# What hotel WhatsApp tools really cost, and why nobody will tell you

> Every guest messaging tool prices on a different axis, and half hide the number behind a demo. Here is how I work out what they actually cost on my 80-room hotel, including the WhatsApp message bill nobody leads with.

**Source:** https://6hoteliers.com/insights/what-hotel-whatsapp-tools-really-cost/
**Author:** sophie (Six Hoteliers)
**Published:** 2026-05-31
**Licence:** CC BY-SA 4.0 — attribution required

## Body

I have a spreadsheet for this, and it has ruined more than one vendor call for me. Every guest communication tool prices itself on a different axis, so the numbers on the pricing pages, when there even is a pricing page, do not compare. One charges per room. One charges a flat monthly tier. One charges per "AI conversation". And underneath all of them sits a cost none of them like to lead with: the WhatsApp message itself. So when a colleague asks me which of these is cheapest, my honest answer is that the question has no answer until you do the maths on your own hotel. Here is how I do it.

## The sticker price is a lie, and here is why

Three things turn the headline number into fiction.

First, the shape of the platform fee. askng.it charges per room, €4.50 a room on its Standard plan. chatlyn charges flat monthly tiers that top out around €311 regardless of size. HiJiffy now publishes per-property tiers from €99, Bookboost charges per room in modules, and a few of the rest still will not print a number without a call. A per-room price and a flat tier are not comparable until you put your own room count into both. At my 80 rooms, askng.it Standard is €360 a month; chatlyn Advanced is €311 flat. On the sticker, chatlyn wins. Keep reading.

Second, and this is the one most hoteliers miss, the WhatsApp message has its own cost, and it is not the vendor's. Since July 2025 Meta charges per template message, and the rate depends on the country and the message type. The Netherlands is one of the dearest markets in Europe: a marketing template runs somewhere around fifteen cents, a utility one a few cents, and replies inside the 24-hour window are free. Every tool in this category sits on top of that Meta bill. What differs is how they handle it. Some bundle a number of messages into the subscription. Some pass Meta's charge straight through with a markup on top. Some simply do not mention it until your first invoice.

Third, half of them will not show you the price at all. Of the ten tools we have reviewed, four hide pricing behind a sales call. I have said it before and I will keep saying it: if I need a demo to see your price, I have already learned something about the price.

## What this does to a real comparison

Let me run the two I know best, [askng.it](/guest-communication/askng-review/) and [chatlyn](/guest-communication/chatlyn-review/), because they sit at opposite ends of the model and the result surprised me.

askng.it bundles your proactive touchpoints into the subscription: two per reservation on Standard, four on Premium. The pre-arrival message, the checkout nudge, the upsell, they are included. chatlyn does the opposite: a lower flat fee, then every WhatsApp message billed on top at Meta's rate plus an operational fee, from the first message.

So I did the sum on my hotel. Two touchpoints a reservation, about 780 reservations a month at my occupancy, is roughly 1,500 outbound template messages. At Dutch rates that is anywhere from about €70 a month if they all count as utility to nearer €270 if they are marketing. Add that to chatlyn's flat tier and the "cheaper" option lands somewhere between €330 and €480 all in. askng.it Standard, with those messages included, sits at €360. The tool with the higher sticker ends up level or cheaper, because it is not charging me by the message. The sticker told me the opposite of the truth.

A caveat I will not bury: these are rates as of May 2026, Meta moves them, and the figure swings on whether a message counts as marketing or utility, which is Meta's call and not the vendor's. Treat it as my arithmetic on my hotel, not a quote.

## The rest of the category, in plain numbers

What I can stand behind for a property around 50 to 100 rooms:

- [chatlyn](/guest-communication/chatlyn-review/): flat tiers, Light around €61, Plus €161, Advanced €311, plus the WhatsApp messages on top. Demo to confirm.
- askng.it: €4.50 a room on Standard, €7.50 on Premium, with two and four touchpoints per reservation included.
- [Quicktext](/guest-communication/quicktext-review/): around €250 a month at entry, more transparent than most.
- [Runnr.ai](/guest-communication/runnr-review/): from about €100 a month in platform fees before WhatsApp costs, which makes its "€3 a room" marketing flattering for a small hotel.
- [HiJiffy](/guest-communication/hijiffy-review/): published tiers from €99/month (Basic), scaling with rooms, plus setup fees.
- [Bookboost](/guest-communication/bookboost-review/): a modular per-room model, from about €399/month.
- [Duve](/guest-communication/duve-review/) and [Akia](/guest-communication/akia-review/): roughly $5 to $6 per room per month.
- [Canary](/guest-communication/canary-review/) and [LIKE MAGIC](/guest-communication/likemagic-review/): pricing not published. Expect a demo and a band somewhere between €150 and €500 or more a month for a hotel my size.

I am not going to dress that up as a tidy table with a winner. The whole argument of this piece is that a tidy table would mislead you.

## How to actually compare them

When a vendor quotes me, I translate everything to one number: what it costs all in, per month, on my room count and my message volume. To get there I ask four questions, and I would push you to ask the same.

Is the platform fee per room, flat, or per property? Put your own room count in before you compare anything.

Are WhatsApp messages included, or passed through? If passed through, at what markup, and how many do you actually send a month? Two touchpoints a reservation is the realistic floor for proactive messaging; plenty of hotels run more.

What exactly is the billable unit? "Credits", "conversations", "AI sessions" and "send moments" are not the same thing, and the vendor has usually chosen the unit that scales against a property like yours. Translate it.

Is the price published? A vendor confident in its pricing prints it. A vendor that hides it has done the maths on what your hesitation is worth.

## The honest summary

The sticker price in this category tells you almost nothing. The cheapest-looking tool can cost the most once the messages are counted, and the dearest-looking one can be a bargain if it bundles what you actually send. The only number that matters is the all-in on your own hotel, and you will usually have to build it yourself, because the vendors are not racing to build it for you. So we do, here and in the [individual reviews](/guest-communication/), and we re-check it as Meta and the vendors move the rates. If a tool's pricing only makes sense after a 30-minute call, that is the call telling you something.

*Sophie*