3 Cutting-Edge Concierge Apps For Hotels In 2023
So how do you pick the best option for your unique business needs?
So you can make an informed decision, we analyzed three leading concierge apps by the following criteria—user experience, functionality, quality of customer support, key differentiators, and pricing.
Here are the top concierge software solutions we took into consideration:
- Operto Guest
- ALICE
- Duve
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3 best concierge apps for hotels in 2023
TurnoverBnB is a cleaning and maintenance app for vacation rental property managers.
It enables you to search for vacation rental cleaners, and schedule services automatically, syncing with your calendar. This means that you can set it up to automatically schedule cleaning as soon as a guest checks out, and before the next one checks in.
It works within its proprietary app to manage your cleaning projects and coordination in one place. It’s great for smaller operators in the sense that you don’t need to have an in-house team, payroll system, or regular cleaning schedule to use it.
Operto Guest: Mobile-optimized web app
Operto Guest enables hoteliers to create a branded guest app and put their guests in the driver’s seat. It simplifies guest journeys by giving them access to a digital front desk and an option to directly message hotel staff via two-way messaging. This frees up hoteliers so they can focus on providing an outstanding hospitality experience.
Guests can also explore digital guides, amenities, and location-based recommendations for nearby restaurants and other local businesses worth exploring.
1. User experience
The Operto Guest user experience is really smooth. The clean design combined with great app performance and speed makes it really simple to use. Easily customizable colors and logo in the global settings enable you to promote your brand throughout all your original content. The hotel guest portal is very simple to manage from within your dashboard where you can also see other key information about your guests, reservation, and operations.
2. Key features
- Easily customize the app with your brand colors and logo to deliver strong branding.
- Guests can enjoy online check-in with automated guest verification and screening, check out independently, and have immediate access to unique access codes.
- 2-way messaging is available within the app. You can add images, videos, and PDFs. “New message” notifications can be received via email or SMS.
- You can create beautiful, unlimited mini-sites within your guest app to provide information about rooms, on-site amenities, local partnerships, menus, and more. Multi-language auto translations are available.
- There are many upselling opportunities within the app. The app makes it simple for guests to upgrade their rooms, book additional hotel services, and more with CTA smart buttons.
3. Customer support
Operto offers fantastic customer support. If you look at the reviews on Trustpilot, you can see that its customers are so thrilled with the service they received that they even call team members from Operto’s support by name.
4. Key differentiators
Digital guides are incredibly customizable, easy to fully brand, and engage guests in their stay pre-arrival
The guest-facing app is user-friendly with no downloads, and fun to explore
Operto Guest can be used in combination with Operto’s suite of tools for automated management solutions
6. Pricing
Starts from $8 per door per month.
7. Best for?
Boutique hotels that want to strengthen their brand and enhance the guest experience without adding to the team’s workload.
5. What they say
Alice
ALICE Guest Services offers a centralized system in which your hotel staff can manage complaints, create branded itineraries, gain visibility into the status of your guest packages, and more. The software helps you stay organized, make personalized recommendations for your guests, and prevent issues by quickly responding to requests.
ALICE offers additional products such as ALICE Front of House and ALICE Guest Messaging that enable you to message guests, automate messages, and manage all conversations through the guest app or using SMS and WhatsApp.
1. User experience
The user experience for the hoteliers is pretty good. Some users on G2 note that the dark mode option would be nice, as well as more advanced PWA compatibility. Still, the interface is intuitive and divided into six main segments—Tickets, Logbooks, Guests, SMS, Reports, and Local. Users can navigate through each section easily from the main dashboard. The notification system is solid as well.
While the guest-facing app has a mix of user opinions, ALICE provides a range of useful features.
2. Key features
- ALICE offers users a way to maintain a local concierge database called Local. These might include restaurants, salons, lounges, and more. It is powered by a Google database and it enables your front desk staff to save information for any business or contact.
- Texting guests and vendors (e.g. massage therapists, yoga practitioners) is very easy. You can see all guest info within the software, which helps you craft a more personalized response.
- Most regular calendars have reminders that are triggered by timestamps before certain events. ALICE makes it easy to log a restaurant reservation request and then create a reminder to make the reservation 30 days before, which is a neat feature.
- Inventory Log within ALICE allows you to record all packages, as well as lost and found items.
- You can create uniform and customizable itineraries for your guests. Staff can send these through guests’ preferred communication channels.
3. Customer support
Within the ALICE dashboard, hoteliers can see a Customer Support button that gives access to support. The quality of customer service has a 4.8 rating on Capterra.
4. Key differentiators
- Tailored more towards hoteliers than to guests
- Local vendor and contact database
5. What they say
6. Pricing
Not disclosed on the website, consult with the sales team.
7. Best for?
Luxury hotels that want an easier way to stay on top of operations and prevent fires rather than extinguish them.
Duve
Duve is a guest experience platform, with a variety of features available within three different pricing plans. You can see which features are available within three different pricing plans.
The Basic plan includes online check-in and a guest app, the Pro plan includes a communication suite on top of that, while the Premium plan gives you an opportunity to generate more revenue through upsells by offering different service add-ons to your guests—just like Operto Guest.
1. User experience
Users of Duve describe the app as clean, efficient, and easy to set up. One thing noted by users at the end of December 2021 is that the iPhone app wasn’t working as well as it should. In addition, sometimes there are some connectivity issues (e.g. Airbnb and the native API).
2. Key features
Duve gives you control over the quality of your guest experience by centralizing all communications in one place. Guests can order room service, ask specific questions or inquire about property materials (e.g. map of the resort). There are automatic translations available within the app.
Depending on the pricing package you choose, you might have access to an omnichannel unified inbox, SMS and WhatsApp messages, automated guest messaging, message triggers, and more.
Content and Data Management
- There is an option to establish your hotel directory, which is a neat feature for concierges. Guest profiles and local recommendations are also available, so both hoteliers and guests directly benefit from using Duve.
Upselling
- Upselling is available in the Premium pricing package. You can incorporate smart upsells and target guests with specific offers based on their activity. Duve supports payment processing.
Request Management
- From early check-in requests, to room upgrade requests, complaints, and more, you can manage all of it within Duve.
Branded guest app
- The white-labeled web app allows you to personalize the experience for your guest and let them know you are there for them, 24/7.
3. Customer support
A few years ago, there were some mixed reviews on GetApp regarding Duve customer support. More specifically, users complained about bugs, security issues, and non-timely responses from support. However, Duve has since rebranded (it used to be Wishbox), and worked to address these issues. They offer phone support, knowledge base, Email/Help Desk, and chat.
4. Key differentiators
Many integrations available
5. What they say
6. Pricing
Free trial available. Pricing starts at $6 USD per room per month.
7. Best for?
Bed & Breakfast rentals, vacation rentals, and villas that want to save time and automate work while crafting branded hotel guest journeys.
How to choose the best concierge app for your hotel
As you can see, features that are a must for every concierge app allow for digital check-in and check-out, live chat, and insights into the guest stays. If you want to delight your guests, you would need a solution that enables you to offer all your services within a single place, while also enabling your guest service teams to collaborate.
To summarize, make sure you consider:
- User experience: Mobile-friendly web apps are optimal so guests can browse on the go.
- Pricing: Some vendors might have hidden fees such as commissions on upsells.
- Features: Having a one-stop-shop kind of solution that also helps you efficiently manage all hotel operations could be the best option for your business.
- Quality of customer support: With technology, some glitches will inevitably happen, so you need a partner you can trust.
- Online reviews: Explore G2, Capterra, Hotel Tech Report, and Trustpilot to discover real user experiences.
How to choose the best concierge app for your hotel
As you can see, features that are a must for every concierge app allow for digital check-in and check-out, live chat, and insights into the guest stays. If you want to delight your guests, you would need a solution that enables you to offer all your services within a single place, while also enabling your guest service teams to collaborate.
To summarize, make sure you consider:
- User experience: Mobile-friendly web apps are optimal so guests can browse on the go.
- Pricing: Some vendors might have hidden fees such as commissions on upsells.
- Features: Having a one-stop-shop kind of solution that also helps you efficiently manage all hotel operations could be the best option for your business.
- Quality of customer support: With technology, some glitches will inevitably happen, so you need a partner you can trust.
- Online reviews: Explore G2, Capterra, Hotel Tech Report, and Trustpilot to discover real user experiences.
Frequently asked questions about hotel concierge apps
What are concierge apps?
Concierge apps (also known as personal assistant apps) enable hotel guests to access relevant information and various different services. For example, they can book hotel rooms or upgrade their existing one, make fast check-in and check-out, message the hotel staff directly, order room service, make a reservation at a restaurant, schedule wake-up calls, and much more.What are the benefits of concierge apps?
The main benefits of concierge apps include improving the guest experience, providing immediate assistance, and automatically fulfilling guests’ requests through simple interactions. They give guests the opportunity to independently explore the amenities, offering more control over their stay.What is the difference between a concierge app and a hotel’s in-room digital concierge service?
Concierge apps offer more options for your guests compared to an in-room digital concierge service. The biggest difference lies in the personalization options and the ability to use the guest app on the go. For example, concierge apps may offer personalized restaurant and entertainment recommendations or tailored itineraries. In-room digital concierge services can usually be accessed via the room’s television and it offers a standardized set of recommendations, access to services, as well as the option to interact with chatbots.More Articles
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