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Intelligent communications can drastically reduce the operational costs for hotels.

Advanced technologies are critical components of the hospitality industry today, and a yardstick by which guests increasingly choose to rate the services offered, says Sapna Kulshrestha.

Hotels are becoming aware and receptive to changes that IT is bringing to this sector, and all new properties of major hotel chains are evaluating IP telephony tools.

Advanced technologies such as wireless LAN, wi-fi and IP telephony, have become critical components of hospitality today.

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VK Giridharan, Telecom Head, Enkay Technologies India Pvt. Ltd says: “Four or five years ago, telephone systems in hotels used to be a revenue generator, however due to the high penetration of mobile phones, guests staying in hotels avoid using room phones for making external calls, hence, there is a drastic change in the way hotels decide on the telephone system.”

As guests today expect a distinctive form of communication services, hotels too must meet the competitive challenge with the best possible technology. Hotels like Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, The Oberoi Group, The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts, and ITC Maurya, among others, have introduced IP-based solutions in part or whole, in their establishments.

Thus, new generation IP telephony systems are becoming popular, with features such as real-time billing and intelligent speech recognition that are simplifying guest services.

At the most basic level, IP telephony and intelligent communications can drastically reduce the operational cost for hotel communications, while simplifying the technology and expertise needed to leverage advanced capabilities.

“This helps hotels and resorts deliver personalised and responsive customer interactions every time, achieving high customer satisfaction and selling more services, as seen in our newly opened hotel at Udaipur,” says Gayatri Dravid, manager national media, PR and corporate communications, The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts.

As per IP system providers, IP telephony makes a considerable impact in managing all operations of hotel industry. For back-end operations, there could be IP-based contact centre for reservations, IP-based video surveillance systems, IP-based unified messaging systems for guests, integration of IP telephony with supplier database, wireless IP-based mobility for support staff, and so on.

Additionally, guest experiences can be greatly enhanced by deploying IP telephony solutions and related accessories.

Some examples are XML based push-and-pull services for guest rooms phones, common billing services for all guest related expenses, unified messaging services (not just voice mails), single button help desk for all services, service tracking and benchmarking, integration of other subsystems like RFID and guest privileged cards, and suchlike. IP-based video telephony is in demand, which can considerably enhance the guest experience.

Asheesh Pandia, Siemens Enterprise Communications Pvt. Ltd says: “Today’s IP telephony systems offer tons of features which are useful to guests as well as for back-office staff. The real need is to integrate multiple hotel systems with IP telephony system. This will embed the hotel operations workflow with communication systems, thereby eliminating delays, and will further enhance the guest experience.”