Unified Communications in Hotel Management

Imagine being able to improve the guest experience at your hotels, while raising efficiency and productivity?

Making your PBX and PMS work together offers vast upgrades for efficiency and productivity. But a phone system that includes Unified Communications offers much more - it enables staff to communicate and share information provided by the PMS in real time.

Together, the two systems cut hotel management costs and enhance the guest experience.

Cost benefits of unified data network

For hotel management, by bringing all these services together, costs are drastically reduced. Servers and lines are consolidated, meaning fewer repairs are required, and the need for technical intervention is reduced.

Using a software-based IP phone system, which supports UC, also cuts deployment and maintenance expenses and makes backup cheap and easy. Interoffice calls are made via free IP connections, and calls to the Public Switched Telephone Network can be routed to the points for cheapest connections.

Improved guest experience

But not only staff benefits from integrating UC into the hotel PMS: It also improves the guest experience, offering guests the ability to interact with the hotel management via the IP phones in their room.

Each member of staff can be provided with a single, portable extension, so that, wherever the staff member may be, he or she can be reached on the same telephone number, be it on a computer, a tablet or a smartphone. Hotel staff can even hold videoconferences whenever they need to discuss an issue with one or more of their colleagues, to react to a guest request or complaint.

As the PMS automates information updating, the PBX delivers new info to staff on IP phones, computers, tablets or smartphones so that they get the information they require in any location. This speeds up reaction time to guest needs.

The PBX enables better personalized service. When guests call reception or the concierge, their name is displayed alongside their room extension number, so that staff greet guests by name when they call. Further, personalized promotions and offers, generated by the PMS, can be displayed on hotel room IP Phones via the PBX.

Guests can check-in and out of their rooms, set their extensions to 'Do Not Disturb' as well as block external calls with the integrated PBX. As the PMS records guest checking in and out, the PBX permits real-time notification of housekeeping to clean rooms. And the PBX tracks the calls a guest makes, and communicates the calling records to the PMS to facilitate billing.

A recent study by the hotel reservation reviews company Software Advice shows that 60 percent of guests are more likely to choose a hotel which provides the latest technology offerings that add value and convenience. This means that an integrated PMS and phone system will show a rapid return on investment, as it cuts costs and empowers staff to do more to make guests happy.