telephones in a hotel

[osie]

Its winter again and time for me to reflect on costs....

I was wondering if anyone else has phones in each hotel room and what set up they use.

I have a pabx system with 10 phone lines.  This means that all the rooms have a direct line however it also means that I need to pay for an extra analogue line for the pabx set up and pay extra for 10 lines.  This all probably works out at about 800€ / year extra for which the phones are very rarely used.

There maybe a problem with a wifi solution as some rooms do not pick up the signal.

Thanks

osie

[AnOther]

Frankly I think telephones in rooms are a bit outdated now and you've said yourself that they are rarely used.

The majority of tourists have no real need of the facility and will invariably have a mobile phone anyway and business guests will likely have their company provided mobile phones or suitably equipped laptops for communications.

Save the money.

If you want to offer WiFi then have a hotspot in a public area where it will be largely self regulating and less open to misuse or abuse.

[osie]

The phones are due to a requirement rather than anything else... It is something that is part of the star system and although not set in stone it is definitely a bonus.

I have WiFi and being in the coutryside there are no hotspots.  The wifi though without any gadgets wont reach round the whole of the property.

[AnOther]

If they are hardly used it doesn't sound like much of a bonus except on paper. Does the star system say they have to work [Www]

Are you that marginal for your star rating that removing them could downgrade you and do you think you would stand to lose more than €800/yr if you were downgraded ?

When I said 'public' BTW I meant a communal area in the hotel [;-)]

[Wendy]

We never bothered with phones in the rooms...everyone has mobiles these days.

 

[BJSLIV]

According to the law to gain any level of official star rating you must have a phone in the room. Two star upwards it must be connected to the outside world.

http://www.landes.cci.fr/upload/tourisme/pdf/hotel_normes.pdf

Back In 1986 I suppose it made sense, less so now perhaps.

 

 

[Quillan]

Re the Wifi, you could try a Wifi Repeater such as THIS or you can simply type "Wifi Repeater" in to Google. All you need is to unpack them and plug them in to the electricity, nothing could be simpler to install.

[osie]

Hi Quillan..

I plan to get one of those... orange do one.  What I am not too sure about is that the set up here is , 3 different fuse boxes in 3 buildings which must be connected in some way as there is only 1electricity bill.  What I do not know is if the wifi on 1 fuse box will work with a repeater on another fuse box.

As far as the phones are concerned... I think they are worth having as although not many customers make calls with them, they do tend to receive calls.  I was wondering if there is a simple switchboard solution and dropping the direct lines in all rooms feature.  Another option is to use skype in some way but this would require investing in 10 wifi phones.

Thanks

osie

[Quillan]

Sorry I hope I have not mislead you. These units have to be placed on the edge of your existing range, they receive the radio signal and then rebroadcast it so there is only one unit. They only use the power socket to actually power the unit and do not receive any data via the house wiring. There are some cheap ones around for about £30. If you have little aerials sticking out of your existing Wifi box there are some things that you can attach to them, cost next to nothing, that claim the boost the signal although personally I am a bit sceptical.

What I think you are taking about is where you have two units, you plug one in to the wall near your router and connect a cable between the router and the unit then you plug another in to the wall somewhere else and a Wifi box in to that. The Orange units you are looking at can deal with up to 200mb speed in and out each end but the transfer rate between the two units is only 85mb and as such create a bottleneck if you intend to send a lot of data around.

I don't see why you need so many phonelines? How many rooms do you have?

[osie]

Sorry, it was me not reading the spec correctly.  As you picked up on, the one I was talking about was the Wifi Extender 85 Mbits.

From what I can gather the Wifi Repeater is good for increasing the reception from within a building.  As I have 3 separate buildings I wonder if it would be able to bridge the open space gap between each building.

The Wifi Extender seems to suggest that as it uses the electrical wiring the open space between buildings may not be a problem.

However, I have yet to try either.

My computer now is saying that it is using 12Mbps to connect to the livebox which works okay for surfing etc.

We have 8 rooms that all have phone lines.  The 8 rooms are in 3 separate builiding, the buildings being about 20 metres from each other.  Presently all phone lines have their own direct number however I would be willing to remove this feature for a cheaper option.

Thanks

osie

[Quillan]

I have no idea how many of these Orange units you can use in one household, thats something you need to find out. They are a re badged unit as I mentioned somewhere else. Therefore you can look for a similar product (something that does the same thing) in the UK then phone them and ask. I have seen the same fort of thing for sale in Auchan for about 45 Euros.

Personally I would run fixed cables out to each building then put a Wifi point in a suitable location. I think that might stop any problems you might have at a later date.

Why not look on somewhere like Ebay (.co.uk) for a small PABX unit. I have seen a 2 line X 8 Extensions for as little as £60 new. You can make calls internally, call reception and make external calls. If all the lines are used the person gets an engaged tone until a line becomes free.

The thing is with your current setup is how do you know how many external calls a person has made, to where and the cost for billing?

[osie]

Hi Quillan

The pabx system you mentioned is already what I use... The problem being the rental of an analogue line which is necessary for the pabx system and the rental of 10 extra lines for the rooms.  It is this which cost the 800€/year.  The actual pabx system works quite well.  I would be happy if I could recupurate the money on phone call charges however it is hardly ever used.

By Wifi point what does that mean exactly.. do you mean putting a WiFi repeater at the end.  What cables do you mean, adsl extension cables?

Thanks

osie

[Quillan]

Are you saying you have one actual phone-line out to your hotel and the other 10 lines are actually internal but any one can use the one outside line to call out on?

Run a cable out to each building from a hub/switch connected to your Orange router and then put a 'Wifi access point' like THIS on the end of each cable i.e. one in each building possibly half way down the hallway up on the wall. You can get premade cables up to 35M and you can certainly join two together without problem.

Why not stop renting your PABX and buy, they look cheap enough on Ebay (just as an example, there are shops that sell them on the internet as well). The system is the same in France and the UK except the wall sockets are obviously different. If you really wanted you could upgrade your Orange box contract to VOIP which will give you free calls in France plus for an extra 7 Euros a month free calls world wide, well certainly to all the countries your ever likely to get guests from. You won't pay for the FT line also which will save you 14 Euros a month. So even if they use the phone and don't tell you it won't cost you anything. We actually have a phone in our hall that is free for anyone to use, looks good but they are not to know it costs me nothing even when they think they are being clever siting on the phone back to their kids in the UK for 2 hours.

[osie]

Hi Quillan

I have one analogue line(xxxxxxxx1) that I rent from FT which can have up to 2 calls at a time.  I also rent another 10 lines(xxx02-xxx11) from FT which means an outside person can call them directly to a maximum of 2 calls at a time.  They are also all interconnected via the pabx.   I do not rent the pabx.  The costs are purely FT costs for rental.

40€/month for (contrat professionnal) analogue line rental with 2 calls at a time option, 10€/month for the extra 10 lines = 600€/year (sorry not 800€).

On top of this I need a digital line for the internet - 30€/ month with livebox pro

I thought about upgrading orange to VOIP but because it is a professional contract it costs much more.  Something like + 50€/month for European calls.  It would also only allow me 1 phone and not phones in all the rooms.  I also thought about putting 10 VOIP phones in the rooms using skype.  Its also an option but the phones cost about 100€ each.

An option would be to pay for the livebox privately(not pro) and upgrade to VOiP and offer a little phone booth in the reception; stipping some of the hotel features.

I like the idea of the cables with a WiFi access point on the end.  I will look into costs.

[Quillan]

Well this is what I would do personally given that you are only a ten room hotel. I would unplug the PABX from the FT lines and simply use it for internal calls and put a little sign on or near the phone in each room saying that its for internal calls only but a phone is available in reception. I would keep one line, my main line for the hotel plus one other line and have them as domestic lines.

I would use the main hotel line for Internet and phone, the other I would get a payphone like THIS and install it in the lobby on the second line. You are under no obligation to say what you are using the phone lines for neither do you have to tell them what phone you have connected just as long as it meets French and European standards. If you were a 50 rooms plus hotel it might be different.

[osie]

That does sound a good alternative.  To be honest I am not bothered if the guests use the phone for free in reception.

Thanks for the great idea...

osie

[osie]

After the ponder I have decided for yet another year that it is not such a bad deal I have got and therefore sticking with it.. at least for another year.

I could save 400 euros / year by removing the phones but it does not seem worth it..

I checked with france telecom and they seemed under the impression that it is quite a good deal and there is nothing cheaper that they offer.  The also said that the pabx may well not work internally if I was to disconnect it.  They suggested pulling a plug out to see but I looked at the pabx that I have and it is a box with wires coming and going all over the place with no obvious plug.

I could have gone with the wifi phone solution but phones are 150€ at the moment and they dont really have raging reviews.

I figured, wait till the pabx stops working or until wifi phones become cheaper.

On the good side I bought a wifi extender from Orange and it works like a gem.

The advantage is that I can plug it in anywhere on the property and wam bam.. excellent internet connection.

The disadvantage is that you can only have one of them but it does cover quite a good distance and you can always unplug it and move it as you like.

To conclude, I am spending my money wisely is a good out come... or is it more like a sour grapes Aesop's fable

Thanks

osie