Six star telephony system for Western Cape Hotel and Spa

Service and quality are the defining ingredients of a six star hotel's recipe for success. As the only internationally rated six star hotel in SA, the Western Cape Hotel and Spa, located in the Western Cape, required that its customer telephony system was of a high standard to meet the expectations of its high-profile international and local guests.

"The most important consideration was to ensure our telephony systems and services meet the expectations of guests. Besides standard telephony features, Internet access and laptop connectivity, voice mail, as well as phones in the bathrooms for disabled guests, were essential," explains James Mittan, IT Manager for Western Cape Hotel and Spa.

"We needed a system that was flexible so that we could easily and cost-effectively add capacity and new capabilities as needed," he adds.

"Besides our requirements above, as our hotel is located in the Western Cape, we required a company that would provide local support."

The Arabella Sheraton Group selected Grintek Telecom, local Nortel Networks partner, to assist it to find the best solution. Nortel Network's Meridian Option 11C, a sophisticated PBX telephone system was selected.

The hotel has 145 bedrooms and around 90 telephones in public and office areas, including five toilets for the disabled, which are equipped with telephones.

All guest rooms in the hotel are spacious and equipped with the latest communications and entertainment systems and modern conveniences.

"All rooms have ISDN and analogue links for laptop connectivity with three different ports installed to enable the guest to conduct a conversation whilst connected to the Internet," explains Mittan. "Each room has two digital telephones per room, one of which is cordless to enable guests to speak freely anywhere in the suite."

The voicemail configuration allows guests to retrieve messages up to three days after booking out of the hotel.

"All telephone instruments in the disabled guest bedrooms, have been configured in such a way that if any of the phone instruments are off the hook for a set period, it automatically diverts an alarm to reception," he says.

According to Andre Marryatt from Grintek Telecom's Cape Town office: "One of the features which has improved communication among hotel staff is a message paging system. Staff were fitted with pagers on their belts, which links in to the switchboard operator's PC. Staff can be sent messages through a vibrate alert when there is a message or problem."

The Nortel Meridian hospitality suite which was installed at Western Cape Hotel and Spa, links in with Midas and Fidelio, the hotel's software suite being used to handle bookings and billing. The Meridian software provides information to these systems of all the calls made so that guests can be charged accordingly.

"A highly beneficial feature of the system enables the person handling a guest check in or check out, to activate or deactivate the telephone system in the room," Mittan adds.

Grintek Telecom also added Telephony Management System (TMS) software, which links in to the Meridian system and allows the hotel management to check call details such as the number of ingoing and outgoing calls.

Professional conference facilities, set in a scenic banquet room, are available at the hotel, as well as five breakaway rooms situated in the business centre that are suitable for meetings or smaller conference groups. These are also equipped with ISDN and the Meridian digital telephone equipment.

"I was very impressed with Grintek Telecom, whose staff bent over backwards to assist us and make the project happen within the timescales provided," says Mittan. "Grintek Telecom understood our requirements and accommodated our many changes, ensuring the solution was delivered on time."