Today’s customers have high standards for the businesses they visit, and hotels are no exception. Your prospective guests care about the quality of your hotel, but they also care more and more about your commitment to the environment. In fact, according to a 2017 study, 87 percent of consumers have a more positive image of a company that supports social or environmental issues, and 92 percent are more likely to trust such a company..
As our minds turn to sustainability, it’s worth noting that customers care more strongly about the environment than ever before. If you want to appeal to socially and environmentally conscious consumers, you should take steps to make your hotel as “green” as possible.
Beyond allowing your patrons to participate in programs that minimize the amount of water and energy expended on washing linens, though, why not switch your entire phone system over to a service that is eco-friendly? With VoIP, you can do your part to help the environment without sacrificing the high-tech creature comforts that travelers have come to expect. Here's how:
Reduced Paper Waste
Many hotels go through reams of paper printing documents that aren’t important and are thrown away almost immediately, including guest bills, internal paperwork, and faxes. The vast majority of this paperwork can be handled digitally, saving time and resources.
Switching to a VoIP system can help in a few ways:
- When guests can check in and out digitally, on their phones or on kiosks, they don’t need printed paperwork that they’re likely to throw away anyway. Instead, you can send them a bill in the form of a PDF or email and save on printing.
- With fax over IP (FoIP), you no longer need to print a document to sign it, fax it, and have it printed at the other end. The entire process can be handled digitally, reducing your office budget and your environmental burden simultaneously.
Lower Power Consumption By Your Phone System
Although perhaps not true of a residential landline, business telephony systems can actually demand a lot of energy in order to function properly. As a result, your hotel will end up with higher utility bills as you burn through more energy to meet your needs. VoIP systems put a lot less strain on the environment because the expended energy is minimal.
Because you’re only paying for one infrastructure, the only energy needed to keep everything up and running comes from what’s needed to maintain Internet service. And since you’re using SIP trunking rather than analog trunking, you only need to power the trunks you’re actively using.
Less Waste From Replacing Telephony Systems
One major (and very expensive) problem associated with traditional telephony systems is that they need to be replaced on a fairly regular basis. Systems that are more than a decade old will disappoint your guests and slow down your front desk as their features become obsolete.
Because these systems aren't scalable and can’t be updated over time, they need to be completely replaced. The old phone systems and their corresponding lines end up in landfills. Instead of adding to the waste, savvy hotels are investing in VoIP solutions that will grow with technology and with your business for the long haul.
