Despite the overwhelming use of the Internet to stay in contact with friends, colleagues and family, the Internet is not a replacement for phone calls. Also, when away from home, most people still like to carry a cellphone both for safety and utility reasons. Roaming charges for use of cellphones away from the network home area are quite high. International roaming charges are also very high. An innovative quality service hotel could provide is a short-term sim card with local charges, call receiving, registering messages, etc. Allowing guests to use hotel telephones at nominal charges is something hotels could still work on. These charges are, at present, quite high across the world.
Step-by-step implementation
- See if your hotel could tie up with a brand like Matrix that provides cellphone sim cards and calling cards at local prices across the world. That ways, guests would be happy to buy a sim card for their stay and would not have to worry too much about their phone bills when away from home.
- The Reception staff should meticulously take phone messages and guests should have the facility to receive phone messages or send, if possible. Particularly if they wish to record a message on an answering machine back home.
More steps in the full edition of the BSC Toolkit for Hotel.
