Supalobby vs SmartGuest (formerly SmartHotel): a check-in platform with an inbox against an agent that answers

SmartGuest, called SmartHotel until 24 September 2026, is a Polish guest engagement platform: online check-in, entry instructions, upsells and one inbox for WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail and Airbnb, at 8 USD per apartment with a 99 USD monthly minimum. Supalobby is an AI agent that replies to guests on every channel, from 49 PLN per unit, about 11 EUR.

Below is what each does, what it costs at one, three and ten units, and who it suits.

What SmartGuest does

SmartHotel Sp. z o.o. is registered in Kraków and runs its head office in Warsaw. On 24 September 2026 it announced the new name SmartGuest, because its clients are no longer only hotels but apartments, cabins, villas and guesthouses. The product is a "Guest Engagement Platform": the guest gets a link, no app, with a check-in card to fill in up to two weeks before arrival, entry instructions, the door code and a guidebook to the property. On top come upsells such as parking, payment links, and tasks routed to staff when a guest reports a problem.

The Unified Inbox gathers SMS, WhatsApp, e-mail and Airbnb chat. The Airbnb integration was announced on 6 May 2026: messages from Airbnb guests appear in the same window where, in the company's words, "you already see messages from Booking, WhatsApp, email, and direct bookings". The product page itself does not name Booking.com; it says "OTAs", and we found no description of how that channel works. Messenger appears on the Polish site. Instagram appears nowhere.

AI plays two roles. "AI Suggestions" proposes replies from the property's knowledge base. "AI Automat" answers repetitive questions on its own, at night and in foreign languages. Add auto-translation, quick replies (templates) and automatic messages: a welcome 7 days before check-in, the check-in card one day before, entry instructions right after check-in. Phone calls belong to a separate product, myGuest.ai, "AI Agent that calls & texts 24/7"; SmartGuest links to it and publishes no price.

A PMS is not required on the basic plans, but without one SmartGuest does not know your reservations: reservation import and automatic messaging arrive with SmartAutomation. The integration list is long, 17 systems on the Polish site: HotRes, KWHotel, IdoBooking, NFHotel, Mews, Guesty, Cloudbeds, Apaleo and others. For properties on HotRes there is a partner rate, 26 PLN per apartment instead of 29.

What Supalobby does

Supalobby does no online check-in, sends no check-in cards and controls no locks. It gathers messages from Booking.com, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Instagram, e-mail, Slowhop and Aloha Camp into one inbox, one thread per guest, and answers them with an AI agent. On the Copilot plan the agent drafts and you send. On Autopilot it replies on its own, switched on per channel, behind a confidence gate: when unsure it asks you and hands the thread over. On Airbnb it drafts the reply and you send it with one click. With the Voice add-on, 129 PLN a month, it answers the phone on a Polish number and creates bookings.

Context comes from the property knowledge base and from Beddesk or HotRes if you have them; on Autopilot it creates bookings there. Without a PMS it works from day one, because Booking.com and Airbnb reservations arrive through notification e-mails. Playbooks, meaning door codes before arrival, the cleaning crew after checkout and review requests, come with the Operator plan, which is announced but not yet on sale. From a sample of 434 conversations in September 2026 the median time from guest message to reply was 3.6 seconds, and the agent closed 46 percent of text conversations by itself.

Price at one, three and ten units

Monthly prices from the lists checked 26 September 2026. SmartGuest charges SmartApartment per apartment with a 99 USD monthly minimum. Supalobby charges per unit, net, in PLN. Conversions use the NBP rates of 25 September 2026: 3.8404 PLN per US dollar, 4.375 PLN per euro.

Below 13 apartments you pay SmartGuest's minimum, so up to that point the number of units does not change the price. At ten units SmartGuest's minimum, about 380 PLN, is below Supalobby's 490 PLN, and the two buy different things: SmartGuest for check-in, entry instructions and upsells, Supalobby for an agent and channels SmartGuest does not carry. At twenty apartments SmartGuest is 160 USD, about 614 PLN, and Supalobby 980 PLN, about 224 EUR.

Hotel plans are priced per property, not per room: SmartChat with the inbox is 199 USD, SmartAutomation with PMS reservation import 299 USD up to 70 rooms plus a 1,000 USD implementation fee. The Polish list says 29 PLN per apartment with a 499 PLN minimum and setup from 600 PLN, and the new smartguest.co price page has no apartment plan at all; ask which one you will be invoiced.

Which one for whom

SmartGuest, when you run dozens of apartments or a hotel, want check-in, check-in cards and entry instructions off the front desk, and replying to messages is a side task. The company itself writes that the Airbnb inbox is "particularly valuable" for operators with a portfolio of dozens of units and a customer service team working in shifts.

Supalobby, when you have one to fifteen units, check-in is a door code in a message, and your problem is the replying: on Booking.com, Instagram, Slowhop, late in the evening, in German. And when you do not want to pay a 99 USD minimum for a tool most of which you will not use.

Both rarely makes sense, because both have an inbox and AI for messages, so you would pay twice for the same part. The exception: SmartGuest handles check-in and entry instructions, Supalobby takes the channels SmartGuest lacks, meaning Instagram, Slowhop, Aloha Camp and the phone.

Check for yourself

SmartGuest's three price lists differ: the Polish one (499 PLN minimum, setup from 600 PLN, 7-day trial), the USD one on mysmarthotel.com (99 USD minimum, 7-day trial) and the new one on smartguest.co (no apartment plan, 1,000 USD implementation on SmartAutomation, no word on a trial). Ask for the one you will be invoiced and whether the amounts are net. Also ask how Booking.com messages reach the inbox, because the site says only "OTAs", and that would change the second row of the table above. If anything here is out of date, tell us at kontakt@supalobby.com and we will fix it and update the date.