With the proliferation of cell phones is there a need to have a phone in a hotel room? Hotel phones have gone full circle in the past 10 years. What used to be a money-making proposition for hotels, and a frustration for guest has become a nuisance for the hotels and unimportant to the guests.
Cell phones have saved guests from the unscrupulous hotel owners who could get away with charging outrageous charges for guests to call home, but have left the hotel searching for ways to replace this cash cow.
So what is a hotel do with telephones? Upgrading to expensive digital phones with all of the bells and whistles based on IP technology may be aesthetically appealing, but is there a return on investment? Do guests want a phone that can check the weather, give stock reports, place a room service order etc? (Can’t this all be done with a smart phone?).
The challenge for hotels is to determine the answers to the above questions. Although the revenue stream is history, is there some device that could add value to a guests stay and perhaps provide some competitive advantage, or should they cut their losses and continue to support an analog dial tone? Ever heard of 8 track players? Welcome to the 21st century!!!
