Akia vs Bookboost
Factual side-by-side, not editorial. Both tools have been tested at a working European hotel. For opinions, read the individual reviews linked below.
The short version
On our hands-on ratings, Bookboost takes it overall, 8/10 against 5/10.
Akia is built for US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging. Bookboost is built for privacy-conscious European hotels.
| Akia | Bookboost | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 5/10 | 8/10 |
| Pricing | Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published | 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 |
| Best for | US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging | Privacy-conscious European hotels |
| HQ | United States (San Francisco) | Sweden |
| Founded | 2019 | 2016 |
| Reviewed by | marc | anna |
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.
Bookboost pricing
- Customer Data Platform ~€2.20/room/month
- Compulsory. Every other module sits on top of it, so this is the floor rather than an option, and it's the right way round: the data layer is the part of Bookboost I rate most highly.
- Journey ~€2.80/room/month
- Automated guest messaging across the stay. Optional, and the module most properties add first.
- Inbox ~€2.80/room/month
- The unified inbox, including WhatsApp Business API. This is what turned Bookboost into a proper messaging platform rather than a CRM that also sends messages.
- Broadcasts ~€1.80/room/month
- One-to-many campaigns. The cheapest module, and the one whose value depends most on whether you actually run campaigns.
- Guest app €1.40/room/month
- New since our review. Requires the Journey module.
- AI agent €3.00/room/month
- New since our review. Requires the Inbox module, and is the priciest single module on the list.
- Insights platform €2.00/room/month, plus seats
- New since our review. Creator seats are €200 a month and viewer seats €50, which is where Anna's complaint about exporting a CSV and doing the arithmetic yourself now has a paid answer.
There's a minimum of around €399 a month, which is the number that decides whether this is for you. Below roughly 60 rooms the minimum, not the per-room rate, is what you're paying, so a small property subsidises a pricing model built for larger ones. Add the modules you need to the compulsory data platform before comparing: the CDP alone is not a messaging tool, and the realistic configuration is CDP plus Journey plus Inbox, not the headline €2.20.
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 Bookboost pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, Akia or Bookboost?
On our ratings Bookboost scores 8/10 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 Bookboost cost?
Akia: Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published
Bookboost: 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
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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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.