Alternatives · honest comparison
The Moneypenny alternative built for hotels
Comparison researched July 2026 from Moneypenny's published pages and public reviews. Moneypenny doesn't publish a price card, so we don't quote their rates — check current details with them directly.
TL;DR
- Moneypenny is the UK's best-known telephone answering company: real human receptionists taking messages, billed per minute, priced by individual quote after a sales call.
- FrontDesk 247 is an AI receptionist trained on your hotel. She answers every call 24/7, answers actual guest questions — rooms, rates, dogs, parking — and captures every enquiry into your CRM, at published flat pricing (£249–£749/month).
- The honest version: if you want a warm human voice on every call, choose Moneypenny. If you want every hotel call answered and captured at a price you can see before you ring anyone, that's us.
At a glance
| Moneypenny | FrontDesk 247 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Human receptionists (dedicated-PA model) | AI receptionist trained on your hotel |
| Pricing | Quote-only — no published price card; billed per minute | Published flat pricing: £249–£749/month + one-off setup |
| 24/7 cover | Available; on the message-taking product it's a paid extra (~£35/month per their site) | Included — 24/7 is the product |
| Hotel knowledge | A briefing sheet — message-taking, not hotel operations | Full knowledge base: rooms, rates, breakfast, parking, dog policy, directions |
| Outcome of a call | A message passed to you | A structured enquiry in your CRM: name, number, dates, intent |
| Three calls at once | A human answers one call at a time | Every call answered simultaneously |
| Specialism | Generalist — strong in legal, property, healthcare | Independent hotels only |
| Guarantee | Not published | 90-day pays-for-itself guarantee · half of setup only when satisfied |
Why hotels go looking for an alternative
Three themes come up again and again. First, pricing: Moneypenny deliberately doesn't publish a price card — you get a tailored quote after a sales call, and billing is per minute. For a hotel, whose calls are long and chatty (directions, breakfast times, "do you allow dogs?"), per-minute human billing is an open-ended cost that grows exactly when your phone is busiest. Public reviews on Trustpilot include recurring complaints about expense, quotes not matching eventual bills, overage creep and cancellation friction — read them yourself and weigh them against the many happy ones.
Second, the product: Moneypenny's core hotel offer is message-taking. A professional stranger answers politely, takes a name and number, and passes you a message. But the caller wanted an answer — a rate, a policy, a booking — and a message at 11pm is a booking that's still not made by morning.
Third, capacity: humans answer one call at a time. Saturday check-in, three lines ringing — a dedicated PA is still one person.
What FrontDesk 247 does differently
Most hotel calls are the same fifteen questions. That's exactly what a managed, hotel-trained AI does better and cheaper than a per-minute human: she knows your rooms, your rates, your breakfast times and your dog policy cold, answers at 3pm or 3am, and answers every call at once when the desk is slammed.
And instead of a message, you get capture: every enquiry lands in your CRM with a name, a number, dates and intent — plus a monthly report of what your guests actually asked for. Pricing is flat and published: £249–£749/month by property size, with setup half up front and half only when you're satisfied. Live in 48 hours.
Where Moneypenny is genuinely better
Honesty cuts both ways. Moneypenny's human receptionists handle fully unscripted, emotionally sensitive conversations better than any AI, ours included. The brand has decades of trust behind it and a large, strong public review footprint. If a warm human voice on every single call matters more to you than answers and capture, choose them.
And our own gaps, plainly: we have no human backup receptionists — when a caller needs a person, she transfers to your own staff or takes a message. We're a new brand without years of reviews; our mitigation is the 90-day guarantee, the half-on-satisfaction payment structure, and a live demo line anyone can ring right now. There's no free trial, and our setup fee (£1,500–£4,000) is real money — it's the cost of the done-for-you build and testing.
Stay with (or choose) Moneypenny if…
- You want a real human voice on every call, whatever the subject.
- Your calls are genuinely unscripted or emotionally sensitive more often than they're the usual hotel questions.
- You value the most established name in UK call answering over published pricing.
- You're not actually a hotel — their strongholds are legal, property and healthcare.
Choose FrontDesk 247 if…
- You run an independent UK hotel and calls peak after hours and at check-in.
- You want every call answered — simultaneously, at 2am, during breakfast service.
- You want flat, published pricing instead of a per-minute quote.
- You want enquiries captured to your CRM and a monthly guest-intelligence report, not messages.
Questions hoteliers ask
Moneypenny doesn't publish a price card — pricing is quoted per business after a sales call and billed per minute, and on their message-taking product 24/7 answering is a paid extra (around £35/month per their site). FrontDesk 247 publishes flat pricing: £249–£749/month by property size, plus a one-off setup.
Moneypenny's core offer is human message-taking: a polite professional takes the caller's details and passes you a message. FrontDesk 247 is a receptionist trained on your specific hotel: she answers the actual question (rooms, rates, dogs, parking), captures every enquiry into your CRM with name, number, dates and intent, and answers every call simultaneously, 24/7.
No — it's an AI receptionist, and she's honest about that if asked. There are no human backup receptionists: when a caller needs a person she transfers to your own staff or takes a message. If human conversation on every call is your priority, Moneypenny's people are genuinely excellent.
Phone our demonstration hotel on 0131 381 5508 and try to catch the receptionist out. Grace answers for The Harbour House, our fictional demo hotel — she'll tell you she's the demo if you ask. That's the whole trial: no form, no sales call first.
The comparison you can run in two minutes
Phone our demonstration hotel and put the receptionist through her paces — rooms, breakfast, bringing your dog. Grace at The Harbour Houseis fictional and she’ll say so if you ask.
Half up front, half when you're satisfied · 90-day guarantee
See all comparisons on the compare index — or our full pricing.