Renaissance Guests Can Carry Wireless IP Phones Anywhere

Montgomery, Alabama's Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center announces its implementation of an IP Telephony-based solution from Avaya. Pruitt Communications, an Avaya authorized BusinessPartner implemented the Avaya IP Telephony solution. Each of the Renaissance Hotel's 345 rooms is considered a guest portal, designed to enable new opportunities for serving guests and for guests to interact with the hotel community.

The Renaissance Montgomery Hotel's network includes wireless IP phones in every room that guests can carry anywhere throughout the hotel and conference center and that operate to within a two block radius of the site.

The touch screen phones offer applications and service opportunities enabling guests to check stocks, weather, make spa, dining or show reservations, or zoom into street level views of city maps.

"In the hotel business there's a term called 'triple-play'," says Scott Watts, director of IT, PCH Hotels and Resorts. "This takes that concept a step further and creates a completely converged environment with one network supporting wired and wireless voice, high-speed wired and wireless data networking, as well as IPTV and video on demand."

Guests can opt to use either their phone or the television to set a single or a visit's worth of wake-up calls. If a guest neglects to respond to the wakeup call, the system automatically alerts the main reception, which in turn notifies a hotel employee via a text message to his or her Avaya Wireless IP phone that a personal visit is needed to check on the guest.

Similarly, special requests entered into the hotel CRM system by a guest trigger text messages to the nearest hotel staff member, who can respond via text that service is on the way or via voice if more clarification is needed. If the system logs no response from the employee, it will automatically escalate to another staff member.

The Avaya system is also linked with the hotel's property management system, which enables the hotel to automatically personalize guest phones and communications services at the time of check-in.

"We've been challenged by the owners to be creative, to find and develop unique capabilities that continually will surprise and delight our guests," says Watts. "We're only tapping the tip of the iceberg."

• Kerzner International recently installed the hospitality industry's largest IP-based converged network at the Cove Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. Click here to see what the two implementations share in common and where they differ.