Managing buildings through Telegram: resident apps and channels for property managers

Key takeaways

• Unitify gives residents a Telegram bot for requests and payments, with a Free plan and Base at EUR 1 per apartment a month.

• BuildingLink and Buildium serve buildings in the US and Canada, but neither site mentions Telegram.

• Combot or Group Help moderates the neighbour group for free, and Combot Pro costs EUR 9.99 a month.

• Chatwoot turns your own Telegram bot into a shared inbox for a dispatcher team.

• crmchat syncs every building channel subscriber into a CRM, while Telegram's admin panel shows only 200 recent subscribers.

Unitify fits management companies that want requests, billing and a resident bot in one system. BuildingLink handles front desk work in staffed buildings, and Buildium puts accounting first. Combot and Group Help keep neighbour groups free of spam. Chatwoot gives dispatchers a Telegram support queue, and crmchat tracks who subscribes to each building channel.

We included tools that give a residential property manager one of three jobs: announcements, neighbour discussion or tracked requests. We checked each one's own site on 21 October 2026.

How does Unitify move resident requests out of the building group?

Unitify gives residents a Telegram bot for requests and payments, aimed at "residents who won't install another app", according to the Unitify homepage. A leak report sent to the bot becomes a ticket in Unitify's request CRM instead of a message that scrolls away in the group chat.

The rest of Unitify covers daily building operations. Residents use an app for bills, meter readings, requests and door keys. Technicians get their own app with the day's jobs, the route between them, photos, parts and checklists. Easybilly, the billing module, applies each building's own rules and sends invoices to the resident app. The AI Concierge answers calls and chats and creates tickets, with a human approving every decision.

Unitify is built for residential buildings run by management companies, HOAs and developers, and its site is offered in 19 languages, including Russian, Kazakh, Georgian and Uzbek. Standalone office towers, shopping centres and industrial parks that need full lease administration are not its focus today.

What do Unitify's plans cost?

Unitify charges per apartment per month, excluding VAT: Free at EUR 0, Base at EUR 1 and Pro at EUR 3, according to the Unitify pricing page. The Free plan allows one news post a month and no AI, so a Telegram channel still carries frequent updates. Base adds unlimited news posts, AI request sorting, digital passes and booking of shared spaces. Pro adds the AI Concierge, AI reports, billing, API access and 500 AI credits a month. Paid plans start with a 30-day trial and no card. The pricing page does not say which plan includes the Telegram bot, so ask Unitify before you plan the rollout.

What does BuildingLink do for staffed condo buildings?

BuildingLink is built around the front desk of a staffed building, with package tracking, shift logs, incident reports, visitor and key management in a staff app and portal. Residents get a mobile app and web portal for maintenance requests, package alerts, amenity reservations and announcements, according to the BuildingLink site. Managers reach residents by email, SMS and voice broadcast, and can run surveys and an event calendar. A feature called ConciergeLink keeps the front desk working during internet outages.

Fits: condo, co-op and multifamily buildings in the US and Canada with a concierge desk and a steady flow of deliveries. Does not fit: a manager whose residents expect Telegram, because the BuildingLink site does not mention it. In that case you keep a Telegram channel for announcements and send requests to the BuildingLink app. Pricing is not public, so you request a demo to get a quote.

When does Buildium make sense for a building manager?

Buildium puts property accounting first, running rent and dues collection, bank reconciliation, maintenance work orders and online payments by ACH or card in one system. The Buildium site describes its customers as property management companies across the US and Canada. Resident Center mobile apps cover the resident side. Community association tools handle dues, violations and board communications.

Plans start with Essential at $62 a month, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card. Choose Buildium when the books cause more trouble than the chat. Plan around two limits:

• Buildium's site does not mention Telegram, so the building channel and the moderated group stay outside it.

• Community associations get a price by calling sales, according to the Buildium pricing page.

How does Combot keep several building groups under control?

Combot runs moderation and announcements for many groups from one account, and its free Scheduler sends one announcement to several chats at once. Recurring posts, such as a monthly reminder to submit meter readings, go out on their own. In each building group, Combot adds a captcha and a welcome message for new residents, spam filters, warnings and bans. CAS anti-spam bans known spammers when they join, before they post. Combot also counts joins, leaves and messages per group, which shows a manager which building chats are active.

What the plans include, from the Combot pricing section:

• Free: core moderation, CAS anti-spam, the Scheduler and 32 days of analytics.

• Pro at EUR 9.99 a month: 100 days of analytics, 50 automation rules and an auto kicker for inactive members.

• Combot Direct on Pro: residents message admins privately, so complaints about neighbours stay out of the public chat.

• Limits: Combot AI replies are billed separately, and Combot tracks conversations, not repair requests.

Is Group Help enough to protect a single building group?

Group Help covers a single building group on its free plan, and its night mode restricts the chat during hours you choose, according to the Group Help site. The bot (@GroupHelpBot) blocks links and repeated promotional posts. It checks new members with a captcha, limits message floods and reacts to banned words you define. The Group Help pricing page lists welcome and rules messages, custom commands and one free bot clone on the free plan. A clone carries your company's name and picture, so residents see the management company instead of a generic bot.

Volunteer boards and small managers who want protection today, with no dashboard to learn, get the most from Group Help. It is the wrong choice for tracking requests, because Group Help moderates messages and opens no tickets. Paid tiers exist, but the pricing page shows amounts behind a EUR and USD toggle, so confirm the currency before you buy. For rule ideas, see these auto-moderation rules; the examples come from trading groups, and the logic carries over to residential chats.

How does Chatwoot turn a Telegram bot into a support queue?

Chatwoot puts messages sent to your own Telegram bot into a shared inbox, next to email, WhatsApp and website chat. Setup takes a token from BotFather pasted into a new Telegram inbox, according to the Chatwoot Telegram guide. Agents answer from one queue with macros and automations. The Captain AI agent can answer routine questions from your help center before a person steps in. To prepare those answers, start with a support bot knowledge base.

Chatwoot suits a management company with a dispatcher or support team handling residents across several channels. A manager who needs apartments, meters or billing will not find them in Chatwoot. Check two things before you commit:

• The free cloud Hacker plan includes only live chat, and paid cloud plans start at $19 per agent a month.

• Bots in Telegram Business mode can reply only within 24 hours of the resident's last message, and a self-hosted install needs technical staff.

For other options, compare Telegram support ticketing tools.

How does crmchat keep a register of building channel subscribers?

crmchat turns every new subscriber of a building channel into a CRM contact through its Channel Sync bot, and updates the record when someone leaves. That matters because Telegram's admin panel shows only up to 200 recent subscribers. You add the bot as a channel admin, then import existing members in one sync that filters out bots, deleted accounts and duplicates. A custom property tags each contact with its building. A dynamic campaign can then send each new subscriber one welcome message with the house rules and a link to the resident app.

If you pitch boards and developers on Telegram, crmchat also syncs Telegram folders into a sales pipeline where each chat becomes a deal with stages, reminders and notes. The guide to syncing Telegram folders shows the setup.

crmchat is not a property management system, so it has no billing or technician work orders. Importing existing subscribers requires connecting a personal Telegram account that is an admin of the channel. The free Starter plan holds 50 CRM leads, and Personal costs $29 a month for unlimited leads.

Which stack fits one building, a small management company or a staffed portfolio?

1. One building with a volunteer board: a Telegram channel for announcements, a group protected by Group Help or the free Combot plan, and the Unitify Free plan for requests.

2. A small management company with several buildings: Unitify Base or Pro as the system for requests and billing, with the Unitify Telegram bot for residents who skip the app. Add the Combot Scheduler for announcements to every building and crmchat for a subscriber register per channel.

3. Staffed buildings in the US or Canada: BuildingLink for the front desk, or Buildium when accounting drives the decision. Add Chatwoot only if many residents insist on Telegram.

4. An operator with its own support team: Chatwoot as the shared inbox for Telegram, email and WhatsApp, with Combot moderating every building group.

Whatever the size, set up the channel first, then the moderation bot, then the request bot or app, and contact sync last. Pin a message in each group that says where announcements, discussion and requests now live.

FAQ

Should a building use a Telegram channel or a group?

Use both, for different jobs. A channel carries announcements, because only admins post and nothing gets buried under replies. A group hosts neighbour discussion with a moderation bot, and neither one should track repair requests.

Can residents submit requests through Telegram without installing an app?

Yes. Unitify lists a Telegram bot for requests and payments aimed at residents who won't install another app. Chatwoot can also turn messages sent to your own Telegram bot into tracked conversations.

How do I see everyone subscribed to a building channel?

Telegram's admin panel shows only up to 200 recent subscribers. crmchat's Channel Sync bot imports the full list into a CRM and records every join and leave as it happens.

Which moderation bot suits a building group, Combot or Group Help?

Group Help is quick to set up, and its night mode suits residential chats. Combot fits managers with several buildings who want announcements across chats and activity stats per group.