Akia vs HiJiffy
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, HiJiffy takes it overall, 7/10 against 5/10.
Akia is built for US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging. HiJiffy is built for mid-to-large European hotels wanting WhatsApp automation.
Which we'd pick
HiJiffy for any European property; Akia only competes on raw AI accuracy.
Both are messaging-first and the deciding factor is where the data lives. HiJiffy is a European company on EU servers, which Marc checked and approved. Akia has no EU hosting option at all, so guest passport data sits on US servers under US law, and it has no Booking.com or Expedia integration either, meaning OTA guests never enter the conversation.
Akia is better at the actual language work: 85% accuracy in English across Marc's 40-query test, ahead of every European tool he had tried, and a late-checkout automation that priced, offered and booked without staff involvement. HiJiffy's AI is weaker, falling apart on compound messages and getting simple questions wrong until you have babysat it for a month. What HiJiffy has instead is published pricing from €99 a month, support that fixed a dropped WhatsApp connection within hours, a website chatbot that paid for the subscription several times over in direct bookings, and ten years of history.
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 | HiJiffy | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published | Published tiers from €99/month (Basic), €159 Pro, €319 Premium, Enterprise custom, plus a setup fee of €99-599 per 5 properties |
| Best for | US hotels wanting AI-driven guest messaging | Mid-to-large European hotels wanting WhatsApp automation |
| HQ | United States (San Francisco) | Portugal (Lisbon) |
| Founded | 2019 | 2016 |
| Reviewed by | marc | james |
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.
HiJiffy pricing
- Basic From €99/month, plus €99 setup per 5 properties
- FAQ automation covering 25 topics in 3 languages. The €99 monthly figure is the one our review recorded; the setup fee is not.
- Pro From €159/month, plus €399 setup per 5 properties
- Adds the generative AI chatbot with unlimited topics and 132 languages, and the omnichannel inbox.
- Premium From €319/month, plus €599 setup per 5 properties
- Adds the AI concierge with PMS and CRM integration, and WhatsApp campaigns.
- Enterprise Custom
- Custom campaigns, FAQs, channels and integrations, and HiJiffy branding removed.
HiJiffy publishes more than it did and it costs more to start than we said. The good half: four tiers, three of them with figures, quoted in euros, dollars and sterling, and rates that scale with property count. The half our review missed entirely: a setup fee on every paid tier, €99 on Basic, €399 on Pro and €599 on Premium, charged per five properties. On Premium that is €599 before a single message reaches a guest. James was right that HiJiffy publishes its tiers without a demo call, and that still stands. Our own first-year figure was too low.
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 HiJiffy pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, Akia or HiJiffy?
On our ratings HiJiffy scores 7/10 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 HiJiffy cost?
Akia: Quote only since 2026. Basic, Pro and Max tiers listed without prices; the former $5/room/month is no longer published
HiJiffy: Published tiers from €99/month (Basic), €159 Pro, €319 Premium, Enterprise custom, plus a setup fee of €99-599 per 5 properties
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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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.