Akia vs AskWhisper
The facts side by side, what each one costs tier by tier, and which of the two we'd pick. Both have been paid for and run at a working European hotel.
The short version
On our hands-on ratings, AskWhisper takes it overall, 6/10 against 5/10.
Akia is built for US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging. AskWhisper is built 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.
Which we'd pick
For a European property, AskWhisper, and it is not a close decision.
These two look similar on a price list and are nothing alike in practice. Akia withdrew its $5 per room rate during 2026 and is now quote-only, so there is no sticker left to compare against AskWhisper's published €7 plus a €399 setup fee. But Marc found no EU hosting option for Akia at any price, which puts guest passport data on US servers under US law, and for most European hoteliers that ends the conversation before features get a look in. AskWhisper is Belgian and small enough that its whole customer list fits on one page.
Where Akia earns its keep is raw AI accuracy: Marc ran 40 queries across four languages and got 85% in English, ahead of every European tool he had tried. AskWhisper cannot match that claim because nobody outside Belgium has tested it publicly. What AskWhisper has instead is the telephone, at €2 per room per month, and Akia does not answer calls at all. Do not treat voice as unique to AskWhisper though: Runnr.ai and Canary both ship voice agents of their own, and Runnr publishes its pricing too.
Drawn from our individual hands-on reviews rather than a fresh head-to-head test. Where a finding belongs to one of us, we've said whose it is.
| Akia | AskWhisper | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published | Published: communication suite €7/room/month (€21 minimum) plus €399 one-off setup; website €4, voice AI €2, digital keys €2 per room/month |
| Best for | US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging | 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 | United States (San Francisco) | Belgium (Leuven) |
| Founded | 2019 | 2024 |
| Reviewed by | marc | sophie |
What each one costs
Akia pricing
- Basic Quote only
- Tier exists with a feature list and usage limits attached, but no price, no currency and no billing terms. Ends at talk to sales.
- Pro Quote only
- Same again: the features are visible, the cost is not.
- Max Quote only
- Top tier, also quote only. Every route out of the pricing page goes to sales or a demo booking.
Akia has stopped publishing the per-room rate our review recorded. The $5 per room per month figure is gone from the pricing page, replaced by three named tiers with their features intact and their prices removed. The tier structure is genuinely useful, so you can still work out what you would be buying. You just cannot work out what it costs, which for a tool whose appeal to smaller American properties rested on an affordable per-room price is a strange thing to take away.
AskWhisper pricing
- Communication suite €7/room/month, €21 minimum
- The core product: PMS connection, the AI assistant across WhatsApp, webchat and email, the branded chat, the knowledge base, the guest app and the automated messaging. At my 80 rooms that is €560 a month. The €21 minimum tells you who the entry tier is drawn for, because €21 at €7 a room is a three-room property.
- Setup fee €399 one-off
- Charged once, on top of the subscription. It buys the PMS connection and the knowledge base build, and in my case that work was done properly rather than handed to me as a form to fill in. Worth knowing it exists before you compare the monthly figure against anyone else's.
- Website €4/room/month, €49 minimum
- A managed site with the assistant built in, reading live rates from your PMS. Irrelevant to me, as it was with Amenitiz: an established hotel already has a website it has paid for. The €49 minimum puts this at about twelve rooms. Note that a custom domain is not included.
- Voice AI €2/room/month
- Answers the phone, in several languages, and routes to a human when it cannot cope. €160 a month at my size. Runnr.ai and Canary sell voice agents too, so this is not the rarity I first took it for, but it is priced openly here and it is the one place where the otherwise published pricing goes quiet: usage limits apply and the limits are not stated.
- Digital room keys €2/room/month
- Self-service check-in and contactless key delivery, through Salto. One lock vendor, so this is either exactly what you need or of no use to you whatsoever. Check your locks before you get attached to the idea.
This is the most transparent pricing in the category and it is still not the cheapest, which are two separate facts and both worth holding. Every rate is on the website with the minimums stated and no sales call in the way. But the structure is a la carte, and per-room add-ons stack: take everything and you are at €15 per room per month, which on my 80 rooms is €1,200 a month, or €14,400 a year, before the €399 setup. Take only the communication suite and it is €6,720 a year. The published headline of €7 is a real number, it is just the first of up to four. Do the arithmetic at your own room count and with only the modules you would actually switch on, because per-room pricing rewards a twenty-room property and punishes mine.
Prices as last verified during each review. Hotel software pricing moves, and per-room rates behave very differently at 20 rooms and at 200, so run the arithmetic at your own room count. Full detail on Akia pricing and AskWhisper pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, Akia or AskWhisper?
On our ratings AskWhisper scores 6/10 against Akia at 5/10. But the better tool is the one that fits your property, so read both reviews before you decide.
How much do Akia and AskWhisper cost?
Akia: Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published
AskWhisper: Published: communication suite €7/room/month (€21 minimum) plus €399 one-off setup; website €4, voice AI €2, digital keys €2 per room/month
Read the full reviews
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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.
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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.