point may be high for smaller properties.

Freshchat, part of Freshworks’ suite of customer engagement tools, offers a lightweight chat widget that can be easily deployed on hotel websites and booking portals. Freshchat provides a modern interface that supports live chat, contextual knowledge base, and intelligent routing of conversations to the appropriate staff member. The platform’s AI chatbot, powered by Freshworks’ Freddy AI, can answer frequently asked questions about room availability, check‑in procedures, and local attractions. Additionally, Freshchat’s real‑time analytics dashboard lets hotel managers track key metrics such as chat volume, average response time, and chat satisfaction scores. Freshchat integrates seamlessly with Freshsales, Freshservice, and other Freshworks products, enabling a unified view of guest interactions across support, sales, and IT. The platform also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android, allowing front‑desk staff to respond to messages on the go. Pricing for Freshchat starts at $25/month per agent for the "Growth" plan, with higher tiers offering advanced AI, automation, and integration capabilities. Freshchat’s flexible pricing makes it an attractive option for small to medium hotels. Overall, Freshchat is a solid choice for hotels that want an intuitive chat solution with AI support and easy integration into an existing Freshworks ecosystem.

Tidio blends live chat and marketing automation into a single platform, making it an appealing choice for hotels that want to provide instant support while also nurturing leads. The chat widget can be embedded on a hotel’s website, booking page, or mobile site, and it supports multiple languages, which is useful for international guests. Tidio’s bot builder enables hotels to create conversational flows that can answer FAQs, collect booking details, or direct guests to reservation systems. The platform also integrates with popular e‑commerce and CMS platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, and Squarespace, allowing hotels to sync product catalogs and inventory. Beyond live chat, Tidio offers email automation and chat transcripts that can be exported for analysis. The platform’s pricing model is straightforward, with a free tier that supports up to 3 chat agents, a Growth plan at $18/month per agent, and a Professional plan at $30/month per agent. Tidio’s biggest strengths lie in its simplicity and ease of use, but hotels that need advanced analytics or extensive customization may find the platform somewhat limited.

Drift positions itself as a conversational marketing platform that blends live chat with AI‑powered sales outreach. While it is often marketed to SaaS and B2B companies, hotels can leverage Drift to capture leads, answer booking questions, and provide real‑time support. Drift’s chat widget can be customized with brand colors and logos, and the platform offers a powerful chatbot that can answer FAQs or forward complex inquiries to human agents. Drift’s integration ecosystem includes Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRMs, allowing hotels to sync guest data and automate follow‑up emails. The platform’s analytics dashboard tracks conversation volume, conversion rates, and agent performance. Drift also offers a “chatbot” feature that can schedule meetings, collect contact information, and route conversations based on visitor intent. Pricing for Drift starts at $400/month for the "Growth" plan, which includes up to 5 chat agents and basic chatbot capabilities. Higher tiers add more agents, advanced chatbot logic, and additional integrations. The cost can be prohibitive for smaller hotels. Drift is best suited for hotels that need a highly customizable and data‑driven chat solution, especially those that already use Salesforce or HubSpot for guest management.

LiveAgent is a comprehensive help desk and live chat platform that has been adopted by many hotels for its combined ticketing and chat capabilities. The platform offers a fully customizable chat widget that can be embedded on a hotel website or booking portal, and it supports live chat, email, and ticketing in a single interface. LiveAgent’s strengths include its robust ticketing system, which allows hotel staff to track support requests, assign them to agents, and close tickets with detailed notes. The chat widget can be branded with custom colors and logos, and the platform includes a chatbot that can answer common questions about room rates or booking policies. The platform offers integrations with popular CRMs such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho, as well as e‑commerce platforms like Shopify. LiveAgent also provides mobile apps for agents, enabling on‑the‑go support. Pricing for LiveAgent starts at $15/month per agent for the "Standard" plan, with higher tiers adding advanced automation, reporting, and chat routing features. The cost is competitive for hotels that need a full ticketing solution. LiveAgent is a solid choice for hotels that require a unified ticketing and chat system, especially when combined with existing CRM or e‑commerce platforms.