Are you looking for the right phone system for your hotel business?
Our in-depth market research led us to examine solutions from some of the leading hotel phone system providers.
Here’s what we found:
The best hotel phone system provider for UK small-to-medium sized hospitality businesses is 3CX.
With a host of local value-added IT resellers (VARs) literally queuing up to help you leverage the ‘smarts’ of this unique hotel phone system, 3CX is fully featured, offers your hotel business lots of operational flexibility and works out very affordable for all budgets.
So, not only will the 3CX phone system save you money in the long run, but also is most suited for delivering the best hotel phone solution to benefit both your staff and guests.
Plus, 3CX can be scaled easily to accommodate expansion and diversification of your business model.
In this article, we identify the best universal features for a hotel phone system, reveal highlights from our talks with a leading reseller of 3CX, on why it’s the best fit business communication solution for a hotel, as well as compare some alternative hotel phone systems.
Contents
- Top providers of PBX phone systems for Hotels
- Benefits of buying a PBX phone system for your hotel
- Best PBX hotel phone system: 3CX
- Alternative 1 PBX hotel phone system: RingCentral
- Alternative 2 PBX hotel phone system: 4 Com (HiHi)
- Choosing the right hotel phone system for your business
- Hotel PBX Buyer FAQs
- Get hotel PBX phone system provider quotes to compare prices
Top providers of PBX phone systems for Hotels
TOP 3 UK HOTEL PHONE SYSTEMS | #1 Best System | Alternative 1 | Alternative 2 |
Provider name | 3CX Reseller | RingCentral | 4Com (HiHi) |
Provider Logo |  |  |  |
Ideal for | Small to medium-sized hotels (All Done For You) | B&Bs and boutiques (Do It Yourself) | Premium hotels serving high-end events or business clientele |
Type | Hosted | Cloud | Hosted |
Why? | IT resellers provide expert, value added service on top | Cloud app, ideal for solo operator or small team | Multi-device docking station, seamless integration |
Price | £81.00 per month (standard calls inclusive) | £7.99 per user per month (annual contract) | Request For Quote |
Lead time | 1 month wait to install | Instant start | 2 week wait to install |
3CX is the best hotel phone system here in the UK.
RingCentral and HiHi offer two worthy alternatives for the right type of hotel business.
Read on for more detail on those recommendations.
Benefits of buying a PBX phone system for your hotel
Think beyond merely offering phone extensions to guests’ rooms.
Today, modern PBX hotel phone systems are much more than just phone lines for voice calling.
They come packed with customer service enabling features that help keep your staff on the front foot in the battle to deliver unbeatable guest experiences.
Here are a few examples of how a PBX hotel phone system can benefit your business:
- CRM integration with guest history and ID during call
- Guest Check in and Check out
- Do not Disturb on guest extensions
- Restricting external calls only to when room is occupied
- Automated wake up calls to room
- Housekeeping can set room status using the phone system
- Integration with PMS for billing
With all these options at your finger tips, the right hotel phone system can help you build a bespoke solution for delivering a first class guest experience, every time.
The result: more repeat booking revenue, cost savings – from greater staff efficiency, consistent 5-star reviews and increasing brand reputation.
Best PBX hotel phone system: 3CX
Our research led us to contact, Confidence IT Ltd. of Milton Keynes who are 3CX Silver Partners.
What is 3CX?
3CX is a digital business communications platform delivered via SIP trunks. It offers both hosted or self-hosted PBX solutions.
It’s a highly configurable solution with lots of flexibility, add-ons and is used by many IT support companies as a communications framework for offering self-managed VOIP and PBX services.
3CX is fast becoming one of the most popular phone systems for small business here in the UK and across the world with over 200,000 installations to date.
3CX hotel PBX phone system
Confidence IT Ltd. are a local IT services company that use the 3CX phone system to build their own self-managed PBX
solutions for hotels and other SMEs in the city.
When we caught up with their sales team, they filled us in on all the possibilities on offer from 3CX as a hotel phone system.
Here are the system highlights:
3CX Package name | Dedicated Pro |
Simultaneous calls | 4 simultaneous external lines |
Inclusive calls | Unlimted to landlines and mobile (except international calls and some networks like Tesco mobile - £15 price cap on premium calls per month) |
System features |
|
Specialist hotel phone features |
|
Recommended staff phones | Yealink T53  |
Recommended guest room phones | Yealink T31  |
System cost | £81 (+VAT) per month [for 4 simultaneous lines, and £10 per month extra for every line added on top] |
Deskphone cost |
(Available on 0% interest 12 monthly installments) |
On-site power & network install cost | £600 (+VAT) to install a Netgear point with Cat 6 cabling |
Contract length | 1 year |
Extended contract benefit | ~ 5% discount on license fee for 3 year contract |
Installation lead time from order | 2 weeks notice with 3 day turnaround (during busy months 30 days notice) |
Alternative 1 PBX hotel phone system: RingCentral
RingCentral is a cloud-based business phone system that has user-friendly features suited to end-users.
It’s a phone system that is based on a mobile and desktop app.
Running through the main feature list – you won’t see much difference between this and 3CX. You have all the usual capabilities that a VOIP has including: call logging, call recording, IVR and business app integrations.
But hotel related specialist features like Do Not Disturb etc. are not available.
Also, the RingCentral pricing model is user-based, making system expansion more costly than 3CX.
Plus, being an app, there is no value-added reseller support, maintenance or general advice.
Ideal for:
Smaller hotels, boutique operations, owner operated
Pros
✅ simple, set-up, all cloud app based
✅ cheap enough for a single user on a personal smart phone and tablet
Cons
❌ lack of specialist hotel features like ‘scheduled wake up calls’
❌ no managed customer care inc. hardware installation and set-up
❌ no PMS integration
Conclusion: if you’re looking for a PBX phone system for a micro-team, or small husband and wife team bed and breakfast – without the smart hotel features, this is just the right system.
Price: From £12.99 (+VAT) per user per month if paid annually (otherwise £17.99 +VAT per user per month)
Alternative 2 PBX hotel phone system: 4 Com (HiHi)
4Com are platinum resellers of the popular HiHi business phone system.
The system is a fully managed solution, offered by IT resellers 4Com, much like the 3CX system above.
It’s major selling points are the built-in tablet docking station in the base unit with seamless integration with your smart phone via a mobile app.
Most customers express delight at being able to pick up incoming calls on their mobile with no difference to if they were using their desk phone.
In fact, mid call, whilst connected to a call at their desk, they can unnoticeably switch the call over to their mobile. A great advantage when needing to be on your feet on premises i.e. in the storeroom, or restaurant floor etc.
Ideal for:
Hotels with high end business customers or luxury events/weddings.
Pros
✅ integrated (tablet, mobile, desk phone)
✅ great for video calls
✅ home working and remote working with ease
✅ totally managed solution by 4Com
Cons
❌ lack of specialist hotel features like ‘scheduled wake up calls’
❌ HiHi3 desk phones aren’t necessarily cheap
❌ no PMS integration
Conclusion: if you have a need to host virtual tours of your hotel premises for event customers, or have sophisticated business guests needing advanced video conferencing – then HiHi is a worthwhile investment.
Price: Request for quote
Choosing the right hotel phone system for your business
With so much to choose from, how do you make the right investment and walk away with the best hotel phone system?
Our market research involved speaking with experienced hotel phone system providers.
We asked lots of difficult buyer related questions and the experts’ responses uncovered some critical points of advice that will help you make the right decision.
Here’s the expert advice:
Improve customer service & staff efficiency
A hotel PBX phone system can do so much more than just perform voice calls. Make sure you are aware of all the ways in which your industry leading peers gain advantage from their phone systems to serve customers better and help staff perform.
CRM integration
Going in blind to customer conversations is very inefficient to say the least. Fumbling through who they are, what they’re calling for and what to do next can be a frustrating experience, especially when under pressure in the office or front desk.
Having customer records at your fingertips with CRM integration, saves times, saves blushes and keeps customers impressed with your care.
Capacity planning
3CX has a great cost advantage against other hotel PBX phone systems. Customers with 3CX are charged according to simultaneous lines NOT users. This basically means to add users to your system is free with 3CX.
Estimate your simultaneous calls
Plan how many simultaneous calls you are likely to have connected at your busiest times.
This should dictate how many simultaneous lines your need and therefore what your monthly cost will be.
Pro Tip: work off a ratio of 1:2 for simultaneous lines to active users. In other words, as a rule of thumb, to be conservative provide half the simultaneous lines for the number of users your phone system has. e.g. with a team of 10 users, a capacity of 4 – 5 simultaneous lines should be enough to enjoy an uninterrupted phone experience.
Get best features
Pricing tiers are greatly influenced by features. The more features you have the more you pay.
However, a feature rich hotel phone system offers significant ROI potential through saved time and improved service.
Trade off the cost/benefit of paying more in order to do more with your system.
Make a feature checklist
Every provider has a features list. Go through each provider’s list and pick off your desirable and essential features.
Weigh up the pros and cons of each, and then settle on the appropriate package.
Consider your guest services functions
Checking in and out, wake up calls, self-managed billing etc. all these guest-centric features add value to the customer experience. Not all PBX phone systems providers offer solutions that include these features, but 3CX do – and more.
Think power and networking
You might not have sufficient power or networking on site to run your new PBX hotel phone system. You’ll need to check for this yourself, asking your provider for hints on what to search for if you’re not sure.
Assess current networking for suitability
If after your site assessment, you find that you will need the provider to install a network switch with power, this will come at an additional capital cost.
We were quoted £600 (+VAT) for a Netgear switch installation including the cost of a day’s labour.
You could always ask if this cost could be bundled within your contract’s monthly payments, spreading out your cost. Also, ask if they have a spare network switch in the storeroom that you could use. This might save you £200+.
Save money on the deal
Buying the right hotel PBX phone system at the right price is the aim.
Spending less without compromising the quality of product or service only raises your return on investment.
Here are some tips from the experts on saving money when buying your hotel phone system:
Ask for reconditioned hardware
Phones or a switch & power supply can always be bought reconditioned (or used) at a fraction of the price of buying new.
Ask your provider to check their stock of reconditioned kit and petition them to give you cost advantage.
Negotiate a license discount
Most providers will offer some slack on negotiating the license cost – especially if you sign up for longer contract duration.
Lengthen your contract
Longer lock-in should equate to price discount. Use this as leverage in your negotiation.
Bundle in hardware cost into monthly repayments
You can economise on CAPEX by asking your provider to bundle in the cost of the hardware into your monthly contractual payments – they should do this at 0% interest. Again, remembering to ask for old reconditioned phone stock.
Hotel PBX Buyer FAQs
You might still have a few questions before being comfortable to invest in your new hotel PBX phone system.
Here are some questions with answers provided from our research:
Can a hotel PBX phone system get hacked?
Yes. They are as vulnerable to attack as any modern internet connected system.
However, with reputable solutions like 3CX and others mentioned earlier, they come with industry standard, multilayered security measures to prevent breach of security.
If you buy from an IT support reseller, they will also include as part of your contract: system monitoring, security and maintenance.
24/7 coverage of support is offered. They have reporting programs from the SIP provider that give complete visibility of the status of your system’s security and can even apply certain blocks to prevent usage abuse.
If breached, however, your system should be easily restored using a backup version and moved to another server location for security.
International calls are charged at advantageous wholesale rates via most IT resellers providing PBXs.
With one provider we spoke with, they offered a no interruption £15 cap with notification when you are nearing the limit. You then will be charged the following month for the additional call charges.
If you would like to block premium call charges either all together or via a rule-based system – this is also possible. Thus limiting excessive charges.
Get hotel PBX phone system provider quotes to compare prices
So, now you’ve gotten some insight to help you choose the most suitable phone system for your hotel business, the next step is to request some quotes.
Save time and money by using our quote comparison web form. How? Simply press the button below and take a minute to fill out a web form.
Once submitted, we will forward your request on to our expert panel of hotel phone system providers.
They will respond to you directly with cost-saving quotes and itemised details to help you buy the best system for your hotel business.
Get your quotes today.