Those hotel phone charges ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Yeah the hotels phone system is a pain - I had a customer complaining today that the hotel charged her even for 0800numbers..the sooner they clamp down on these people the better.

A. Every hotel I have been in has had a charge display by the phone. Unfortunately, this is usually in "units", and no-one seems to know how much time a unit buys to local or national numbers. Back in the days when I did a lot of travelling (pre-GSM so I couldn't use a mobile abroad) it was normal for my hotel phone bill to cost more than the room (and I wasn't living in cheap hotels). A couple of Scottish hotels I've stayed in recently have had a notice to the effect that calls are charged at BT phone box rates. This is at least simple and direct, even if it isn't much help when estimating what any particular call will cost. I've also got no idea what a phone box costs, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find out. I would expect a rate card to give a few example rates, along the lines of:- Local calls Ap/min peak, Bp/min offpeak National calls Cp/min peak, Dp/min offpeak followed by maybe a dozen popular international routes (USA, France, Germany, etc.), and an indication of how calls are charged - per minute, multiples of 5p, whatever. Surely this wouldn't be too difficult to do, and pretty clear? As it stands now, I never use the hotel phone. I guess my mobile may be more expensive on ocassion (especially local calls), but at least I know how much I am paying. At present many hotels have to use the "per unit" system due to the billing system which BT provide down their lines (meter pulsing). The alternative to this online billing system is to have lookup tables within an internal system and have the difficulty of keeping it up to date. Our systems then convert the "meter pulse" to a charge out rate. BT are the only provider of "meter pulse" and therefore many hotels cannot use "least cost" providers. We would like to be able to give you examples of what a unit buys in time but BT do not provide a conversion table (when I asked). The best we can do is to give examples of call charges. How practical is that ? I don't know the cost of equipment and maintenance for a large, medium or small hotel (perhaps you could give some figures) but most hotels offer (a) room service and (b) alarm calls. Without a phone in each room, this becomes impractical (pagers would work one way!) I know that handsets are often priced in the 50 quid region for extensions, and I am sure there are annual maintenance costs running into big money just to cover yourself for callouts for dead phones. However, I doubt whether the cost of installation (spread over 2 years) plus maintenance comes to more than 75p per night of occupation and yet some of the cheaper rooms in hotels I have stayed in are around 50 quid a night. Hotels are not run as a charity, I know, and big chains have shareholders etc, but prices (especially near airports and some cities) are far from "low", and I am not convinced that high charges for calls can be justified as a way to pay for the phone in the room. Te whole chicken and egg situation of people using mobile phones instead of the hotel phone is that of cost... hotels must surely adapt to "reasonable" and clearly understood charges for customers to continue using them. The fact the hotel industry has not seen that, and changed its ways, is now reflected in the use of mobiles/indirect carriers, and maybe it is too late to be able to reverse the trend.

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