---
title: "AI receptionist or a human answering service for a small property: what each costs in 2026"
description: "AI phone agents cost $49 to $149 a month for a small property's calls, human answering services $395 to $2,000, a part-time receptionist about £1,100 or $1,580. Prices checked in September 2026, worked out for 50 and 200 calls."
url: https://supalobby.com/en/blog/ai-receptionist-for-small-properties
language: en
published: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
author: Bartosz Wilczyński
translation: https://supalobby.com/blog/wirtualna-recepcja-dla-pensjonatu-ai-czy-czlowiek
---

# AI receptionist or a human answering service for a small property: what each costs in 2026

AI phone agents cost $49 to $149 a month for a small property's calls, human answering services $395 to $2,000, a part-time receptionist about £1,100 or $1,580. Prices checked in September 2026, worked out for 50 and 200 calls.

An AI receptionist for a small property costs **$49 to $149 a month** for 100 to 400 minutes of calls, on Rosie's and Goodcall's price lists. A human answering service costs $395 to $2,000 for the same calls. A part-time receptionist on 20 hours a week costs about £1,100 a month in the UK or $1,580 in the US.

Below: prices checked on 26 September 2026, a worked cost for one property at 50 and 200 calls a month, a table of what software handles and what still needs a person, and a two-week test to find out how many calls you are actually losing.

## What are your options for answering the phone?

There are three ways to answer when you cannot: software, an outside team of people, or your own staff. Most hosts with one to five units use a fourth option, their own mobile, which costs nothing but your evenings.

| Option | Who answers | When | Monthly cost for one property |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI phone agent (Rosie, Goodcall) | software, several languages | 24 hours a day | $49 to $149 |
| Human answering service (Ruby, Smith.ai) | a remote receptionist team | depends on the plan | $395 to $2,000 |
| Part-time receptionist | your employee | the hours on the rota | about £1,100 or $1,580 for 20 hours a week |

## What does an AI receptionist cost?

The cheapest published plan is $49 a month for 250 minutes. Two vendors publish full price lists; many others ask you to book a demo.

| Vendor | Plan | Price per month | Included | Beyond the plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | Professional | $49 | 250 minutes, 2 custom scenarios | not shown on the page |
| Rosie | Scale | $149 | 1,000 minutes, 5 scenarios | not shown on the page |
| Rosie | Growth | $299 | 2,000 minutes, unlimited scenarios | not shown on the page |
| Goodcall | Starter | $79 ($66 yearly) | unlimited minutes, 100 unique callers | $0.50 per extra caller |
| Goodcall | Growth | $129 ($108 yearly) | unlimited minutes, 250 unique callers | $0.50 per extra caller |

Two models hide in that table. Rosie sells minutes. Goodcall sells unique callers, meaning distinct phone numbers in a month, so a guest who calls three times counts once. For a rental, where the same guest rings about parking, then the key, then late checkout, Goodcall's model is friendlier.

Rosie offers a 7-day trial, and its page was published on 21 September 2026. Smith.ai also sells an AI receptionist, but its pricing page shows only the human plans, so we could not price it.

## What does a human answering service or a part-time receptionist cost?

A human answering service starts at $250 to $300 a month for a small allowance and climbs fast; your own part-time person costs more but is yours.

**Ruby** sells receptionist minutes with 24/7 live answering, including nights, weekends and holidays: Starter $250 for 50 minutes, Standard $395 for 100, Popular $720 for 200, Premium $1,725 for 500. No setup fee. The overage rate is not on the pricing page.

**Smith.ai** sells calls: Starter $300 for 30 calls, then $11.50 per call; Basic $810 for 90, then $10.50; Pro $2,100 for 300, then $8.50.

In Europe the model looks similar. In Poland, Nocna Recepcja runs a remote human night desk from 22:00 to 6:00 for 1,490 zł a month (about €350), plus a one-off 2,490 zł onboarding fee. It includes remote check-in with ID checks, which no AI agent does.

**Your own staff.** The UK National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026, up from £12.21. In the US, the federal minimum is still $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 2009, but the median receptionist earned $18.27 an hour in May 2025 (BLS). Twenty hours a week is about 87 hours a month.

## Worked example: one property at 50 and 200 calls a month

Assume a guest call lasts two minutes on average: "is there parking", "what time is check-in", "are you free on Saturday". Fifty calls is 100 minutes; 200 calls is 400 minutes.

| Option | 50 calls (100 min) | 200 calls (400 min) | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | $49 (Professional) | $149 (Scale, the next plan up) | 24 hours |
| Goodcall | $79 (Starter) | $129 (Growth, or Starter plus 100 extra callers) | 24 hours |
| Supalobby Voice | 338 zł, about €80 (129 zł + 70 min × 2.99 zł) | 1,235 zł, about €290 | 24 hours, Polish number |
| Ruby | $395 (Standard) | $1,725 (Premium) | 24 hours |
| Smith.ai | $530 ($300 + 20 × $11.50) | $1,965 ($810 + 110 × $10.50) | not stated on the pricing page |
| Part-time, UK, 20 h a week | about £1,100 | about £1,100 | about 87 hours |
| Part-time, US median, 20 h a week | about $1,580 | about $1,580 | about 87 hours |
| Evening cover, 4 h × 30 nights, UK | about £1,525 | about £1,525 | 120 hours |

Three things stand out. At both volumes the cheapest human option costs eight to thirteen times the cheapest AI plan. A person costs the same at 50 and 200 calls, so at 50 calls a part-time receptionist costs about £22 per call answered. And no human option covers the whole night for less than the price of a salary.

## What should an AI handle and what still needs a person?

Software handles questions whose answer sits in a knowledge base or a calendar. A person is needed when something must be done in the physical world or judged on the spot.

| Situation | AI phone agent | Human on shift |
|---|---|---|
| "Do you have Saturday free and what does it cost" | yes, if it reads your calendar | yes |
| Directions, parking, check-in time, door code | yes, from the property's knowledge base | yes |
| Booking over the phone | yes, where it writes to your booking system | yes |
| Upset guest or a leak at 2 a.m. | logs it and passes it to you | calls the plumber, if you gave them the list |
| Remote check-in with an ID check | no | some night-desk services do it |
| Caller who insists on a human | needs a transfer or a callback promise | is a human |

Even the vendors say so. Smart Asystenci, a Polish AI receptionist company, lists four downsides of its own product in a July 2026 post: it sticks to its script and knowledge base, it needs setup work (documents, booking rules, reviewing transcripts), some callers prefer a person, and minutes beyond the plan cost extra.

Our view: for one to five units, an AI agent plus your own phone for the few calls it cannot settle is the only option that fits the margin. A human night desk starts to make sense at a dozen rooms or more, when one night shift of your own would cost more.

## How many calls are you actually missing?

You do not know until you count. The only figure we found comes from a vendor: Smart Asystenci cites PATLive and Aircall for the claim that 85 percent of callers who do not get through the first time never try again. We could not open the original studies, so treat it as a sales number.

Run this test for two weeks instead:

1. Every evening, open your phone's call log and note missed calls from numbers you do not know.
2. Remove those who called back or messaged you within an hour.
3. Multiply what is left by the share of calls that usually turn into a booking; if you do not know, use one in two.
4. Multiply by your average booking value, then by two for a monthly figure.

If the result is below $50 a month, keep answering yourself. If it is above $150, even the larger AI plans pay for themselves. Booking.com also stopped passing guest phone numbers to connected systems on 28 September 2026, which moves some of those conversations into its message thread; see [what changed](/en/blog/booking-com-guest-phone-numbers-28-september-2026).

## Where Supalobby fits

Supalobby is an AI agent for short-term rentals. Its Voice add-on costs 129 zł a month per property (about €29) and gives the agent a Polish landline number. The agent answers calls from the property's knowledge base and can create a booking when Beddesk or HotRes is connected. Thirty minutes are included, then 2.99 zł (about €0.70) a minute. Each call is saved with a full transcript in the app's Calls view. It does not place outbound calls, check IDs or call a plumber; when unsure, it hands the matter to you. The number is Polish, so it suits properties in Poland; for a UK or US line, use one of the vendors above.

## Frequently asked questions

**How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small hotel or rental?**

Published plans start at $49 a month for 250 minutes (Rosie Professional) and $79 a month for 100 unique callers with unlimited minutes (Goodcall Starter). A property taking 200 calls a month of about two minutes each lands between $129 and $149. Prices checked on 26 September 2026; neither vendor shows a per-minute overage on its pricing page.

**Is a human answering service worth it for one property?**

Rarely, on price alone. Ruby charges $395 a month for 100 receptionist minutes and Smith.ai $300 for 30 calls, then $11.50 per extra call. At 50 calls a month that is roughly $400 to $530, five to ten times an AI plan. People earn that premium on upset guests and unusual requests, not on questions about parking.

**What does a part-time receptionist cost in the UK or US?**

The UK National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour from April 2026, so 20 hours a week costs about £1,100 a month before employer National Insurance and holiday pay. In the US the median receptionist earned $18.27 an hour in May 2025, about $1,580 a month for the same hours.

**How many callers hang up and never call back?**

We found no study for rentals. Smart Asystenci, a Polish AI receptionist vendor, cites PATLive and Aircall for the claim that 85 percent of people who do not get through the first time never try again. We could not open those original studies, so treat 85 percent as a sales figure and count your own missed calls for two weeks.

**Can an AI receptionist take a booking over the phone?**

Yes, if it can read your calendar and write to your booking system. Rosie lists appointment booking on every plan, and Supalobby Voice creates bookings in Beddesk and HotRes. Without that connection the AI can only take a message and promise a callback, which does little for a guest who wants Saturday confirmed now.


## Sources

- [Rosie, AI phone answering pricing (Professional, Scale, Growth)](https://heyrosie.com/pricing) (2026-09-21)
- [Goodcall, AI phone agent pricing (Starter, Growth, Scale)](https://www.goodcall.com/pricing) (2026-09-26)
- [Smith.ai, virtual receptionist pricing](https://smith.ai/pricing) (2026-09-26)
- [Ruby, virtual receptionist pricing](https://www.ruby.com/pricing/) (2026-09-26)
- [GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates](https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates) (2026-09-26)
- [US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Receptionists](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/receptionists.htm) (2026-08-27)
- [US Department of Labor, federal minimum wage](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage) (2026-09-26)
- [Nocna Recepcja, remote night reception plans (Poland)](https://nocnarecepcja.pl/) (2026-09-26)
- [Smart Asystenci, cost of missed calls (cites PATLive and Aircall)](https://smart-asystenci.pl/blog/koszt-nieodebranych-polaczen) (2026-06-17)
- [Smart Asystenci, AI receptionist reviews, downsides and when it does not pay](https://smart-asystenci.pl/blog/ai-recepcjonistka-opinie-czy-warto) (2026-07-03)