In today’s hospitality industry, operators always look for tools to save time, drive revenue, and enhance guest experience. One of the areas that can be significantly improved with technology is communication. This is why guest messaging and communication platforms for hospitality are on the rise.
Searching for solutions, available for professional property managers, you will find Enso Connect and Akia. These two software stand out for their innovative approaches to communication in the hotel and short-term rental space. While both companies talk about guest engagement and automated guest journeys, there are significant differences between their capabilities and offerings. If you’re seeking the right platform to manage messaging in your short-term rentals, we’ve compared these two options for you. Three main differences between Enso Connect and Akia lie in their streamlined guest journey approach, inbox functionality, and AI capabilities.
Akia VS Enso Connect: Top Three Differences
– Enso Connect offers a unified “single-link” approach for managing the entire guest journey. This means that guests can interact with all aspects of their stay through a single, streamlined interface, simplifying their experience from booking to check-out. This cohesive approach ensures that all guest interactions and communications are seamlessly integrated and easily accessible.
In contrast, Akia utilizes separate “mini-apps” for different stages of the guest journey. Each mini-app is designed to handle specific aspects of the stay, such as booking confirmations, pre-arrival instructions, and post-stay follow-ups. While this approach allows for specialized functionality at each stage, it may require guests to navigate between different apps or interfaces, potentially impacting the continuity of their experience.
– While Akia organizes messages into dedicated threads for specific topics or stages of the guest journey, Enso Connect adopts a different approach by presenting all communication types chronologically in a single inbox. This chronological view ensures that every message, regardless of type or source, is displayed in the order it was received.
This method provides better context and allows property managers to track the entire flow of communication with each guest. By viewing all interactions in sequence, Enso Connect helps maintain a comprehensive understanding of the guest’s journey, enabling more informed and timely responses. In contrast, Akia’s threaded messaging may require users to switch between different threads to get a full picture of the guest’s communication history.
– Enso Connect’s AI integration leverages advanced language models, such as ChatGPT, to deliver highly customizable and information-rich responses. This integration allows for dynamic, context-aware interactions that can adapt to a wide range of guest inquiries, providing detailed and personalized replies that enhance the overall guest experience.
In contrast, Akia’s AI capabilities focus on preset automated FAQ responses based on confidence ratings. While effective for handling common questions, this approach is limited in its ability to offer personalized or nuanced responses. Enso Connect’s use of advanced language models enables more sophisticated communication, allowing for tailored responses that can address a broader spectrum of guest needs and scenarios.
Dive into our in-depth comparison of features, pricing and other data points, designed to help you make an informed decision.
Product Overview and Key Features: Akia
Akia offers a cloud-based text messaging platform designed to facilitate direct communication, service recovery, and review management for hotels.
Their primary focus is on enabling direct communication between hotel staff and guests, leveraging the effectiveness of text messaging. Akia provides contactless communication tools, including service recovery and review management to streamline operations and enhance the guest experience. Key features include contactless check-in, communication inbox, automated message handling tailored to guest location, and upselling tools.
Akia Mini Apps offer a range of tools to automate communication, streamline workflows, and personalize guest experiences. Here are the main features, presented by the mini apps, offered by Akia software:
Communication & Automation
- Scheduled Journey: Automated messages throughout the stay.
- Automatic Responder: Pre-written responses to common questions.
- Personalized Messaging: Use guest data to tailor communication.
- Task Automation: Automate post-checkout tasks like automatic review requests or thank you messages.
Information & Services
- Arrival Guide: Customizable digital guidebooks.
- Food Menus: Digital menus with easy ordering and customization options
- Registration Cards:Guest verification requests to capture guest IDs, signatures, and deposits remotely.
- Pet Waiver: A pet policy waiver
Akia’s product, functionality, features, and aesthetics are geared towards standardized hotel operations, offering amenities like food menus and arrival guides. In contrast, vacation rental operators require tailored upsells and condition-based automations to cater to the unique nature of each property. While traditional hotels follow more uniform procedures due to their centralized location, short-term rentals demand a higher level of customization. They need to streamline operations according to their specific business needs. Akia’s most expensive plan limits customization to just 10 triggers, which may not suffice for vacation rental businesses seeking granular control over their processes.
Product Overview and Key Features: Enso Connect
Enso Connect is an AI-powered guest experience platform for vacation rentals, boutique hotels and serviced apartments. The platform offers a range of tools and features, allowing to personalize and monetize interactions throughout the guest journey.
Alongside AI-driven unified messaging, Enso Connect offers a Boarding Pass guest app, customized upsells, smart automation, CRM, and more.
Enso Connect’s key features include:
- Unified inbox for managing email, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and Airbnb correspondence
- EnsoAI, powered by integration with ChatGPT, unlocks advanced language capabilities within the platform
- Customizable upsell and in-app payment options for additional revenue streams
- Built-in guest verification services through partnerships with safety providers like Autohost and Superhog
- Ability to create automated workflows and set conditions based on booking sources or other factors
- Hospitality CRM hub, allowing to centralize guest data and personalize interactions.
What’s Unique About Enso Connect?
Two key characteristics differentiate Enso Connect from other solutions:
– Flexibility and granular control over functionality. This allows hospitality businesses to fine-tune processes according to their unique requirements.
– The connectivity approach. Like Zapier of hospitality, the platform is connecting software that hospitality operators love and use, like Autohost or Superhog. Thanks to its high quality integrations with those partners, the platform allows integrating the services into one smooth and streamlined guest journey, without a need for guests to jump between different links or the team to log into many applications.
Examples of Enso Connect’s configurability:
These mini demos are just a couple of examples that showcase tailored automation solutions for unique hospitality business need.
Advanced verification procedures, configured by channel, property type, guest type and more.
Crunching unexpected vacation rental scenarios with smart automations
Upsell conditions to present the right offer at the right time
Working with two property management software providers
Akia VS Enso Connect: Feature Comparison
Akia and Enso Connect have some similar features for enhancing guest experience and streamlining operations for hospitality professionals. Both automate communication throughout the guest journey, offer a unified inbox and a guest app, capture security deposits and facilitate upsells. Both platforms let short-term rental hosts pre-register guests and simplify check-in. They also customize data collection before check-in, collect IDs, and use Stripe for transactions. Both software have a direct integration with Airbnb, have a capability to automate review requests based on guest sentiment and offer a mobile app for users.
Despite these similarities, a deeper dive into specific features shows significant differences between the tech solutions:
Unified inbox
Akia’s approach to a unified inbox differs from the conventional chronological view. Instead of displaying all communication threads in a single chronological order, Akia groups messages by channel (e.g., email, SMS, Airbnb). This means users need to open each channel separately to view the respective messages, which are ordered by the channel rather than chronological order across all channels. Akia positions this approach as a way for businesses to “own their guests” by separating pre-booking communication (typically email) from post-booking interactions (often SMS). While this method may appeal to some, it deviates from the traditional unified inbox experience where all messages are displayed in a single chronological feed, regardless of the channel.
Guest app
One of the biggest differences between Akia and Enso Connect is their approach to guest interaction. Akia uses mini-apps to provide custom and dynamic capabilities at different steps of the guest journey through various links. Whereas Enso Connect uses a single Boarding Pass link that guests will use throughout their entire journey.
With Enso Connect’s Boarding Pass V3, the guest portal has become a state-of-the-art engagement and e-commerce tool for hospitality operators. The web-app combines intuitive design, advanced branding capabilities, and seamless integrations to offer an unmatched user experience.
AI capabilities
Akia utilizes AI capabilities to automate responses to frequently asked questions (FAQs), with replies generated based on a “confidence” rating system. While this approach can handle common inquiries efficiently, multiple users have reported limitations with the setup, including issues with response accuracy and relevance.
In contrast, Enso Connect leverages EnsoAI to provide a more comprehensive solution. EnsoAI integrates information from both within the Enso platform and external sources, allowing it to deliver more informed and contextually relevant responses. This approach not only ensures higher accuracy but also allows for further customization of responses before they are sent, adding a personalized touch to each interaction.
Additionally, EnsoAI incorporates the ability to prompt responses, similar to functionalities found in advanced platforms like ChatGPT. This feature enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of customer support by suggesting tailored replies and streamlining the communication process.
Third party and smart lock integrations
When using multiple third-party tools alongside Akia, users frequently encounter challenges due to the platform’s lack of seamless integration. This often results in significant manual overhead and inefficiencies. For example, a customer who transitioned from Akia to Enso Connect experienced the need for manual processing of every new booking because Akia’s limited automation capabilities did not integrate effectively with their existing tools.
Enso Connect addresses this problem by offering advanced white labeling and high-quality integrations with a wide range of third-party hospitality tech tools. The platform’s automation capabilities streamline operations across different systems, reducing the need for manual tasks and ensuring a smoother, more cohesive workflow. This integration not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves the overall guest experience by ensuring that all tools and systems work together seamlessly.
UX and Interface
There are a couple of significant differences between user experience and user interface in Enso Connect and Akia.
The distinct differences are in messaging and guest experience. Akia’s messaging system groups communications by type (SMS, email, WhatsApp, etc.), which can lead to loss of context, or require users to click through each group to view messages. In contrast, Enso presents all messages in chronological order within a single thread, providing a more seamless and coherent view of guest interactions.
Enso Connect’s approach to streamlining the guest experience differs from Akia’s. Enso Connect uses a single Boarding Pass link that guests use throughout their entire journey. This unified experience simplifies navigation and interaction for guests which enhances the overall experience. Akia uses “mini-apps,” which involve different links at various steps of the guest journey. This can create a fragmented experience, requiring guests to manage multiple links at different stages.
Integration Capabilities
Enso Connect’s unique vision emphasizes integration rather than replacing existing software, positioning it as the “Zapier of hospitality.” This approach allows users to create seamless guest journeys by connecting various tools and platforms, eliminating the need to log into multiple apps or send numerous links to guests. Enso Connect’s ability to unify different systems into a cohesive workflow streamlines operations and enhances the guest experience.
In contrast, Akia’s approach to connecting software often falls short, particularly when integrating three different types of systems. Users frequently encounter difficulties in achieving smooth integration, leading to fragmented processes and inefficiencies. Enso Connect’s commitment to integration ensures that users can manage their operations more efficiently and provide a more unified experience for their guests.
Pricing and Scalability
Enso Connect is a premium product with a plethora of features and capabilities, designed to streamline operations and drive revenue. The unmatched customization, allowing operators to become significantly efficient and revenue-generating tools make it a worthwhile investment for scaling businesses. Check the Enso Connect’s pricing here.
For those looking for a “budget” alternative and less customization, Akia is a viable option with its basic packages and no SMS charges.
The average ROI for Enso Connect customers is 4.7, highlighting its premium value despite higher costs. Watch a case study, where the users explain how Enso Connect covers the software costs and brings new revenue.
Both Akia and Enso Connect lower their rates when the number of listings increases. They employ tiered pricing, based on the size of the property manager, determined by the number of listings they manage. This approach ensures that pricing scales according to the needs and scope of the property management operations. It provides flexibility for growth and accommodates varying business sizes. Both platforms offer fair and scalable pricing that cater to the specific requirements of property managers. Whether you manage a handful of listings or operate on a larger scale, you’ll find an offer that fits you.
Customer support and training
Enso Connect prioritizes delivering attentive, human-centric support and boasts a swift onboarding process that includes at least two dedicated sessions with their team. This approach ensures that users receive personalized assistance and a smooth transition to using the platform. Customer feedback frequently highlights the exceptional quality of Enso Connect’s onboarding process and the professionalism of their support team.
Both Akia and Enso Connect charge an onboarding fee, but Enso Connect distinguishes itself with its comprehensive support and personalized onboarding experience, which significantly contributes to a smoother and more effective implementation for its users.
Conclusion
Akia predominantly caters to traditional hotels, tailoring its features to meet the specific needs of this sector. Enso Connect serves vacation rentals, boutique hotels and serviced apartments, optimizing its functionalities for these business models.
For scaling short-term rental businesses, using multiple channels for guest communication, Enso Connect’s unified inbox is a no brainer. It is more convenient and organized, empowering small teams to respond quickly with the AI and priority inbox functionality. In addition, a single-link guest portal that is seamlessly navigating guests throughout their entire journey provides a better guest experience. This also increases guest engagement with the app, driving higher upsell conversion and reducing questions asked.
Operators using third-party guest verification and smart locks appreciate Enso Connect’s seamless integration of all these services into a simple unified interface.
See how Enso Connect can take your guest communication to the next level
