Directful - Marketing vs. Sojern Guest Marketing Suite:
Which Is Right for You?

The Decision

Choosing between Directful and Sojern Guest Marketing Suite hinges on your hotel’s specific needs for guest relationship management and marketing automation. Both platforms aim to strengthen guest engagement and boost direct bookings, but they do so with different approaches, features, and operational focuses. Your decision should reflect whether you prioritize ease of use, extensive integrations, advanced segmentation, or AI-driven insights.

Directful is a newer player in the space with a limited review footprint but offers a suite of unique features like event-based automations and loyalty segmentation. Sojern, on the other hand, benefits from a larger, more recent review base and a broader set of integrations, making it a more established solution for most hoteliers. Which platform aligns better with your hotel’s strategic priorities?

Is Directful or Sojern Better for Hotels?

Both Directful and Sojern aim to help your team build stronger guest relationships and improve revenue through targeted marketing. However, their core strengths diverge: Directful emphasizes personalized, automated, multi-channel communication with advanced segmentation tools, while Sojern excels in its user-friendly interface, extensive integrations, and proven performance in North American markets.

Directful’s AI-driven insights and event-based automations make it ideal for hotels seeking a tailored, automated CRM experience that can foster long-term loyalty. Conversely, Sojern’s ease of use, support, and broader market presence make it the go-to choice if your hotel prioritizes quick onboarding and reliable, ongoing support.

Given the more recent and higher volume of reviews, Sojern’s platform is currently more data-backed. Are you ready to prioritize a mature, well-supported platform or a potentially more customizable, automation-focused solution?

Sojern Guest Marketing Suite vs Directful: Which Should Your Hotel Choose?

If your hotel needs a straightforward, easy-to-deploy platform with excellent support and a proven track record, go with Sojern. It’s especially suited for properties that value quick onboarding, broad integrations, and a proven ability to manage guest communications efficiently, with a review count of 12—more recent and more numerous than Directful.

If your hotel requires a specialized CRM with advanced automation, segmentation, and AI-driven insights to deepen guest relationships and drive loyalty, Directful is the better choice. Its unique features, such as event-based automations and loyalty segmentation, cater to hotels looking to reclaim control over guest data and personalize guest journeys more granularly.

In essence, choose Sojern if ease and support matter most; opt for Directful if automation and segmentation sophistication align with your strategy. The stronger current data and recent reviews favor Sojern, but your specific needs should dictate the best fit.

Is Directful or Sojern Easier to Use?

Sojern scores an impressive 4.75/5 for ease of use, bolstered by onboarding ratings of 4.91/5 and a support team rated at 4.92/5. Guests describe it as straightforward, with many noting the platform’s intuitive design and quick learning curve. Support staff proactively assist, with reviews emphasizing their responsiveness and helpfulness.

Directful, however, has a 0/5 ease of use rating and no available recent reviews, indicating limited data on its user-friendliness. Without concrete feedback, it’s difficult to gauge how new users will adapt to its interface, especially given its advanced automation features.

Edge: Sojern.

Which Has Better Features: Directful or Sojern?

Directful offers 10 unique features, including personalized one-to-one communication, event-based automations, a template editor, and multiple segmentation options like loyalty, attribute, geographic, and channel-based targeting. Its centralized multi-hotel solution caters to hotel groups seeking to manage multiple properties under one platform.

Sojern provides 3 unique features—automatic de-duplication, database health monitoring, and PCI compliance—that are crucial for data integrity and security. While it shares 3 features with Directful, its focus on data management and security enhances reliability.

Given the broader feature set tailored for personalized marketing and automation, Directful edges out in feature depth, especially for hotels emphasizing guest journey automation.

Edge: Directful.

Which Has Better Customer Support: Directful or Sojern?

Sojern’s customer support boasts a 4.92/5 rating, with reviews highlighting its responsiveness, proactive assistance, and ongoing support. Reviewers appreciate the dedicated onboarding process and the team's ability to help optimize campaigns, which contributes to their high NPS score (10/5).

Directful’s support support is unreviewed and therefore harder to evaluate—its zero ratings and absence of recent feedback suggest it is less established in customer service quality. Without concrete support data, it’s safer to assume Sojern’s support is more reliable and experienced.

Edge: Sojern.

Which Has More Integrations: Directful or Sojern?

Sojern vastly outperforms in integrations, with 33 verified partners compared to Directful’s 4. Shared integrations include Oracle Hospitality, Visual Matrix PMS, and Stayntouch. Unique integrations in Sojern include Profitroom, Mirai, HOTELTIME, and others, expanding its reach across various hotel management and booking platforms.

Directful’s limited integrations may restrict connectivity with other hotel systems, which could be a concern for larger or more complex property portfolios seeking extensive third-party connections.

Edge: Sojern.

Which Do Hoteliers Rate Higher: Directful or Sojern?

Since Sojern has 12 recent reviews and a 100% likelihood to recommend, it clearly earns higher satisfaction scores from hoteliers. Its ease of use, onboarding, and support are consistently praised across segments—especially in North America.

Directful, with no recent reviews or ratings, remains untested by user feedback, making it difficult to gauge overall satisfaction. Its lack of recent reviews suggests it has yet to establish trust or prove value at scale.

Edge: Sojern.

How Much Do Directful and Sojern Cost?

Both platforms are priced at a base rate of $400/month, with no freemium options, implementation fees, or per-room charges. This straightforward pricing makes comparisons simple, though specific ROI depends on the features and support you leverage.

Since both are similarly priced, your choice should depend on the value received through features, support, and integrations rather than cost alone.

What Type of Hotel Should Use Directful?

Hotels that:

• Need highly personalized, automated guest communication
• Want advanced segmentation options (loyalty, attribute, geographic, channel-based)
• Have multiple properties and need a centralized platform
• Are focused on AI-driven insights and automations to boost guest loyalty

Not ideal if:

• Your hotel prefers a simple, easy-to-use platform with minimal setup
• You lack internal resources for managing complex automations
• You are seeking a platform with extensive third-party integrations

What Type of Hotel Should Use Sojern?

Hotels that:

• Value ease of use and quick onboarding
• Prioritize support and proven performance
• Operate primarily in North America with a need for broad integrations
• Want to manage guest communications via email, SMS, and chat with reliability

Not ideal if:

• Your hotel requires highly advanced segmentation or automation
• You need a platform with AI-driven review analysis or loyalty automation
• You operate in regions where Sojern’s presence is limited

Directful vs Sojern: The Bottom Line for Hotels

The core difference lies in their maturity and focus: Sojern offers a well-supported, easy-to-use platform with broad integrations and a strong recent review base, making it ideal for hotels seeking dependable, straightforward guest marketing. Directful emphasizes automation, segmentation, and AI-driven insights, making it a compelling choice for properties aiming to deeply personalize guest engagement and foster loyalty.

If your hotel needs a proven, supported platform with minimal onboarding hassle, Sojern is your best option. Its extensive integrations, excellent support, and recent reviews position it as the more reliable choice for most hotels today.

However, if your team is prepared to invest in customization and automation, and your hotel can leverage advanced segmentation to boost guest loyalty, Directful’s feature set offers potential benefits—though it lacks the recent validation that makes Sojern a safer pick now.

In conclusion, for most hoteliers, the stronger review presence, ease of use, and support of Sojern make it the recommended choice today. Directful may become more appealing as it matures, but for now, Sojern’s platform is the more trustworthy and practical solution.