Honest comparison

Virtual Host AI vs the typical Wien check-in tool

Most Wien-focused check-in products solve one thing: a digital Gästeblatt link to send guests. The split happens in how booking data gets in, how Ortstaxe is computed, and how you pay. Here's the honest side-by-side.

The 5-second answer: if you have a handful of bookings a month and don't mind pasting the gross sales for every booking by hand, a per-form check-in tool is fine. Once you're at 5+ apartments, the manual gross-revenue entry per booking becomes a Sunday-evening job. Virtual Host AI connects to Smoobu via API key, pulls the gross revenue for every booking automatically, and bills a flat €5.90 per apartment on the Wien Compliance plan — VIETour CSV + Abgabenerklärung PDF in the same dashboard.

Feature-by-feature

No marketing spin. Where competing tools win, we say it. Where we win, we show why.

Feature	Virtual Host AI	Typical Wien check-in tool
Booking data integration
Smoobu API integration (full reservation pull)
Gross revenue auto-pulled from PMS (no manual entry)
Guest-form link insertion (works without PMS)
Pricing model
Flat per-apartment pricing
Per-filed-form fees
Predictable monthly cost
Wien compliance
Meldegesetz §5 digital guest registration
VIETour Nächtigungsmeldung CSV (Statistik Austria)
Ortstaxe calculator matching Stadt Wien byte-for-byte
Abgabenerklärung PDF generator (per-apartment OR combined)
Per-property WTFG §11 deductions
Keybox code released only after form is signed
Other features
AI guest-message autopilot (40+ languages)
Two-way Google Calendar sync
Stay-extension upselling
Cleaner can update access codes inline
DSGVO compliance baked in

🟡 = supported in some form but limited or unverified at the time of writing.

Worked example — 5 apartments, 80 bookings/month

A typical Wien Vermieter portfolio. Here's what each tool actually costs at this volume.

Virtual Host AI

€29.50 /month

5 apartments × €5.90 (Wien Compliance plan). Flat regardless of booking volume.

Unlimited guest forms
Smoobu API integration
VIETour CSV + Abgabenerklärung PDF
Per-apartment OR combined PDFs

Per-form Wien check-in tool

~€32 /month

Typical per-form pricing: ~€0.40 each, with the first few free. 80 forms × €0.40 = €32.

Per-form pricing — scales linearly with bookings
Guest-link only (no PMS API)
Manual gross-sales entry per booking
Custom quote at higher volumes

At 100+ forms/month, per-form tools usually switch to a custom quote. Our flat per-apartment rate doesn't change.

When to choose which

Pick Virtual Host AI if…

You're on Smoobu and want booking + gross-revenue auto-pulled.
You don't want to copy-paste gross sales for every booking.
Predictable per-apartment pricing matters more than a free tier.
You also want AI message autopilot, calendar sync, or upselling alongside the compliance flow.
You file separate Abgabenerklärungen per apartment and need per-property PDFs.

…

Pick a per-form check-in tool if…

You don't use Smoobu (or a PMS at all) and just want a guest-form link.
You have ≤3 bookings a month and want to stay on a free tier.
You're fine entering gross sales by hand for each booking.
You don't need messaging, calendar, or upselling — only the compliance forms.

About this comparison

Last verified: 26 April 2026, against publicly-stated features of multiple Wien-focused check-in tools. We compare publicly-documented features only and mark anything we can't independently verify as 🟡 partial / unclear. Pricing example uses the typical "per-filed-form" model widely seen in this market segment (commonly around €0.40 per form with a small free tier).

Spotted something wrong? Email correction@virtualhost.at — we'll fix it within 48 hours and add a note to the changelog.

This page describes generic feature patterns of the Wien check-in-tool market segment without naming or targeting any specific competitor. Comparison made factually under EU comparative-advertising rules (Directive 2006/114/EC, Austrian UWG §2a).