The best hotel phone systems feature robust voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) features and integrate team collaboration tools to facilitate efficient communications among the staff and guests. They work seamlessly with different third-party, industry-specific apps, including reservation systems, booking platforms, and property management tools. Moreover, the providers offer various hardware devices supporting front desk and back-office communications.
Based on our research, these are the top hotel phone systems worth considering:
- RingCentral: Best for unifying staff and guest communications
- Nextiva: Ideal for handling high-volume, long-distance calls
- Zoom Phone: Great for managing hotel chains’ global communications
- Dialpad: Solid choice for enhancing customer engagement via artificial intelligence (AI)
- Vonage: Top pick for supporting staff mobility
- Phone.com: Best for handling seasonal surges in booking inquiries
- Ooma: Ideal for broadcasting messages
Best Hotel Phone Systems at a Glance
Best Hotel Phone Systems | Monthly Starting Price per User | Key Features | Free Trial | FSB Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
$30 |
| 14 days | 4.69 out of 5 | |
$30.95 |
| 7 days | 4.61 out of 5 | |
$10 |
| Not available (N/A) | 4.56 out of 5 | |
$23 |
| 14 days | 4.45 out of 5 | |
$19.99 |
| N/A | 4.44 out of 5 | |
$14.99 |
| 30-day money-back guarantee | 4.24 out of 5 | |
$19.95 |
| 30-day money-back guarantee | 4.22 out of 5 | |
RingCentral: Best Overall for Unifying Staff & Guest Communications
What We Liked
- Over 300+ third-party integrations
- Desk phone and conference phone rental options
- 24/7 customer support in all subscription plans
Where It Falls Behind
- Entry-level pricing is more expensive than competitors
- Doesn’t offer unlimited short messaging service (SMS)
- Unlimited storage is exclusively offered in the highest-tier subscription package
RingCentral Monthly Pricing*
- Core: $30 per user for IVR, shared lines, basic call queues, and team messaging with file sharing
- Advanced: $25 per user for advanced call queues, automatic and on-demand call recording, up to 8-digit extensions, and hot desking
- Ultra: $45 per user for unlimited storage for files, messaging, and recordings and device analytics and alerts
- Free trial: 14 days
*Save up to 33% by paying annually. Volume discounts for more than 50 users are available.
RingCentral is our top pick among the best hotel phone systems primarily because it’s a robust unified communications solution that supports call management, team chat, and video conferencing. Its call management system is equipped with automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), call queues, and phone extensions. Its instant messaging supports one-on-one and group messaging, even allowing external contacts to be included in the discussion channels.
If you need to conduct large-scale training for hotel employees, create a RingCentral meeting room, which accommodates up to 500 meeting participants. On top of the unified communications features, this provider offers desk and conference phones for sale and rent. It supports popular brands, including Poly, Mitel, Unify, Yealink, Cisco, and Avaya, letting you supply hardware devices to your front desk and back-office.
The best part about RingCentral is its 300-plus prebuilt integrations. Aside from essential productivity and customer relationship management (CRM) apps, it connects with hospitality tech, such as TigerTMS. With this integration, you’ll easily have an overview of hotel operations, including room status, occupancy levels, and even wake-up alarm deliveries.
Unfortunately, RingCentral’s subscription plans are more expensive than other hotel phone system providers. If you want a more affordable business phone system, Zoom Phone is the best option, as its plans start at $10 per user.
RingCentral Features
- Heads-up display (HUD): Let receptionists check the presence status of 100 users in your phone system in one glance. They’ll easily transfer calls to available guest service representatives, park calls for other team members’ retrieval, and add participants to conference rooms.
- Audio conferencing: Organize phone meetings with team members and discuss important updates in hotel activities. RingCentral accommodates up to 1,000 participants in audio conferencing sessions.
- Live reports: Gain meaningful insights about your call center activities. On the platform’s live reports dashboard, you’ll see key metrics such as service level, call volume, and agent count.
Learn more about this phone system’s capabilities in our comprehensive RingCentral review. We gave high scores on the platform’s general and niche features.
Nextiva: Best for Handling High-volume, Long-distance Calls
What We Liked
- Free number porting
- Generous SMS and MMS allowance
- Team chat and video conferencing tools
Where It Falls Behind
- Doesn’t offer international phone numbers
- First tier’s video call duration is limited to 45 minutes
- Only has 20+ third-party integrations
Nextiva Monthly Pricing*
- Essential: $30.95 per user for a local and toll-free number, up to 45 minutes of video calls, unlimited internet fax, and threaded conversations
- Professional: $35.95 per user for unlimited conference calls for 40 participants, a maximum of 1,000 inbound and outbound SMS and multimedia messaging service (MMS) credits, multi-level auto-attendant, and integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) apps
- Enterprise: $45.95 per user for unlimited conference calls for unlimited participants, a maximum of 2,000 inbound and outbound SMS and MMS credits, call recording, and voicemail transcription
- Free trial: 7 days
*Save up to 22% by paying annually. Volume discounts for more than four users are available.
Nextiva is next on our list of the best hotel phone systems, most suitable for companies receiving a large volume of long-distance calls as it offers generous toll-free minutes. The minimum allowance in the subscription plan is 1,500 minutes, while the maximum is 12,500. The provider offers a free toll-free number in all packages.
The platform’s conversational AI helps further in managing high-volume calls. Using natural language processing technology to understand customer concerns, it facilitates self-service and grants requests, such as booking hotel reservations, processing payments, and answering frequently asked questions. With these inquiries handled, you accommodate more clients and offer faster, better service.
Although Nextiva is a great small business VoIP service, it lacks international phone numbers. Consider other hotel phone system providers, like RingCentral, Zoom Phone, or Phone.com, if you want to establish a local presence overseas. These providers have global phone numbers, covering multiple countries and territories.
Nextiva Features
- Call routing: The phone system automatically distributes incoming calls to agents and departments based on preconfigured rules, such as business hours, priority level, or agent skills.
- Voicemail-to-email: Nextiva sends voicemails to your email inbox, making messages easily readable on your computer or smartphone. The email contains the audio recording transcription, which is convenient for taking note of important details.
- Call notify: Set up Nextiva to send you an email notification when an important or time-sensitive call comes through your system. The alerts contain key information, including the caller’s phone number and the call timestamp.
In our Nextiva review, we recommended the platform to those looking for a reliable auto-attendant phone system. Read the article to learn more about the provider.
Zoom Phone: Best for Managing Hotel Chains’ Global Communications
What We Liked
- Highly affordable entry-level subscription plan
- Seamless transition from calls to video meetings
- Single sign-on for improved security
Where It Falls Behind
- No annual billing and volume user discounts
- Call queue analytics has an add-on fee
- Doesn’t offer unlimited SMS
Zoom Phone Monthly Pricing
- U.S. and Canada Metered: $10 per user for a local number, metered outbound calling, domestic SMS and MMS, and unlimited auto-attendants
- U.S. and Canada Unlimited: $15 per user for a local number, unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada, domestic SMS and MMS, and optional add-on of unlimited calling to 19 countries
- Pro Global Select: $20 per user for a direct dial number, unlimited domestic calling in one of the 40-plus countries, and optional unlimited international calling add-on
Among the providers listed here, Zoom Phone is the best hotel phone system for chains with properties overseas, as it offers affordable regional and international calling plans. Its Pro Global Select Plan, which only costs $20 per user, allows unlimited domestic calling across 40-plus countries, including the United States (U.S.), Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
If you have a hotel in the mentioned locations, your staff will freely communicate with local customers without worrying about costly charges. Aside from the regional calling offering, Zoom Phone has an add-on that offers unlimited international calling to 19 countries, like Ireland, Australia, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. If you cater to world travelers, you’ll save more on communication costs with this offer compared to choosing metered global calls.
Unfortunately, Zoom Phone’s subscription plans don’t include unlimited SMS. If you frequently communicate with stakeholders through texts, use Vonage, as it offers unlimited text messaging, even in its base-level subscription plan.
Zoom Phone Features
- Call barge and takeover: Let managers take control of live phone calls when customers on the other end of the line have become irate. Barge enables team leaders to join an active call and directly speak with the agent and the customer, while takeover allows you to remove the agent and talk privately to the customer.
- Hot desking: Promote flexibility among hotel employees by letting them log into any phone in your system and access their unique profile settings. Users only need their extension number and PIN to sign in to any desk phone in your hotel.
- End-to-end encryption: Ensure the privacy of your phone calls by enabling end-to-end encryption on your account. Note that call flip, call monitoring, and hold music will be disabled when you activate this feature.
To learn more about the phone system, check out our Zoom Phone review. The provider earned perfect scores on customer service and ease of use.
Dialpad: Best for Enhancing Customer Engagement via AI
What We Liked
- International SMS support
- Access to application programming interfaces (APIs)
- 100% uptime service level agreement (SLA)
Where It Falls Behind
- Virtual fax requires an extra fee
- Only the most expensive plan offers phone extensions
- Limited number of ring groups in the entry-level plan
Dialpad Monthly Pricing*
- Standard: $23 per user for a local phone number, unlimited domestic calling, custom call routing, and call recording
- Pro: $35 additional local or international numbers, hold queues, international SMS, and integrations with CRM apps
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for phone extensions, unlimited ring groups, integrations with single sign-on solutions, and priority customer support routing
- Free trial: 14 days
*The entry-level and second-tier subscription plan fees lower to $15 and $25, respectively, when you pay annually.
Given its robust, built-in AI tools, Dialpad is the ideal solution for making customer communications more efficient. It uses natural language processing, analyzing conversations as they happen, and machine learning, which allows the software solution to generate more accurate insights as it processes more data.
The platform transcribes calls in real time, helping guest service representatives take note of the details of the conversation without manually writing them down. To further assist agents, especially the new ones, Dialpad has a pop-up box that displays recommendations for improving representatives’ spiels and manner of speech depending on how the conversation is going.
However, the downside of choosing this provider is you must choose the most expensive plan to unlock the phone extensions feature. If several guest service representatives need unique extension numbers, go for other VoIP hotel phone systems like Ooma, which has this VoIP tool in its entry-level plan with monthly pricing at only $19.95 per user.
Dialpad Features
- Business text messaging: Text booking updates and sales promos to customers. Dialpad lets businesses send SMS internationally, helping you build and maintain strong rapport with existing and potential clients overseas.
- Call recording: Document live phone conversations and use them for evaluating agent performance. The audio recordings will also help in crafting training programs for new employees.
- Warm and cold transfer: Give guest service representatives the option to transfer calls in an instant or after speaking to another agent. Dialpad’s warm and cold transfer features are represented by the in-call control buttons “Ask First” and “Transfer Now.”
If you plan to use this phone system for your marketing and customer service initiatives, read our Dialpad review to learn more about the platform. We provided a detailed evaluation of the provider’s pricing, features, and customer support.
Vonage: Best for Supporting Staff Mobility
What We Liked
- Unlimited calls within the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
- Support for local, toll-free, vanity, and international phone numbers
- Unlimited access to information technology (IT) support via Vonage Support PLUS
Where It Falls Behind
- Integrates with 20+ third-party apps only
- Add-on features quickly increase monthly costs
- Only the most expensive subscription plan has on-demand call recording
Vonage Monthly Pricing*
- Mobile: $19.99 per user for mobile and desktop apps, unlimited calls, SMS, team messaging, and access to Vonage App Center
- Premium: $29.99 per user for multi-level auto-attendant, IP desk phone capability, integrations with CRM apps, and unlimited meetings for up to 100 participants
- Advanced: $39.99 per user for call group, on-demand call recording, and visual voicemail
*Pricing includes one company phone number.
Out of the phone systems for hotels included in this guide, Vonage is the most suitable for supporting staff mobility, as it offers all of its 40-plus standard features in its smartphone app. These tools include advanced call management features, like conference calling, call flip, call park, call screening, and call tagging. Its team messaging and video conferencing tools are readily available, allowing employees to share updates and attend virtual meetings wherever they are.
The mobile app has an intuitive interface, which features key tools in its main tabs, such as chat, calls, dial, contacts, and business apps. Even non-tech-savvy employees will easily navigate the platform, given its simplicity.
Before subscribing to a Vonage plan, note that some essential features, such as call recording, business inbox, and call queue, are add-ons that quickly inflate monthly costs. Call recording alone costs $49.99 a month. In contrast, Zoom Phone has these tools in its subscription plans, which start at $10 per user.
Vonage Features
- Call rerouting: Configure call continuity settings to make the phone system divert incoming calls to active phone lines during emergencies. This ensures you’ll receive customer inquiries even when there’s an internet outage.
- Click-to-dial: Call any phone number on a website simply by clicking the number, sans the hassle of manually dialing the digits. Once you click, you’ll get a call on your softphone and hear an announcement to wait while the system dials and connects you to the other party.
- Virtual fax: Vonage supports personal and group faxing. Personal fax uses the number assigned to your extension, while group fax lets you share your fax number with other users in the phone system. The virtual fax dashboard features three tabs (recent, pending, and failed), allowing you to filter through different messages.
In our Vonage review, we recommended the phone system to businesses wanting to connect multiple phones to one extension. Use the article to learn more about the platform’s tools.
Phone.com: Best for Handling Seasonal Surges in Booking Inquiries
What We Liked
- Huge discounts for buying bulk numbers
- Local rates for international phone numbers in select countries
- Unlimited video meeting duration
Where It Falls Behind
- Video meeting participant capacity is limited to 100
- Users must upgrade to the most expensive plan to unlock call recording
- Integrates with only four third-party business tools
Phone.com Monthly Pricing*
- Basic: $14.99 per user for one phone number per account, 500 pooled minutes, call forwarding, call screening, and video conferencing for up to 10 participants
- Plus: $21.99 per user for one phone number per user, unlimited minutes, text messaging, and video conferencing for up to 25 participants
- Pro: $31.99 per user for call recording, call analytics, third-party integrations, and video conferencing for up to 100 participants
- Free trial: 30-day money-back guarantee
*Save 15% by paying annually. Volume discounts for more than four users are available.
If your hotel usually sees seasonal surges in booking inquiries and requests, Phone.com is the best phone system as it offers the flexibility of choosing metered and unlimited calling plans and mixing and matching users. During peak months, you have the option to go for unlimited calling to manage communication costs. When the booking demand softens, scale back to metered calling.
To accommodate the influx of inquiries during peak seasons, opt for Phone.com’s live receptionist solutions. Professionally trained agents will accommodate customer concerns, following the script you provide. Consider adding phone numbers to provide more lines of communication. Phone.com offers huge discounts for buying multiple numbers. If you get over 100 phone numbers, you’ll only pay $1.99 per number (monthly), down from the standard rate of $4.99.
Phone.com offers a wide range of pre-provisioned VoIP phones that make for an excellent hotel front desk phone system. However, one downside you should know about this platform is its limited native third-party integrations. It only connects with AllProWebTools, Chrometa, Comm100, and Zoho. RingCentral is our top recommendation if you want a provider that works seamlessly with a wide array of tools, including hotel management apps.
Phone.com Features
- Call waiting: Get notified when someone calls you while you’re on an active call. By knowing who’s on the other end of the line, you’ll be able to decide which clients to prioritize and manage inbound calls more strategically.
- Block list: This is a list of phone numbers restricted to reach your phone lines. It enables your team to focus on important calls and avoid spam callers. Note that the list is on the account level, not on a user basis. Thus, the blocked numbers won’t be able to place a call, send a text, or leave a voicemail to any of your registered phone numbers.
- Greetings: Play custom greetings when callers reach your phone line. Phone.com allows users to use its text-to-speech tool, upload audio files, or record one.
With its volume discounts on phone numbers, we especially recommend this phone system to marketing teams that need to track campaigns closely. Read our Phone.com review to learn more about its best use cases.
Ooma: Best for Broadcasting Messages
What We Liked
- Unlimited calls cover U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico
- Free toll-free number in all subscription plans
- Low per-minute charges for international calls
Where It Falls Behind
- Third-party integrations are limited to Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Entry-level plan doesn’t have desktop app access
- Lacks team messaging
Ooma Monthly Pricing
- Essentials: $19.95 per user for one toll-free number, 500 toll-free minutes, virtual receptionist, and call forwarding
- Pro: $24.95 per user for access to the desktop app, call recording, and enhanced call blocking
- Pro Plus: $29.95 per user for call queueing, hot desking, and third-party integrations
- Free trial: 30-day money-back guarantee
Ooma is the best solution for managing brick-and-mortar communications because it features an intercom and overhead paging systems, allowing the hotel management team to broadcast messages. This is highly useful when you need to call the attention of a guest waiting in the lobby area or an employee who must respond immediately to requests or alerts.
The best part about Ooma is its hardware offerings. Among the listed providers here, it’s the only one with its own brand of VoIP phones, which cater to different call volumes and business needs. It provides year-round discounts, such as buy-one-get-one promos. Aside from its own hardware, Ooma supports other VoIP phone brands, including Grandstream, Yealink, and Cisco.
While Ooma is a great phone system for broadcasting important announcements in hotels, it lacks team chat, an essential feature for hotel staff collaboration. Other telephone systems for hotels, like RingCentral, Nextiva, and Dialpad, offer this tool in all their subscription plans.
Ooma Features
- Extension monitoring: Allow receptionists to quickly view the status of users’ extensions and manage inbound calls based on that information. For example, you can transfer calls to available agents or launch a three-way call among users.
- Seven-digit dialing: Be more efficient in customer outreach by reducing the number of digits dialed for outbound calls. Ooma lets users call those within their area code with only seven digits, instead of 10.
- Video conferencing: Meet with hotel employees virtually, announcing updates or organizing training with resource speakers based overseas. Ooma allows a maximum of 100 video meeting participants in one session.
Check out our extensive Ooma review, where we discussed more of the provider’s features and interface. Read the article first before choosing a subscription plan.
How We Evaluated the Best Hotel Phone Systems
To assess the best hotel phone solutions, we considered their subscription costs, call management capabilities, usability, and customer assistance. Our evaluation also includes our expert opinion on its value for money and popularity.
Learn how we evaluated the platforms by clicking on the tabs below:
15% of Overall Score
To determine affordability, we considered the cost of the base-level and second-tier subscription plans and compared it to the prevailing fees in the market. We favored those with discounts for annual billing and bulk purchases.
25% of Overall Score
The general features we looked at were unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada, audio and video conferencing, and uptime SLA. Since businesses need a reliable communications platform for on-the-go employees, we included mobile apps in our assessment.
20% of Overall Score
The specialized features we checked were international calling, virtual numbers, and the IVR system. Higher points were given to providers with robust integrations.
10% of Overall Score
We evaluated ease of use by determining the expertise required to set up and operate the phone system. We also assessed if the providers have an intuitive interface.
10% of Overall Score
The variety of customer communication channels was part of our evaluation. We gave more points to providers with email, phone, and live chat support. We considered the hours these channels are active and operational.
20% of Overall Score
This includes our evaluation of the provider’s standout features, value for money, and ease of use. We checked user ratings in third-party review sites to gauge the platform’s popularity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
While some have landline phone systems, most hotels use VoIP platforms like the ones mentioned above primarily because of the advanced calling and call management features cloud-based systems offer. With unlimited domestic calling, auto-attendants, call queues, and visual voicemail, staff members connect with customers efficiently and with fewer costs.
When choosing a hotel phone system, consider these essential capabilities:
- ACD: This system will help you handle large volumes of inquiries from potential and current guests, as it automatically receives inbound calls and distributes them to agents based on preconfigured rules.
- IVR: This feature provides a prerecorded menu and allows customers to choose among the given options by pressing certain keys on their dial pad. This ensures that callers are sent to the right departments or service representatives.
- Emergency calling tools: Your phone system must support communications with the police and first responders during crises. Look for platforms with built-in emergency calling features that help your staff easily coordinate with authorities.
- Unified communications: Go for providers with SMS, team messaging, and video conferencing capabilities to keep all your communications in one place.
- Third-party integrations: Choose phone systems that allow integrations with property management apps to further centralize all your communications.
If you’re using a VoIP platform, the softphone app for the desktop and mobile should be enough to facilitate communications among hotel employees. But you also have the option to get desk phones for the front desk staff and conference phones for back-end operations employees, like the sales and marketing teams.
Bottom Line
An excellent hotel phone solution lets you manage booking and reservation queries more efficiently and provide top-notch customer service. It facilitates smooth communication among team members, making it easier to discuss matters virtually.
Among the best hotel phone software solutions we reviewed, RingCentral comes out as the best overall, as it features robust call management capabilities, team collaboration tools, and third-party integrations. While offering a feature-rich softphone app, it also lets businesses buy and rent hardware devices. Sign up for its 14-day free trial today.