I'm doing a cabling bid for a hotel that is going to be built very soon, it's a 96 room hotel + 10 office stations.
The owner is looking into doing an all digital or all VoIP system for the hotel. The system he is currently looking at really has no PMS interface, the front desk just has to look at the call accounting system, and add in the LD minutes to the rooms bill.
I know ESI doesn't really make a hotel/motel switch, but do I dare propose an ESI system based on the situation. Right now the VoIP Cisco phones he wants in each room are about $600 (his cost).
I know ESI can't power a message light on an analog phone, but it can on a 24/48 key.
The only phone system's I've done in hotel/mtu/mdu's before are Mitel and NEC. But they had interface's for the PMS.
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Mistake. He should be doing all analog phones for the customers that need to use either a fax or a modem to do their work. Never underestimate having analog lines because some people will need them. Analog phones are also cheaper to maintain AND usually tough. I would wire for voice and data unless they are going wireless.
yeah I too found it a little nuts having no analog lines.
I used to work for a few Hotel broadband Providers (E-Comm Networks and IBahn/Stsn) So I've been in hundred's of hotels, all of which, used traditional analog lines.
Plus you can buy something like a Vodavi hotel 2 Line analog phone for under $60 compared to $600 for the cisco equipment he is looking at.
His plans call for having two drops of CAT6 in each room (bedside and desk). I tried to tell him to use CAT5e, with two drops @ the desk(voice and Data) and 1 at the bed (just voice). As this should last years. Even if he did want to go VoIP in the future the CAt5e would handle it.
No kidding. There is no advantage to having VOIP phones in the rooms. They will never move. You can't loop VOIP phones. You can't do analog connections. FXS converters abosolutly suck for analog devices. The first time there are voice quality issues heads will roll because business people won't deal with it. Quite honeslty I think he will lose business and money.
We were recently in the same situation, much larger hotel (briefly saw $$$ signs) but after doing the research we knew that we were in over our heads matter if we looked at ESI or Toshiba lines. Not enough analog ports and didn't want to rig something!
Sometimes you have to just walk away! Or at least refer!
I'm not sure of the ESI products for this type of arrangement, but I can tell you for sure that Mitel solutions work pretty good, once you understand that there is way too much programming involved! LOL I installed an SX200 ICP in a 72 room hotel that has 2 different extensions in each room, 12 other stations, and both wired and wireless network. Once I got past the programming issues, it seems to work great, and the interfaces between the PMS and the switch and voice mail are now working perfectly. BTW, all room phones and several of the other stations are SLT's.
And WHY??? does he want to put fragile system phones in each room?? I am having a great deal of trouble coming up with any good reason to run digital stations in the rooms and several good reasons why he should stick with analogs. 1) expense 2) fax/modem 3) durability. There is a reason everyone does it that way. Run, do not walk, away from this one.
wow, same thing here, hotel that we have a fujitsu in. it is time to replace, the ESI will do everything on the admin side but you just can not put them in the rooms. i would not put digital phones in rooms. i have seen at voice-com solutions with cisco that give the guest full access to everything from room service to opening the blindes and controlling the lights. can you see a hotel spending $XYZ on a room phone?
Martin Wolfe Wolfe Communications Servicing the North Bay Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake, San Francisco, Mendocino ESI, Avaya, Star2Star,and Toshiba Installer
I actually have a NEAX2400 I could sale they guy if we wanted a used system. I justed pulled it out of an RV resort and they want me to sale it for them
I have considered the ESI 600 with a few A12 cards. Still no MW light. I can make a wake up call interface for users to call, and an analog port will call them back @ X time.
Still the NEC or Mitel will probably be my best bet.... If he will go for it.
We have a lot of traction in the hospitality market right now. The players in the less than 500 room market are Avaya and Nortel. The Japanese mfgs (except NEC) have all exited. We are replacing Mitel, Fujitsu, and Hitachi on every project. The Mitel dealers are funny. Most deals have 3 Mitel dealers bidding on the same project with something like a negative margin. Knock on wood we are more expensive and getting the business. ESI is a great company but a non-player in hospitality. Even prosposing a digital phone for a room should get you de-authorized for ignorance.
I don't see my self doing anything larger than a 300 room hotel anywhere in the near future (we work in a small town)maybe I'll look toward the Avaya Certs...
For a small hotel system going up to 220 rooms check out the Phonesuite 112. It is inexpensive, programs easily, has a T-1 card option as well as Voice mail card, call accounting card, and other great options like a PMS interface. We have sold a few of them and they work well and are priced very well compared to Mitel and the like....but they are not for a big hotel. They have a smaller system, the Phonesuite 64 that goes up to 64 rooms and works well for real small motels or B&B's.
The office phones (or "Feature phones" as they call them) are pretty good, they are re-branded spectralink phones, as we have not had any complaints yet. The neat thing is (from what I have been told) is that you can actually use other centrex phones like Nortel if you want. We have always used the Spectralink phones, but it is a neat option to think about.
