In the heart of every successful hospitality business lies an exceptional guest experience. Enter the game-changer: the guest management platform aka guest experience platform. These digital wizards help hospitality professionals transform ordinary stays into unforgettable journeys. Guest experience platforms manage seamless access, unified communication, new revenue streams and personalized touches that make each guest feel special.
Welcome to the world of guest experience applications – where magic happens at your guests’ fingertips.
If you’re managing vacation rentals or boutique hotels, you’ve likely encountered two standout names: Enso Connect and Duve. But with a dizzying array of features and tools, how do you choose the right fit for your unique needs?
![Recommendation request for vacation rental upsell tools: Duve VS Enso Connect](https://gcamkobrlepn-u2971.pressidiumcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-07-at-10.15.36 PM.png)
We get it, choosing vacation rental software is hard. You’re looking for clarity on the differences between Duve and Enso Connect, and want to explore the options before investing. That’s why we’ve crafted this comprehensive guide, where we will:
1. Dive into Duve and Enso Connect, unpacking their features, pricing, and what customers are saying.
2. Put Enso Connect and Duve head-to-head, comparing these industry leaders feature by feature.
3. Back our insights with case studies and customer testimonials.
Spoiler: Enso Connect gives you more flexibility, customization and a slick user-friendly design for crafting remarkable guest interactions. Ready to unlock the secrets of a stellar guest experience, powered by technology? Let’s dive in and see why James Cornwell picked Enso Connect!
Duve VS Enso Connect: Top Three Differences
Focus on Vacation Rentals VS Hotel Chains
While Duve caters primarily to hotels with standardized accommodations, Enso Connect is tailored to the diverse needs of short-term rentals and boutique hospitality. Enso Connect’s highly configurable platform adapts to hundreds of unique scenarios, offering unparalleled flexibility for distinctive vacation rental management needs.
For example, Enso Connect’s mobile app lets vacation rental professionals manage guest interactions on the go. This is crucial for managing dispersed short-term rental properties, unlike centralized hotels. Duve does not provide a mobile app for users.
State-of-the-art Guest App
Enso Connect’s Boarding Pass guest web app sets the bar high for user-friendly design and convenience. The Boarding Pass V3 blends magazine-style aesthetics with e-commerce best practices. It incorporates condition-based automation and data-driven personalization for a tailored guest experience. We’ve thoroughly compared the most popular guest apps for vacation rentals and boutique hotels here.
Better Connectivity with Essential Tools for Hospitality Professionals
Enso Connect’s flexibility and connectivity with other tools are creating a big advantage in smooth user experience. This is hard to beat even for such industry veterans like Duve.
For example, Duve’s smart devices options are limited, favoring hotel-style systems over vacation rental choices.
Another example, Enso Connect offers white-label guest verification, Superhog and Autohost, in its interface. Duve doesn’t provide these integrations. .
Company Age and Founder Experience
If you ask Duve about the differences, the industry veteran may emphasize Enso Connect’s young age. Founded in 2019, Enso Connect is led by award-winning Gen-Z tech leaders. Despite its shorter history, Enso Connect’s product matches Duve’s in robustness and reliability. Recent growth and acquisitions have made Duve less agile. Since acquiring EasyWay, Duve hasn’t shown significant AI advancements, suggesting slower innovation and reduced competitive edge.
Product Overview and Key Features: Duve
Duve is a comprehensive guest management system designed for hotels and vacation rentals.
Here’s an overview of Duve’s key features:
Online Check-in
Allows guests to check in before arrival, saving time for both staff and guests.
Branded Guest App
Provides a customizable app that aligns with your brand, offering guests information about their stay, amenities, local attractions, and more.
AI-Powered Communication
Uses AI agents to streamline guest communication across multiple platforms (email, WhatsApp, SMS, Airbnb, etc.) from a single hub.
Personalized Upselling
Learns about guests through pre-arrival information and OTA data to offer tailored upsells, upgrades, and services.
Digital Keys
Integrates with selected smart lock providers for easy and secure property access.
Analytics and Insights
Offers segmentation insights to help understand guest experiences and make data-driven decisions.
Multi-Language Support
Provides automated translations for up to 20 languages.
Customizable Permissions
Allows setting specific permissions for different users and branches.
Third-Party Integrations
Offers integrations with various Property Management Systems (PMS), payment service providers, and other hospitality services.
Upsell Marketplace
Includes hundreds of third-party services and allows for in-house upsells or partner vendors.
Duve aims to increase profitability, improve performance, and elevate the guest experience for properties of various sizes, from independent hotels to large enterprise groups.
Product Overview and Key Features: Enso Connect
Enso Connect is an AI-powered end-to-end guest management system for vacation rentals, boutique hotels and serviced apartments. The platform offers a range of powerful 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:
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Unified inbox for managing email, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and Airbnb correspondence
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EnsoAI, powered by integration with ChatGPT, unlocks advanced language capabilities within the platform
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Customizable upsell and in-app payment options for additional revenue streams
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Built-in guest verification services through partnerships with safety providers like Autohost and Superhog
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Ability to create automated workflows and set conditions based on booking sources or other factors
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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:
Here are a selection of mini demos, made by Francois Gouelo, cofounder and CEO of Enso Connect.
– Crunching unexpected vacation rental scenarios with smart automations
– Working with two property management software providers
– Seasonal Guidebooks automation
and much more.
Duve VS Enso Connect: Feature Comparison
Features |
Duve |
Enso Connect |
Target Users |
Traditional Hotels, Boutique Hotels |
Short-term rentals, Appart Hotels, and Boutique Hotels |
AI Unified Inbox |
v |
v |
Digital Check-In |
v |
v |
Smart Keyless Access |
N/A |
v |
Digital Guidebooks |
v |
v |
Interactive Dashboards |
v |
v |
IoT Integration: smart locks, noise monitoring, etc. |
v |
v |
CMS |
v |
v |
PMS Integrations |
v |
v |
Upsells, In-App Payments |
v |
v |
Hardware Rentals |
N/A |
N/A |
White-labeled Verification |
N/A |
v |
In-App Security Deposits |
N/A |
v |
CRM |
v |
v |
AI for messaging |
v |
v |
Airbnb Messaging |
Limited |
v |
Authority Reporting |
N/A |
Coming Soon |
Saved Replies |
v |
Coming Soon |
Fully Native Integration with KYC |
N/A |
v |
Configuration |
Limited |
v |
Integrations with Autohost or Superhog |
x |
x |
Mobile App (for Operator) |
N/A |
v |
Duve and Enso Connect have 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 hospitality professionals 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, however, Duve’s integration has limitations. Both products can automate requests for guest reviews based on guest sentiment.
Despite these similarities, a deeper dive into specific features shows significant differences between the tech solutions:
Unified inbox
Enso Connect’s AI-powered unified inbox is hard to beat, it just has everything you need to keep control of guest communication. However Duve’s inbox is one of the best unified inboxes on the marek (after Esno of course).
Duve integration with Airbnb is limited, hence Esno has a better connection with OTAs.
AI capabilities
Enso Connect leverages AI for predictive responses and sentiment analysis, providing more personalized and context-aware communication. The platform also provides AI reports and summaries for data-driven and quick decision-making. Duve, while automated, does not emphasize AI to the same extent.
To stay relevant in the AI race, Duve recently acquired EasyWay, an AI-based messaging tool, promising advanced AI-driven guest experiences. However, Duve users haven’t yet seen significant AI advancements. This delay is understandable, as integrating a new company can be time-consuming and may not always create the expected synergies. Sometimes, such acquisitions can initially lead to inefficiencies and hurdles rather than immediate improvements.
Here is the promise of Duve’s recent EasyWay integration:
This strategic move has bolstered Duve’s artificial intelligence offerings in several key areas:
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Integrates generative AI for improved guest experiences
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Combines personalized guest messaging with AI agents
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Adds AI-powered guest journey management
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Increases operational efficiency through automation
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Expands personalization capabilities at scale
Duve aims to balance automation and personalization in hospitality, enhancing guest satisfaction and streamlining operations.
If comparing the AI capabilities of Enso Connect and Duve today, here’s where the things are:
EnsoAI VS DuveAI – Key differences
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AI sophistication
Enso Connect’s solution appears to be more advanced in terms of AI integration, using GPT-4o for generating contextually aware and personalized responses. Duve’s automation seems to rely more on pre-written templates and scheduled messages.
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Personalization
Enso Connect’s AI analyzes past conversations and property-specific information to create more tailored responses, while Duve focuses on templated messages.
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Language support
Enso Connect explicitly mentions support for over 50 languages, which is particularly beneficial for properties with international guests.
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Sentiment analysis
Enso Connect incorporates sentiment analysis to adjust responses and potentially trigger automated actions, a feature not mentioned for Duve.
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Upselling approach
While both platforms offer upselling capabilities, Enso Connect integrates this into its AI-driven system, potentially allowing for more dynamic and contextual upsell opportunities. Duve offers automated upsells as part of a premium package.
EnsoAI takes a more comprehensive approach by not only leveraging information within the Enso platform but also from external sources. This enables our AI to provide more informed responses that can be further customized before sending, ensuring a personalized touch in customer interactions. Additionally, EnsoAI offers the ability to prompt responses, similar to the functionality you’d find in a platform like ChatGPT, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of customer support.
Enso Connect’s recent AI special report categorizes guest conversations, improving AI replies and providing insights into common guest requests.
Enso Connect’s AI-driven predictive responses appear to offer a more sophisticated, personalized, and context-aware approach to guest communication compared to Duve’s more traditional automated messaging system. Enso Connect’s solution leverages advanced AI to provide a higher degree of customization and adaptability in guest interactions.
Guest app
Enso Connect’s guest web app, the Boarding Pass, sets it apart from Duve. This app serves as a powerful sales tool for hospitality professionals. The Boarding Pass is a single link that navigates guests through the entire journey, from booking to checkout. With the Boarding Pass, all the essential information, needed for perfect guest stays is at their fingertips, anytime and anywhere. Guests can access information, verify details, handle agreements and fees, and explore digital guestbooks and area guides in real time.
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.
Third-party and smart lock integrations
When using multiple third-party tools alongside Duve, the lack of seamless integration creates manual overhead for customers. This issue was highlighted by a customer moving from Duve to Enso Connect. They had to perform manual work for every new booking due to the lack of automation between Duve and their other tools. Enso Connect solves this issue by offering white labelling and quality integrations and automation across various third-party hospitality tech tools.
UX and Interface
Duve doesn’t offer a mobile app, for users to be able to manage guest interactions on the go.
Integration Capabilities
Enso’s unique vision of connecting vs ripping and replacing software, allows it to be the Zapier of hospitality. These users can create seamless journeys, without a need to log into many apps or send many links to guests. For Duve, connecting three different types of software is not something that works smoothly.
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.
For those looking for a “budget” alternative and less customization, Duve 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 Duve 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 caters 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. Check the Enso Connect’s pricing here.
Customer support and training
Enso Connect prioritizes providing attentive, human-centric support and has a swift onboarding process with at least two sessions with the team. Most of the customer feedback is praising onboarding and the support team members. Both Duve and Enso Connect charge an onboarding fee.
Duve Pricing VS Enso Connect
Now that you’ve seen the different functionalities available in Duve, let’s dive into pricing.
Duve offers four pricing plans:
-
Basic: $6 (€5, £4.5) per room/bed per month, includes online check-in, guest app, and basic analytics.
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Pro: $7.5 (€6.5, £5.5) per room/bed per month, adds communication suite with SMS and WhatsApp capabilities.
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Premium: $10 (€9, £8) per room/bed per month, includes all Pro features plus upsells and eCommerce functionalities.
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Enterprise: Custom pricing with advanced customizations and dedicated account management.
This is comparable with the Enso Connect pricing. Get instant pricing for Enso Connect here.
For upselling, Enso Connect charges 5%, while Duve takes 10% of what is coming through the system.
Alternatives to Duve
Duve has been a reputable player in the market for 8 years, recognized for their innovative digital hospitality systems. Criticizing their potential reliability issues is inaccurate, as they are a strong industry contender adding significant value to their users.
However, with the advent of advanced AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, new entrants like Enso Connect are rapidly disrupting the space. While Duve maintains its innovative edge through acquisitions, they are also pivoting their focus from vacation rentals to the standardized hotel industry.
If you’re looking for alternatives to Duve, focused on the needs of short-term rental businesses, Enso Connect is a go-to solution.
Short-term rental managers, looking for a guest communication platform, often compare Enso Connect and Akia. Read our comparison analysis here.
For GuestView Guide users, looking for an alternative to the service that will be discontinued this fall, we have a solution for you. Read the details here, or contact our team to see how we can take your guest experience to the next level.
See how Enso Connect can help you digitize and monetize guest experience