Hotel personnel are faced with making decisions on a daily basis. Some of these decisions are based on the individual needs or requests of a specific customer. Others are based on how your clientele will be impacted as a whole. And still others tie together your customers' desires with the needs of the business. An example of such a decision is choosing between buying and leasing your hotel phone system.
It might seem logical that you would purchase your phone system. After all, there's a lot to be said about ownership. Unfortunately, you must consider the fact that ownership is really the only advantage of purchasing the system. Inversely, there are a number of disadvantages that stem from the financing of the system (which most businesses decide to do and it ends up costing even more in the long run) and the very real possibility that by the time it's paid off, the technology will be outdated. It isn't hard to realize that this isn't a good thing.
4 Advantages to Leasing Your Phone System
Whether you're investing in a newfangled hotel VoIP phone system or a seasoned PBX system, the decision whether to purchase or lease is an important one. To give you an idea of what leasing could mean for your hotel, we've outlined 4 advantages:
More flexible capital -- Hotel phone systems can be quite complex, which means that your cost of purchasing such a system can often be substantial. When this is done, you're either going to be forced to pay for the entire system upfront or be locked into a years-long payment plan after a sizable down payment. By leasing, you're freeing up all the capital that would have been tied up in this purchase, allowing you to use that money elsewhere.
Keep up with technology -- When it comes to technology, there's an ongoing joke that the computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. that you purchase will be obsolete by the time you get it home. Of course, this is a bit of hyperbole, but it isn't too far off. Technology is ever-changing and today's technology is tomorrow's obsolescence. In fact, phone systems usually last between 2 and 4 years before they begin to show their age. By leasing your phone system, you can be sure that your hotel phone technology is always up-to-date, allowing you to keep up with your business needs without a huge amount of expense.
Switch it up -- Purchasing a hotel phone system means that you are tethered to that system until it wears out or you decide to upgrade, at which point you'll need to invest in an entirely new setup. Leasing takes care of that problem. Once your lease is up, you can either decide to keep the current system you have or trade it in for either a brand new system of the same type or a different setup altogether. You can also extend the lease in small increments to ensure that you can upgrade to newer technology at any time. This level of flexibility is simply something you can't get from purchasing.
Enjoy tax benefits -- As you're undoubtedly aware, when you purchase a VoIP or PBX system, you get to write the purchase price off your taxes. The drawback, of course, is that you can only do this once, in the year that the system was purchased. Leasing, however, gives you more traction in the way of tax benefits because you can write off the monthly lease payments as a business expense. Plus, leasing your phone system will lower your Alternative Minimum Tax liability, helping you to avoid that particular tax.
