Top Reasons for Moving Your Hotel Phone System to the Cloud
When travelers are making hotel room reservations, they have access to over 780,000 options globally. One of the primary factors influencing their decisions is the technology that facilitates the booking process. Technology has the potential to enhance the overall hotel or resort experience, making it more convenient and comfortable for guests. In 2023, around 74% of guests opted to book their hotel rooms through mobile devices, apps, or websites, underlining the growing importance of technology in this aspect.
Numerous hotels have already adopted cloud-based communication systems to manage their call, messaging, and customer interaction processes. Such hotels hold an advantage in staying connected and up-to-date with their customers. With a cloud system, you can efficiently monitor guest activities across different platforms and keep your staff well-informed about guest accounts and needs. This highlights the fact that a modest investment in such technology can not only safeguard your hotel's reputation but also foster business growth.
In your role as the individual responsible for overseeing your hotel's international communications, it is important that your phone system possesses the necessary reach, reliability, and call quality to engage with guests from around the globe. Let's explore the benefits of transitioning your hotel or resort's communication infrastructure to a cloud-based platform.
Top Reasons For Choosing Hotel Communications To The Cloud
- Saving Money
Who doesn't appreciate additional earnings or opportunities to save money? This is why shifting to a cloud communication system is a justified choice. It offers substantial cost savings. When considering how it functions, the transition to a cloud system essentially eliminates the expenses associated with maintaining expensive on-site hardware. As a result, it leads to cost reductions in other areas too, including:
- Subscription, usage-based, or hybrid billing approaches prove to be more cost-effective than running your own system.
- Call rates and business phone numbers offer competitive prices and reduce the total cost of ownership.
- Maintenance of an outdated on-premise system demands less time from your IT support.
- The expenses related to expensive trunk lines are reduced.
A cloud communication system empowers hotels to achieve greater cost-efficiency and flexibility, all while ensuring that employees have access to the full range of business communication networks needed to deliver seamless guest experiences. By reducing the need for on-premises equipment to manage sales and support calls and reallocating those resources elsewhere with features like call forwarding and direct routing, you can optimize your communication budget.
Moreover, the cost savings of a cloud-based communication system extend beyond just benefiting your hotel. Long-distance international calls made through a cloud-enabled network are often more economical than those routed solely through a PBX system. Inform your guests that thanks to your modern and efficient phone system, they can stay connected with business associates and loved ones worldwide at a lower cost while traveling.
2. Improved Maintenance
All system maintenance and upgrades are automatically handled by your cloud services provider. In the event of any issues with your system, most cloud communication providers have support teams available around the clock or during regular working hours to provide assistance. Additionally, cloud-based PBX communication systems are continuously supported by fail-safe servers located in multiple locations, ensuring that your hotel's communications remain uninterrupted while your provider resolves any local issues.
3. Enhanced System Interoperability
Cloud communications offer a level of flexibility that many analog or traditional systems cannot match. These systems are typically compatible with a wide array of software and voicemail systems. Consequently, transitioning to the cloud does not necessitate a complete overhaul of your resort's existing voicemail, call accounting, or PMS systems. Moreover, the majority of cloud-based communication systems operate on a standards-based platform, ensuring their compatibility with current radio and messaging systems in a given area.
4. Increases Personalization
By integrating your phone system with your databases, you have the ability to tailor a guest's experience to a level beyond just fulfilling basic requests like providing additional towels. A substantial 87 percent of customers or guests place great importance on being treated as individuals rather than mere statistics when it comes to earning their loyalty and business.
An intelligent cloud-hosted calling system enables your hotel to seamlessly integrate guest data across various departments, thereby anticipating and meeting guest needs more effectively. Hotels and resorts that collect guest data from phone conversations, app usage, or website interactions can leverage this information to craft personalized experiences that set their establishment apart from the competition. Additionally, the sharing of guest history across different databases and departments allows your hotel to offer upgrade opportunities to guests who are likely to appreciate them. When visitors perceive that their stay has been customized to their specific preferences, they are more inclined to return.
5. Services Consolidation
In today's hospitality industry, hotels and resorts are expanding in size and diversifying their services to stand out from the competition. This often involves relying on a larger number of vendors to meet their various needs. However, working with numerous providers can lead to complex and cumbersome processes. One approach to streamline vendor relationships is by transitioning their communication systems to the cloud. Many hotels typically engage multiple local providers to ensure communication reliability and backup in case of disruptions. By adopting cloud-hosted communication systems, hotels can centralize their communication efforts with a single provider while still benefiting from technical support and service reliability.
In addition to this, a unified communications (UC) platform, such as UCaaS or CPaaS, can also enhance staff productivity. When your databases and communication systems are interconnected, it empowers your staff to resolve issues and satisfy customers by providing them with comprehensive information about a guest. When your staff has a complete understanding of a guest's profile, their history with your hotel, and their specific requests, they are better equipped to find solutions that not only meet the guest's needs but also encourage them to return in the future.
6. Exceptional Service
Cloud communication solutions offer impeccable service due to their redundancy across various server locations, ensuring that call connections remain crystal clear and rarely drop. Resorts in remote locations, in particular, understand that traditional phone systems may be susceptible to the age and quality of local infrastructure. By transitioning to the cloud, they ensure that their guests are never isolated from the outside world, whether for business or emergencies. Even in densely populated areas, the assurance that their Internet-based phone system is highly reliable means they can confidently assure guests that they will never be left without information regarding dinner reservations or itinerary changes.
7. Improved Guest Experience
Enhancing the guest experience, whether for solo travelers or through outbound calls from your sales agents to gather feedback, begins with the reliability of virtual numbers that meet guest expectations. Cloud communications offer two-way calling with PSTN replacement services, ensuring the consistent connectivity and uptime that guests demand. With multiple backups and easy scalability, a cloud PBX system at your hotel ensures that visitors can engage in conversations without worrying about unexpected disruptions.
As you continue to enhance the guest experience at your hotel or resort to align with contemporary travel needs, don't forget to incorporate improvements to your property's communication systems. A cloud-hosted calling phone system benefits both your staff and your guests. Cloud-based communications offer a wide range of services to help your hotel better understand and exceed customer expectations. They are also a practical choice for guests due to their reliability and ease of integration with various communication systems and applications.