Hold the Line: Why Telephony Still Matters in Modern Hotels

Apps and messaging have changed how hotels communicate. But when something needs sorting fast, someone still picks up the phone. Maybe it’s time the humble phone system got a bit more attention.

Hotels have never had more ways to communicate. There are guest apps, messaging platforms and chat tools for staff. But when a guest is locked out, a room isn’t ready or there’s water coming through the ceiling on the third floor, what actually happens? Someone picks up the phone.

So, hotel telephony is about much more than a handset on the bedside table. It’s how your whole property talks to itself, and to your guests. When it works, nobody gives it a second thought. When it doesn’t, you’ll know about it straight away: queues at reception, rooms running late and guests starting to lose patience.

You’ve probably modernised plenty of your tech over the last few years. But has your phone system kept up?

Keeping up with the pace of the operation

Hotels move fast. Early check-ins, rooms to turn around before the next arrival, a maintenance job that really can’t wait until tomorrow. If reception can’t get hold of housekeeping, or facilities only hear about a leak an hour later, small problems quickly snowball.

A good phone system gets calls to the right person, fast. Nobody should have to walk the corridors trying to track someone down. With sensible call routing, hunt groups (where a call rings round a team until someone answers) and clear escalation paths, most problems get sorted before a guest even notices.

Built for teams on the move

Hardly anyone in a hotel sits at a desk all day. Housekeeping move from floor to floor, facilities staff cover the whole site, and duty managers spend most of their shift out front. A phone that only rings in one place just doesn’t fit how they work.

Cloud telephony lets calls follow people wherever they are, whether that’s a desk phone, a mobile or a laptop. If you run more than one property, the same system can cover all of them, so it’s easier to share calls between sites, cover busy periods and keep standards consistent.

Why guests still pick up the in-room phone

It’s easy to think of the in-room phone as a bit of a relic. Your guests don’t. It’s still the simplest way to ask for extra towels, order room service, get a restaurant tip or report a problem. There’s no app to download and no password to remember.

For international travellers without decent mobile signal, or who’d rather not pay roaming charges, it’s often the only easy option. Being able to talk to a real person is convenient and reassuring, and it gives your team the chance to put things right quickly.

Bringing communication together

More and more, phones are part of Unified Communications (UC) platforms, which bring calls, messaging, video meetings and collaboration together in one place. For your team, that means switching between a quick internal chat and a guest call without juggling different tools.

It also means fewer suppliers, fewer logins and fewer things to go wrong. And if you have an in-house IT team, they’ll thank you: one well-managed platform is far easier to secure, support and scale than a patchwork of old and new.

Time to look at the ageing phone system

Plenty of hotels are still running phone systems that went in years ago, built for a very different way of working. They can be expensive to keep going, spare parts and expertise are getting harder to find, and they rarely play nicely with modern tools.

There’s also a deadline. The UK’s copper phone network switches off on 31 January 2027, and any business line that hasn’t moved will simply stop working. It’s not just the main switchboard, either. Lift emergency phones, alarms, door entry, card terminals and anything else quietly using an old line could be affected. Moving to the cloud on your own timetable is far less stressful than scrambling because something’s stopped working.

IT Naturally’s helpful guide, Beyond the PSTN switch-off: what’s next for your phones, sets out what to check and what to do next.

The real test

Guests rarely think about the systems behind a hotel. What they notice is whether service is quick, helpful and responsive, and that comes down to how well your teams can talk to each other, and to them. Get telephony right and it becomes a quiet but essential part of great hospitality.

So, here are a few questions worth asking about your own set-up:

• When a guest calls reception at a busy moment, does someone answer, or does it ring out?

• Can your housekeeping, facilities and duty teams be reached wherever they are on site?

• Do you know which of your systems still rely on old analogue lines?

• How many different tools do your teams use to talk to each other and to guests?

• If your phone system went down tonight, who would own the fix?

If any of those answers make you pause, it might be time to take a fresh look at how your property communicates.

About IT Naturally

IT Naturally is a multi-award-winning Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) helping ambitious organisations, including travel and hospitality businesses, stay productive, secure and ready for whatever comes next.

We combine enterprise-grade expertise with a people-first approach. We’re here 24/7, proactively monitoring, protecting and improving your technology, so your people can focus on what they do best while you focus on running your business.

As a certified B Corp™, we believe technology should be a force for good. That means building long-term partnerships, operating transparently, putting people before profit, and helping organisations make responsible technology decisions.

Our goal has never been to be the biggest provider in the market. It’s to be the most trusted partner in the room, delivering smooth, secure and sustainable IT that’s one less thing for you to worry about. Because when we’re your MSSP, you’ll enjoy not talking about IT.

Find out more at www.itnaturally.com.