LECTURE 4

Wide Area Network (WAN)

- connects networks in larger geographic areas, such as Florida, the United States, or the world.

Wake-up calls

Allows guests to place wake-up requests through the system.

Room transfers

An important feature allowing guests' voice-mail box to follow them in the event of a room transfer.

3rd component of Telecommunications in Hospitality Industry

Call accounting

1st advantage of computer networking

File sharing

4th advantage of computer networking

Increasing storage capacity

1st type of network

Local Area Network (LAN)

1st component of Telecommunications in Hospitality Industry

Private branch exchange (PBX) or switch

Room messaging

Provides guestroom voice messaging.

2nd advantage of computer networking

Resource sharing

3rd advantage of computer networking

Sharing a single internet connection

Message waiting indication

Turns the message-waiting light on and off to indicate when a guest has a message

Automated attendant

Used by some hotels to assist or replace the PBX attendant, providing for the AUTOMATIC ANSWERING OF CALLS to the hotel. The more sophisticated systems respond to voice-activated responses.

2nd component of Telecommunications in Hospitality Industry

Voice mail

2nd type of network

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Local Area Network (LAN)

a network that is confined to a relatively small area. It is generally limited to a geographic area such as a writing lab, school, or building.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX)

a telephone system within a hotel that switches calls between the hotel users (including guests) on local lines while allowing all users to share a certain number of external lines.

Voice-mail systems

allow callers to leave detailed private messages in their own language so that the mood and urgency of the caller are expressed in every message.

computer network

consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as printers and CDs), exchange files, or allow electronic communications.

Call accounting systems (CASs)

enable hotels to resell telecommunication services to guestrooms, meeting rooms, event spaces and other common guest areas.

Call center

features such as automatic calling number identification and integration with automatic call distributors are especially useful in maximizing the effectiveness of reservations departments.

Advantages of wireless networks

hotel staffs do not have to be rooted behind their desks all day to monitor their system and make reservations.

Crisis alerting

hotels have a responsibility to provide necessary assistance in an emergency. Most telecommunications systems can notify and alert various departments such as the front desk and security as soon as an emergency 911 call has been placed

Sharing a single internet connection

it is cost-efficient and can help protect your systems if you properly secure the network.

Enhanced attendant backup

this allows for multiple attendants to be able to answer incoming calls.

Answer detection

this is the ability to determine if a call made by a guest was actually answered.

Resource sharing

using network-connected peripheral devices like printers, scanners and copiers, or sharing software between multiple users, saves money.

Increasing storage capacity

you can access files and multimedia, such as images and music, which you store remotely on other machines or network-attached storage devices.

File sharing

you can easily share data between different users, or access it remotely if you keep it on other connected devices.