Hostie AI review: pricing history, plans, integrations and alternatives (2026)

Hostie fits a full-service restaurant or hospitality group whose guests call, text and email about tables, events and takeout, and that books through OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms or Yelp. It prints no price, so ask for a quote or start its free trial. For a printed price, compare Slang AI for reservations and Maple for phone orders.

Hostie calls itself a virtual concierge. Randall Hom and Brendan Wood started it while Hom was running Back to Back in San Francisco, and its advisors include a former OpenTable CEO and a former Yelp vice president of engineering. Most of its site is about covers, private events and guest messages. A takeout counter asks different questions, so the table shows where each vendor starts, from each company's own site.

Vendor	What its site sells	Price on its site	Start here if
Hostie (hostie.ai)	Calls, texts and email in one inbox, plus Instagram and Google Maps texting. Books tables, takes takeout orders and captures event leads.	Three plans named (Essential, Premium, Hospitality Plus); no price printed. Free trial offered.	You run a dining room and guests reach you on more than one channel.
Slang AI (slang.ai)	Phone answering, guest questions and reservations; texts guests ordering links.	Core from $399 per location; Premium from $599 per location.	You want reservations handled at a printed starting price.
Maple (maple.inc)	Voice: answering, FAQs, call transfer. Pro adds phone orders into the POS, OpenTable reservations and payment by phone.	Voice $150/month billed monthly or $85/month billed yearly. Pro $350/month billed monthly or $220/month billed yearly.	Takeout calls are the job and your POS is on Maple's list.
Loman AI (loman.ai)	Premium plan: takeout and delivery orders, phone reservations, POS integration and payment by phone.	Request pricing. The page says no per-minute fees.	You want ordering and reservations from one quoted vendor.
Certus AI (certus-ai.com)	Phone orders, OpenTable reservations and catering intake.	Homepage comparison lists $250/mo with ordering, monthly billing.	You want orders and OpenTable bookings at a flat monthly price.

What does Hostie do?

Hostie's homepage says it answers every call, text or question in your restaurant's voice. Its features page adds live transcripts, the option for staff to join a conversation, takeout orders by phone or text, and guest history the restaurant keeps. When a guest asks for a person, Hostie transfers the call to any number you choose. It says it can work with your phone system or replace it and port your number.

Hostie also publishes its own results. The features page says it answers an average of 85% of guest questions and forwards 15% to a host. Its case studies report The Slanted Door Group raising over-the-phone covers by 56% and The Stinking Rose Group managing 24,000 calls. These figures come from Hostie's own site.

How do Hostie's plans differ?

The pricing page names three plans and prints no dollar figure for any of them.

• Essential: for walk-in restaurants. One inbox for calls, texts and email, texted links so guests can view menus, book and order takeout, prompts for your main questions, live transcripts and an operator app.
• Premium: for full-service restaurants. Adds full reservation integrations that book and change tables, takeout ordering by phone or text, 20 languages and 24/7 support.
• Hospitality Plus: adds cross-booking at a sister location when one is full, conversation scoring, event management integrations, marketing texts and white-glove onboarding.

On Essential, Hostie texts the guest a link to book or order. Booking during the call and takeout ordering sit in Premium, so price Premium if those are the jobs. Groups go through sales; the enterprise page describes deployments of 80+ locations and a rollout of 30 to 120 days.

What did Hostie's pricing page print before it removed the prices?

As of November 11, 2026 Hostie's page prints no dollar figure. It did until at least mid-2026. The rows below come from Wayback Machine captures of the pricing page; each opens the page as captured. They are list prices per location, not what any restaurant paid.

Capture	Plans and prices printed	Other terms
April 28, 2025	Basic $199, Standard $299, Premium $399 a month per location. An Enterprise tier with no price.	"Book a demo."
October 5, 2025	Essential $199, Premium $399 and Hospitality Plus $599 a month per location.	A free trial is offered.
April 14, 2026	Essential from $199 a month, Premium from $399 ("Most popular"), Hospitality Plus from $599, per location.	"Start a free trial."
June 12, 2026	The same three prices.	"Start a free trial."
November 11, 2026	Essential, Premium and Hospitality Plus with no price.	"Get Started" on each plan and "Start a free trial."

Two things stand out. The plan set was rebuilt between the May 22 and October 5, 2025 captures: the plans were renamed, the middle $299 plan went, and a $599 tier took the top. Prices then held for at least eight months. Second, the figures were taken off the page after June 12, 2026. This guide cannot say whether the plan prices changed when they came down, so treat the old numbers as a starting point for a question, not a quote.

What would Hostie cost per location at the last printed prices?

This is arithmetic on the June 12, 2026 capture. It assumes one plan per location and monthly billing, and leaves out any setup fee, taxes and add-ons. Maple's prices are the published plan prices.

Locations	Hostie Essential ($199)	Hostie Premium ($399)	Hostie Hospitality Plus ($599)	Maple Pro, monthly ($350)	Maple Pro, yearly ($220)
1	$199	$399	$599	$350	$220
2	$398	$798	$1,198	$700	$440
4	$796	$1,596	$2,396	$1,400	$880

The comparison that makes sense for a takeout restaurant is Hostie Premium, which lists takeout ordering by phone or text and full reservation integrations, against Maple Pro. At one location, Premium at $399 against Maple Pro at $350 monthly is $49 a month, or $588 a year. Against Maple Pro billed yearly at $220 the gap is $179 a month, $2,148 a year. Hostie Essential, at $199, sends guests a text link to book or order, so it does not compare with Maple Pro. It sits nearer Maple Voice at $150 a month, or $85 billed yearly, which answers calls, FAQs and transfers.

Which vendors name your booking and ordering systems?

Find the system you already use, then shortlist the vendors that name it. Each entry comes from that vendor's own integrations or pricing page. Then test the workflow you need with each one.

Your system	Vendors that name it
OpenTable	Hostie, Slang AI, Maple Pro, Loman AI and Certus AI
Resy	Hostie and Loman AI
Tock	Hostie only, of these five
SevenRooms or Yelp	Hostie and Slang AI
Tripleseat (private events)	Hostie; Slang AI sells it as an add-on
Toast	Maple, Loman AI and Certus AI; Hostie's FAQ also names Toast
Square	Hostie, Maple, Loman AI and Certus AI
Olo or Stream	Hostie, Loman AI, and Maple for Stream Orders

Which alternative fits which restaurant?

Pick Hostie if guests reach you by text, email, Instagram or Google Maps as well as the phone, if you book on Resy or Tock, or if you run several rooms and want a full one to offer the next.

Pick Slang AI if you want reservations handled at a printed starting price; our Slang AI review covers its plans. Loman and Certus both take phone orders and book OpenTable tables, Loman from a quote and Certus at a listed monthly price. See our Loman comparison and Certus review.

Pick Maple if takeout calls are the job. Maple Pro takes phone orders into systems on the integrations list, including Toast, Square, Clover and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine), and books tables on OpenTable. Maple Voice covers answering, FAQs and transfer on its own. Maple's published scope covers phone calls, plus order confirmation texts on Pro. It lists no email or social messaging.

Which plan fits which restaurant?

Your restaurant	Plan to price at Hostie	Plan to price at Maple
A walk-in counter that wants calls answered and a text link for menus	Essential	Voice
A full-service room that books on a reservation system and sells takeout	Premium	Pro (OpenTable reservations and POS orders)
A group with sister restaurants and private events	Hospitality Plus (cross-booking, event management integrations, marketing texts)	Ask about Enterprise; Maple lists multi-location management there
A restaurant whose guests mostly text or email	Any plan that includes the unified inbox; confirm which	Not offered. Maple does not offer a conversational SMS agent or an AI email inbox.
A restaurant on Resy or Tock	Premium or above, if the integration is included	Not on Maple's list; Maple's reservation connection is OpenTable.

The right-hand column matters if you picked Hostie for its channels. Maple's published scope is phone calls, with order confirmation texts on Pro. It does not offer SMS marketing, email marketing or promotional text blasts, so do not choose Maple for those. Hostie's Hospitality Plus lists marketing features and Essential and above list texting links.

What does Hostie's hiring say?

Hostie's careers page, read November 11, 2026, lists roles for a VP of Enterprise Sales (account-based campaigns, HubSpot or Salesforce), a partnerships lead who would build a partner program with tiers and deal registration, and a Sales Engineer for voice AI. It lists no paid-media role. The reading for a buyer: Hostie is building an enterprise sales team and a partner channel. If you are a group, expect a sales-led process and ask who owns your rollout. If you are a single restaurant, ask whether the free trial and self-serve start are still the path.

What should you ask Hostie before you sign?

1. Which plan books in your reservation system during the call, and its price per location in writing, with the billing term.
2. Whether changes and cancellations write back to your system, and what the host sees.
3. How takeout orders reach the kitchen: through Olo, Square or Stream, or by a texted link.
4. What the free trial includes and how you end it.
5. How Hostie counts the 85% it answers, and what the host receives on calls it forwards.
6. How you export guest history and transcripts if you leave.

How should you test Hostie against another vendor?

Run the same five calls on each: a table for six tomorrow with a high chair, a change to an existing booking, a private event inquiry, a takeout order with a modifier, and a caller who asks for the manager. Check what lands in your reservation system and POS, and what staff see. Our reservation setup guide has call scripts, the catering inquiry guide covers event leads, and the handoff checklist covers the manager call. To hear Maple on real calls, see the call recordings.

How should you read Hostie's comparison with Slang and SoundHound?

Hostie's pricing page carries a feature table that sets Hostie against Slang and SoundHound, with Hostie ticked on most rows and the others shown as "sends links" for reservations and takeout orders. It is a vendor's table about its rivals, so treat it as a list of questions. Slang's own pricing page lists reservation management and full reservation integrations, so the first thing to test is what each product does during the call, not what a table says it does. Run one reservation and one takeout order on each product you are comparing and record what lands in your system. If a rival's page and Hostie's table disagree, believe the call you made.

The same caution applies to every figure Hostie publishes about itself, such as the 85% of guest questions it says it answers, and to every figure in this guide about Maple. Ask each vendor how a number was measured, over which stores and which weeks, and whether a call that was forwarded counts as answered.

Which scorecard should you use after calling both?

Score each row 0 (staff fixed it), 1 (worked with a workaround) or 2 (worked as shown). Run the same calls on each product, and do not score a row you did not test.

Row	What a 2 looks like
Table for six with a high chair	Booking appears in your reservation system at the right time with the note.
Change of an existing booking	Original replaced, not duplicated.
Private event inquiry	Lead captured with date, size and contact, and routed to the right person.
Takeout order with a modifier	Correct ticket in the POS, or a clear text link if the plan sends one.
Manager request	Call transferred to the number you chose.
A text from a guest, if you use it	Answered in your voice, with staff able to step in.
Written price	Per-location price, term and add-ons in one document.

What should you do when a test goes wrong?

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix to ask for
The agent texts a link when you expected an order.	The plan you tested sends links; ordering by phone sits in a higher plan.	Ask which plan takes the order on the call and repeat the test on it.
A booking lands on the wrong table type.	Seating rules are set in the reservation system, not the agent.	Ask which rules the agent reads and set the limits at the source.
The guest gets two confirmations.	Both the agent and the reservation system send one.	Turn off one sender.
Staff cannot see what the agent said.	Transcripts or alerts are not turned on for that user.	Ask for the operator app or transcript access and test it on a live call.
Forwarded calls ring out.	The forwarding number or the schedule is wrong.	Check it with our call forwarding checklist.

What do restaurants ask about Hostie?

Hostie prints no price today, offers a free trial and is built around full-service restaurants and groups. The answers below cover cost, takeout, POS support and who it suits.

How much does Hostie cost?

The pricing page prints no dollar figure as of November 11, 2026. Until at least June 12, 2026 it printed $199, $399 and $599 a month per location for Essential, Premium and Hospitality Plus. Ask for a written quote.

Does Hostie have a free trial?

Yes: the pricing page and header offer "Start a free trial." Ask what it includes, how long it runs and how you end it.

Does Hostie take takeout orders?

Premium lists takeout ordering by phone or text. Essential sends a text link that lets guests view menus, book and order takeout.

Does Hostie work with Toast and Square?

Hostie's pages name Square and Olo, and its FAQ also names Toast. Ask which plan includes your POS connection and what the order looks like in it.

Is Hostie better than Slang AI?

They overlap on reservations. Hostie adds a unified inbox for calls, texts and email, and Slang prints starting prices of $399 and $599 per location. See our Slang AI guide for the price history.

Who is Hostie for, and who is it not for?

Its site is built around full-service restaurants and hospitality groups. A single takeout shop with most calls ending in a ticket should also price Maple Pro and Loman Premium.

Published by Maple, which sells one of the products compared here. This AI-assisted guide combines each vendor's own website, pricing and integrations pages with an original system lookup table. It does not report a test of any product, a quote, or an independent check of Hostie's results.