Hospitality Telephone System Choices

When a small hotel or independent motel starts the search for a new hospitality telephone system, oftentimes they can become overwhelmed by the vast amounts of information, both good and bad, to be found on the internet. Many hospitality flags, such as IGH, Best Western, Choice, and Marriott do have preferred vendors, which can help in making the selection of a new telephone system a little easier. In these cases, CSM South suggests sticking to the preferred brands, which are uniformly PhoneSuite and Mitel. While we do work with both phone system manufacturers, we remain unashamed about our bias towards PhoneSuite for nationally flagged properties as it contains all the familiar features from Mitel but is about 30% less cost. However, when it comes to boutique, independent, or smaller flags such as Magnuson Worldwide, it is also possible to purchase the NEC SL2100 telephone system which has a nice hotel/ motel software addition. Let’s take a look at both the NEC and PhoneSuite products by providing some details, which should help your hotel decide on the correct new phone system to install.

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The NEC SL2100 is a well designed phone system to consider for a small hotel or boutique motel. Below is a chart detailing the maximum capabilities of the phone system when it is configured with 1, 2, or 3 chassis. Even a quick look will show why the NEC Sl2100 is well suited to the small hotel/ motel telephone system market. With a maximum of 256 ports, and out of that a max 96 analog extensions (room telephones & guest area analog phones), the NEC SL2100 can scale to cover a smaller property, but cannot be expanded to accept additional extensions or lines.

Number of Chassis	1	2	3
Total Ports	256
Trunk Ports
Analog (room telephones)	97	128	128
PRI	12	24	36
IP Trunk (SIP/H.323)	24	48	72
Extension Ports
Maximum	112	112	112
Multi-Line Telephone (MLT)	24	48	72
Single Line Telephone (SLT)	32	64	96
IP Terminal	112	112	112
(SIP-MLT/Std.)
DSS Console	12	12	12
Door phone	6	6	6
Virtual Extension Port	50	50	50
External Paging	3	3	3
External MOH	1	1	1
BGM	1	1	1
Relay	11	11	11
Ethernet Port	1	1	1
Analog Modem	1	1	1

With the included telephony ports detailed above, staff can make pages over paging systems, access external phones such as poolside analog telephones, employ the relay for remotely opening doors, and so much more!

Some of the typical hotel/ motel features included in the NEC Hotel software package are:

• Guests can customize services
  • Messaging
  • Wake Up calls
  • Do not Disturb
• Staff will be able to
  • Integrate with many PMS systems, or use the optional NEC InHotel PMS Software
  • Monitor room status
  • Restrict toll and long distance
  • Review call detail reporting

Finally, the NEC SL2100 phone system meets the requirements of Kari’s Law and the Ray Baums Act (click here for more information)

The NEC SL2100 telephone system is a simple, cost effective new phone system for the small hotel/ motel marketplace. CSM South has installed these in many locations throughout Florida and Texas from our HQ’s in Tampa and Austin. If you own or manage a small hotel/ motel, contact us today to learn more about the NEC SL2100.

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PhoneSuite Voiceware is our primary product for hotels requiring in excess of 96 rooms , a more robust PMS integration, or their hotel brand has PhoneSuite as one of their preferred vendors or as required equipment.

Built using the latest VoIP technology, Voiceware is designed specifically for hotel use. It is based on an open standards platform to further protect your investment by not tying your hotel phone system to a proprietary platform, and to facilitate new features and functionality as technology continues to evolve. CSM is fully certified to sell and service PhoneSuite’s PBX 64, 112, 112e, and Voiceware hotel phone system technology throughout Florida, Texas, and the USA.

Additionally, PhoneSuite Voiceware meets the requirements of Kari’s Law and the Ray Baums Act (click here for more information)

PhoneSuite Voiceware hotel phone system, features

For Your Guests:

• Wakeup calls and voicemail prompts are delivered in the guest’s native language – with additional options including scheduling of daily, weekend only, and weekday only. Wakeup messages can include the weather forecast, snooze, and transfer to room service options.
• Extensive guest information, automated answering, automated messaging, and voicemail.
• Check out from room phone option (requires property management system with remote check out interface enabled).
• Compatible with all hotel guest phone speed dial buttons, whether SIP or analog.

For Your Front-Desk:

• Powerful browser-based console offers more functionality and an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
• Find guests or staff easily by name, then one click to call or transfer a call.
• Pop-up screen of guest information any time you answer a guest’s call including name, native language, VIP status, group affiliation, outbound dialing permissions, wake-up calls and more.
• Setting wake-up calls is quick and intuitive with a complete activity log to see who set, answered or canceled wake-up calls.
• PhoneSuite integrates with all known Property Management Systems (PMS).

For Your Staff:

• Ability to run full-featured SIP phones from a variety of manufacturers like Grandstream, Yealink, and SNOM. Soft phones, which are completely resident on a PC or laptop, are also an included option.
• Extensive find me / follow me capabilities with the ability to achieve true mobility.
• Voicemail to email forwarding for a unified messaging experience.
• Ability to handle multiple calls simultaneously on the telephone or with the PhoneSuite Console.
• Unlimited call / staff groupings, ring groups, and role-based queues.
• Automatic or on-demand staff call recording.
• Unlimited number of extensions so that your property is prepared for growth or expansion.
• Ability to centralize reservations and call functions for multi-location properties.

As it is made clear by the points above, PhoneSuite Voiceware is uniquely positioned as a high quality, extremely feature rich hotel phone system, specifically designed and engineered for hospitality. CSM South has installed PhoneSuite in many different hotel brands such as Choice, Best Western, IHG, Marriott, and independent operators.

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CSM South is based in Tampa,Fl and Austin, TX from where we sell and install new phone systems, both cloud and premise, and service existing telephone systems.