Hotel Telephone System - What you need to know
Why is a Hotel Phone System Important?
If you work in hospitality, you will no doubt know about how valuable a hotel phone system can be to your business.
The hotel industry is fiercely competitive and in most big cities there is a very small margin for error.
At first glance, a good telephone system may not seem like a deal-breaker for your business.
However, in a customer-centric industry, it is important to go above and beyond to deliver an exceptional experience for your customers.
A quality phone system will ensure the hotel-stayer can easily communicate any problem or request with staff.
Not only this but the quality of internal communication amongst members of the team also increases.
When a hotel implements a quality hotel phone system, customer bookings, supply chain management and call transferring all greatly improve.
How do hotel phone systems work?
You may be thinking “Let’s cut to the chase, how much do they cost?”.
The costs are coming, don’t worry.
If you manage or own a hotel, it’s crucial you understand how phone systems function.
This is important so that you can choose the best possible system to suit the needs of your hotel.
The functionality of phone systems will always depend on the type of phone system that is being used.
Let’s go through the commonly used hotel telephone systems to give you an insight into which type could work for your hotel!
Types of Hotel phone systems
PBX
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is an internal phone system that allows for call waiting, call forwarding, hold music, voice mail and many more features.
PBX systems are perceived as being more reliable.
This is because the hardware is located in the facility and is not counting on an internet connection to stay working.
If you have a large hotel, a PBX could work perfectly for you.
These types of phone systems are great for hotel’s that aren’t yet ready to commit to VoIP technology.
VoIP
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), on the other hand, allows you to make calls over the internet as opposed to a traditional phone line.
VoIP phone systems are normally hosted in the “cloud”.
They give users a suite of advanced features that you wouldn’t get from a traditional phone system.
If your hotel has the budget, a VoIP system would be a no-brainer with the number of advanced features you have access to.
The beauty of a hosted phone system is that the costs are spread over a long period, rather than having a large capital investment.
Hosted phone systems can utilise operational expenditure and normally include all external calls in the monthly price.
How much is a hotel phone system?
Now, you’re thinking, “Okay, so I know the importance of a good phone system in a hotel, what’s the damage?”.
In terms of costs, it is all dependent on the size of your business, your budget and your specific needs.
The type of phone system will also affect the price, along with size, features, wiring and installation and more.
Some other major factors that affect costs are centralised equipment, ease of installation, added functionality, more phones, training and customer support.
So, be aware of any additional costs you may incur by agreeing to extra features.
For typical PBX systems, expect to pay between £500 and £1000 per user.
For VoIP phone systems, a company needing 50 extensions could be looking to pay around £10,000.
However, this would be spread over a number of years.
What are the best hotel phone systems?
With so many hotel phone systems on the market, it can be hard to know where to look first.
From Ericsson systems to Cisco, there are plenty of options to select from.
From our experience, there is one stand-out brand that you should pay attention to.
We are of course talking about the Mitel phone systems.
Mitel hotel Phone Systems
The most reliable choice that we’ve found for hotels is the Mitel 400 Hospitality Package.
This phone system was designed specifically with hotel and guest management in mind.
The system will integrate into your hotels existing process and infrastructure.
It’s worth noting that the Mitel 400 Hotel phone System the system will run as few as 4 rooms right through to 600 rooms.
From our experience, Mitel hotel systems are perfect for small to large operations that need to offer great service and reliability to their customers.
As an established brand, buying a Mitel hotel phone system should fill you with confidence that you are getting a reliable product, designed for the hotel industry.
Two of the main handsets Mitel provide are the Mitel MiVoice 6940 IP Phone and the Mitel 9116 Analog Phone.
Mitel MiVoice 6940 IP Phone
The Mitel 6940 IP Phone comes fitted with a large LCD touch screen, built-in Bluetooth, cordless headset, 96 reprogrammable keys and much more.
With a huge array of features, it’s easy to see why receptionists favour Mitel systems over other brands on the market.
Having specific handsets, designed to help reception cope with more calls faster, keeps the staff happy and motivated.
Not only this but it also increases productivity by providing a slick call handling process.
You can pick up this hotel phone system from £225 to £300.
Mitel 9116 Analogue
To contrast, the Mitel 9116 analogue makes for an ideal hotel guest room handset.
It’s simple to use and cost-effective to roll out across all of the rooms where guests will only need limited functionality.
Accessibility is a huge feature on this handset, there’s compatibility with hearing aids and speakerphone functionality.
On-hook dialling and the ability to mount the system on a wall or desk make it the right fit for any hotel room.
You can pick up one of these hotel phone systems for an affordable £25.
We are of course talking about the Mitel phone systems.