HiJiffy vs Runnr.ai
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 6/10.
HiJiffy is built for mid-to-large European hotels wanting WhatsApp automation. Runnr.ai is built for hotels wanting WhatsApp-native guest communication with good integrations.
Which we'd pick
HiJiffy for reach and support, Runnr.ai for integrations and a cleaner WhatsApp build.
Both are European and WhatsApp-led, and HiJiffy is the more established by some distance: 2016 against 2022, references you can find, and support that had a dropped WhatsApp connection fixed within a couple of hours. James measured roughly 85% open rates on pre-arrival messages against barely 40% by email, and the website chatbot paid for the subscription several times over in direct bookings.
Runnr is the better-engineered integration. Conversation summaries flow back into PMS guest profiles so the front desk sees what was discussed, and Thomas built a CRM automation on the first attempt. HiJiffy hits a wall on rich media and interactive components, so pre-arrival flows stay simple, and canned responses need pre-approval. Both publish pricing, HiJiffy from €99 a month at roughly €3 to €5 per room, Runnr from €100 plus per-conversation WhatsApp charges. Runnr's gaps are the harder ones: no revenue attribution, PMS triggers limited to a handful of predefined actions, WhatsApp routed through an intermediary, and no SOC 2 or ISO 27001. James and Thomas have written this pair up in full.
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.
| HiJiffy | Runnr.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | Published tiers from €99/month (Basic), €159 Pro, €319 Premium, Enterprise custom, plus a setup fee of €99-599 per 5 properties | Entry prices only, all stated as starting at: Pro from €100/month, Plus €200, Enterprise €400, with the per-unit rate unpublished; WhatsApp usage ~€0.75/room/month |
| Best for | Mid-to-large European hotels wanting WhatsApp automation | Hotels wanting WhatsApp-native guest communication with good integrations |
| HQ | Portugal (Lisbon) | Netherlands (Utrecht) |
| Founded | 2016 | 2022 |
| Reviewed by | james | thomas |
What each one costs
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.
Runnr.ai pricing
- Pro From €100/month
- The entry tier, and the same €100 floor our review recorded, now with a name and two tiers above it.
- Plus From €200/month
- Marked as the most popular option on the pricing page.
- Enterprise From €400/month
- Top published tier.
- Groups and chains Custom
- Above 10,000 units, priced by arrangement.
- WhatsApp usage ~€0.75/room/month average
- Charged on top of the platform fee and stated as an average across conversation volume and guest location. More useful for budgeting than the per-conversation framing we recorded.
Runnr.ai has gone further in the right direction since our review. The €100 monthly floor is unchanged, but where we recorded a single starting price there are now three named tiers with figures attached, an average WhatsApp cost of about €0.75 per room per month rather than a vague per-conversation note, and a thirty-day trial on annual plans with setup and support included. Billing is per unit, and Runnr counts rooms, beds, apartments, cottages or camping pitches, which suits properties that are not shaped like hotels. Thomas credited Runnr for publishing anything at all when most rivals would not; it now publishes more than most.
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 HiJiffy pricing and Runnr.ai pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, HiJiffy or Runnr.ai?
On our ratings HiJiffy scores 7/10 against Runnr.ai at 6/10. But the better tool is the one that fits your property, so read both reviews before you decide.
How much do HiJiffy and Runnr.ai cost?
HiJiffy: Published tiers from €99/month (Basic), €159 Pro, €319 Premium, Enterprise custom, plus a setup fee of €99-599 per 5 properties
Runnr.ai: 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
The long version
Runnr.ai vs HiJiffy: two WhatsApp-first tools, one boutique hotel
Both open their pitch with the same three words: WhatsApp-first AI. I ran both at my hotels anyway, because two tools selling the same promise usually differ in the places the promise doesn't cover. These two differ on AI reliability, integration depth, and what they cost a small property.
One of us paid for both and ran them, then wrote the head-to-head properly. This page is the summary; that one is the argument.
Read the full reviews
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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.
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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.