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Alternatives · guest communication

LIKE MAGIC alternatives

Looking for an alternative to LIKE MAGIC (7/10)? We've paid for and run it and 11 other guest communication tools at our own hotels. Below is an honest side-by-side of the alternatives, ranked by how we rated them. For the full story on any one, read its review. If the sticking point is cost, our LIKE MAGIC pricing breakdown lays out what you'd actually pay.

I came to LIKE MAGIC after Duve made me say oh no out loud, and it came close to what I wanted: a guest journey my seasonal staff could learn before the first arrival. Two things would send me looking further. The first is that finding independent references was hard; I wanted to speak to other hoteliers running it and struggled to find them. The second is where the AI actually lives. LIKE MAGIC hosts on Google Cloud Switzerland, which is solid, and Swiss law gives you both FADP and GDPR coverage. But the AI features run through a company called D3x AI, based in Covina, California, using what they describe as dynamic model switching. So guest queries from my Greek resort could be processed by any number of American providers, and I have no visibility into which. Anna was not pleased when I mentioned it. The guest-communication tools we've paid for and run at our own hotels are below.

Tools we'd consider instead

  1. 8/10

    askng.it

    askng.it is, for all practical purposes, a new product: the February 2026 rebuild of Lacoly, which I ran for a year and rated a 4. I tested the new one in March at my 80-room Amsterdam hotel. It is a different animal, and it earns an 8.

    Best for
    Small and mid-size hotels wanting WhatsApp-led guest messaging with named PMS and door-lock integrations
    HQ
    Netherlands
    Pricing
    Free tier; Standard €4.50/room/month (min €80); Premium €7.50/room/month (min €120)

  2. 8/10

    Bookboost

    I reviewed Bookboost previously and liked the data handling. Coming back to it, the privacy fundamentals haven't slipped, and the WhatsApp integration has turned it into a proper messaging platform.

    Best for
    Privacy-conscious European hotels
    HQ
    Sweden
    Pricing
    Modular per-room model: required Customer Data Platform ~€2.20/room/month plus optional modules (Journey ~€2.80, Broadcasts ~€1.80, Inbox ~€2.80 per room/month); ~€399/month minimum

  3. 7/10

    chatlyn

    chatlyn is Austrian, EU-hosted, and does omnichannel messaging with a privacy posture that holds up under scrutiny. The product is young, and it shows in places. But the foundations are right.

    Best for
    European hotels wanting privacy-first omnichannel messaging
    HQ
    Austria (Vienna)
    Pricing
    Quote only since 2026. Was flat tiers ~€61-311/month; now a per-room quote plus a per-property setup fee, WhatsApp usage on top

  4. 7/10

    Duve

    A second season with Duve and the rating goes up. WhatsApp changed everything for how we talk to guests, and Katerina can now train new hires on it herself. Still not simple, but no longer unmanageable.

    Best for
    Larger hotels with dedicated tech staff wanting a full guest platform
    HQ
    Israel (Tel Aviv)
    Pricing
    Published package minimums: Basic from $120/month, Pro $150, Premium $200, Enterprise custom

  5. 7/10

    HiJiffy

    I didn't think my smallest property, a 45-room boutique in the Cotswolds, was the right place to trial an AI chatbot on WhatsApp. Three months later, my front desk staff disagree with me less often than they used to, which is how I know it's working.

    Best for
    Mid-to-large European hotels wanting WhatsApp automation
    HQ
    Portugal (Lisbon)
    Pricing
    Published tiers from €99/month (Basic), €159 Pro, €319 Premium, Enterprise custom, plus a setup fee of €99-599 per 5 properties

  6. 6/10

    Quicktext

    Quicktext's chatbot still converts direct bookings and still handles multilingual queries well. They've added WhatsApp and a new brand name. Neither fixes the integration problems I flagged previously.

    Best for
    Hotels wanting a European AI chatbot with direct booking conversion
    HQ
    France (Paris)
    Pricing
    Now trading as Quinta. Premium from $299/month, based on room count

  7. 6/10

    SuitePad

    SuitePad makes the best in-room tablets on the market, and I still could not get a straight price out of them. I ran the tablets on one floor of my 80-room Amsterdam hotel for nine weeks. Here is what they earned, and why your guest profile decides everything.

    Best for
    Service-rich, longer-stay properties (resort, spa, luxury, boutique) where guests spend real time in the room
    HQ
    Germany (Berlin)
    Pricing
    Quote-only. Subscription from around $450/month, or a performance-based model with no upfront hardware cost and an agreed annual ceiling.

  8. 6/10

    Runnr.ai

    Runnr.ai built their product around WhatsApp from day one instead of adding it later. The difference is visible in the API design, the message flow, and the integration quality. It's what I wished Quicktext had done.

    Best for
    Hotels wanting WhatsApp-native guest communication with good integrations
    HQ
    Netherlands (Utrecht)
    Pricing
    Entry prices only, all stated as starting at: Pro from €100/month, Plus €200, Enterprise €400, with the per-unit rate unpublished; WhatsApp usage ~€0.75/room/month

  9. 6/10

    AskWhisper

    Every vendor in this category makes you book a call to find out what they cost. AskWhisper puts all four of its rates on the pricing page. I spent two months at my 80-room Amsterdam hotel finding out what those rates actually add up to, and whether a two-year-old Belgian company can carry them.

    Best for
    Small and mid-size European independents that want published per-room pricing, and properties that want the phone answered as well as the chat
    HQ
    Belgium (Leuven)
    Pricing
    Published: communication suite €7/room/month (€21 minimum) plus €399 one-off setup; website €4, voice AI €2, digital keys €2 per room/month

  10. 5/10

    Akia

    Akia's AI chatbot is the best I've tested in hotel messaging. It also means your guest passport data lives on American servers under American law. The technology has improved since my last review. My position hasn't.

    Best for
    US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging
    HQ
    United States (San Francisco)
    Pricing
    Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published

  11. 5/10

    Canary Technologies

    Canary Technologies has raised $175 million, built a strong guest management platform, and is now eyeing Europe. The product is good. The question is whether European hotels should care.

    Best for
    Large US hotel chains wanting a full guest management suite
    HQ
    United States (San Francisco, CA)
    Pricing
    Quote only. Core, Advanced and Pro tiers, all of them get-quote buttons; the former ~$99/month entry reference is no longer published

Common questions

What is the best alternative to LIKE MAGIC?

If the appeal was simplicity for seasonal staff, the WhatsApp-first tools are the closest in spirit and easier to hand to a new hire. If it was the design, that's harder to replace, because most of this category is functional rather than considered. If it was Swiss or EU hosting, chatlyn and Bookboost both sit inside the EU proper.

Is LIKE MAGIC data stored in the EU?

Not in the EU, in Switzerland, on Google Cloud Switzerland. Swiss data protection falls under both the FADP and GDPR, so for most practical purposes the protection is at least as strong as an EU member state. The part I'd want you to know is separate: the Swiss hosting covers LIKE MAGIC's own systems, while the AI layer runs through a Californian company. Those are two different questions and vendors rarely separate them for you.

Are there alternatives with EU-hosted AI?

Ask each vendor directly, because this is the question almost nobody answers on their website. Hosting location and AI processing location are separate, and a tool can host in Frankfurt while sending every guest message through an American model provider. When I've asked, the honest vendors tell you and the rest say they're evaluating options.