Line management
How simple telephone systems for guest bedrooms were only a few years ago. Hotel switchboards were connected to the national carrier on the one hand and to extensions in guests' bedrooms on the other, and the lines were far more likely to carry conversations than data.
This picture has already changed radically, especially for business clients, and the pace of change is still growing. What is going on out there? And what should hotels be doing about it?
"Business guests already expect to find not only a normal telephone handset in their rooms but also a data port for fax or PC modems," says Peter Evetts, sales director of TMS, which offers telephone management services. "Better is a multi-line telephone, with two lines connected to the handset, a fax machine, voice messaging and a data port. Some hotels are offering access to the Internet on the room television or on a PC installed in the room. They might also offer ISDN lines, which allow bedroom videoconferencing and high-speed data transfer. The idea behind all this is that a business guest should be able to use the room as an office while they are away."
The demand is not necessarily for more equipment. "In the past, hotels provided equipment for their guests," says Mark Rupert Read, communications manager for the Tower Thistle Hotel, west London, and chairman of the Hotel Telephone Managers' Association. "Now they are providing additional lines to rooms so that guests can use their own equipment. I don't think there is any advantage in having PCs in rooms, for example. Guests bring their own now, and anyway computers date very quickly. Even videoconferencing equipment will soon come in with guests in their suitcases." What he thinks hotels should do is hold a bank of equipment such as faxes which guests can request.
The Tower Hotel's rooms have a large, long desk on which guests can lay out their machines and paperwork. There is a telephone point at the desk, with a power point next to it, and some rooms have a 115V power point as well for Americans who have brought their own laptops over. "It's not necessary now, because laptops have internal switches that can accommodate both voltages," says Read, "but it shows we are looking after them." There is also a BT standard socket for faxes or computers. This means that there are two separate telephone numbers per room, one for the room number and one for the guest to plug his equipment into so that he can have voice and data transmission.
Providing these kinds of services could be very expensive. Read details what might be involved: "You have to pay £3,500 for a 16-line card for each extra 16 lines on the switchboard. This needs to be connected to the processing software: if that's not possible, you have to upgrade. Then you need extra wiring to the rooms, and extra wiring in the rooms. If a hotel is listed, it will need to get permission to make alterations." When the Tower Hotel upgraded its telephone system six months ago, it spent £63,000 on 60 extra lines. "We had to add another cabinet, which meant joining them physically, get the software upgraded, do new internal wiring and lots more," says Read. "But now we can add another 300 lines if we want to for not much more."
Since the trend is for lines and services rather than equipment, he adds, hotels should take this into account when they carry out refurbishments. It is much easier to put in extra lines so that there is spare capacity that can be connected to the switchboard later, than to have to fit extra wiring when required.
