You’ve heard all about VoIP phone systems — the flexibility, the cost savings, and the benefits it will give to your staff — but how do you actually go about upgrading? And what should you do to get ready?
Will Your Hotel Benefit from a VoIP PBX?
The short answer is yes. Virtually every hotel in the world is better off with a VoIP system than with an older, analog setup. Technology moves quickly and so do customers’ expectations, and VoIP offers unique benefits to keep you from falling behind.
Better Staff Productivity
Imagine someone calls the front desk to ask about amenities and make a reservation, while at the same time someone walks up to the desk to ask the staff a question. Either the person on the phone gets put on hold, or the person standing right in front of the desk is being ignored while your desk staff take a phone call.
In another common scenario, your employees and guests play phone tag. You call a guest, but they’re not in their room. When they get back, you’re not at your desk. No one likes leaving voicemails back and forth, and nothing gets done quickly this way.
With VoIP systems, these problems are a thing of the past. Incoming calls can be automatically routed to an information service or third party call center, so front desk staff aren’t taking time away from guests to answer the phone. And phone calls can be seamlessly forwarded to other phones or even mobile devices, so even staff who aren’t behind a desk can be easily reached no matter where they are.
Better Scalability
If you have a traditional phone system and want to add, move, or change numbers, it can be a real nightmare to do so. Putting a phone line in a room that doesn’t have a phone jack can be a serious construction project.
With VoIP, all you need is an internet connection and a power outlet. Every phone line is routed through the internet, so the physical location of the handset doesn’t matter — if you remodel or move things around, just bring the handset with you. And if you want more phone lines, all you need is more hardware — no extra wiring necessary.
Better Future-Proofing
The last thing you want to do is spend thousands of dollars upgrading to a system that’s just going to become obsolete in a few years. With a VoIP system, that won’t happen. As long as there’s an internet to connect to, a VoIP system can be upgraded, altered, and customized to meet the exact communications needs of your staff and guests.
Installing a VoIP System
Now that you’re convinced that your hotel is ready for a VoIP system, here’s a list of things to make sure you have before you start the installation process:
- A reliable internet connection
Seriously. That’s the whole list. Since all calls are routed over the internet, you’ll need a solid internet connection to transmit all that data. The rule of thumb is that you need about 100 Kbps of bandwidth to transmit the data for one phone call, so a medium sized hotel with 50 phone lines might need up to 5 Mbps if everyone is on the phone simultaneously.
Considering the popularity of streaming services, many modern hotels have connection speeds of around 250-600 Mbps, so the 5 Mbps you might need for your VoIP system are a drop in the bucket.
Of course, you’ll also need a physical PBX system, handsets capable of connecting to the internet, and a few other pieces of hardware. Luckily, we can handle that for you -- or use your existing equipment -- when we set your system up.
How a Phonesuite Install Works
Once you’ve decided that a VoIP system is right for you (it is) and you have an internet connection that can sustain it (you almost certainly do), the next step is simply to give us a call, and we’ll take it from there.
First, we’ll do an assessment of your hotel and do some basic information gathering. A dedicated Phonesuite team identifies your goals, including how best to improve the guest experience and benefit your staff, and draws up a scope of work.
We then design your phone system, reviewing the network, telephony, and infrastructure needs of your hotel to make sure that our Managed VOICE system will work seamlessly with what you already have. Once we’ve designed the system, you’ll receive a formal proposal.
We’ll set up a pre-installation meeting with you, ensuring that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the installation process and addressing any questions or concerns. Then comes deployment. Onsite deployment is handled by a factory team of highly qualified managers and engineers with decades of experience in the networking world.
After installation is complete, we rigorously test the entire Managed VOICE platform, making test calls and conducting quality assurance checks with an onsite hotel liaison. We’ll also help train your staff to make sure that they’re familiar with the features of the Managed VOICE system.
Finally, we offer 24/7 support and a rapid call center for as long as you’re a Phonesuite customer. We offer a lifetime warranty on all Phonesuite equipment, free MAC (move, add, change) configurations, free daily backups, and onsite response — if anything goes wrong, we’ll spot it and fix it as quickly as possible.
The fact is, VoIP phone systems are the PBX of the present and of the future. Their flexibility and scalability simply can’t be matched by any analog system, and with the benefits of cloud computing, you can get all these benefits without a huge CAPEX expenditure. If you’re ready to bring your hotel’s communications into the 21st century, contact us today.
