* Seaport offers click-to-call VoIP, plus other services to hotel guests
Guests of the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center in Boston now enjoy a new, in-room service: the Seaportal. The Seaportal is a complimentary touch-screen Web portal that provides information about the Seaport Hotel events and facilities, along with “click to talk” voice calling services. It’s provided through the integration of IP telephony with Web services. At the touch of a screen, the portal provides the usual one-stop-shopping for information about the hotel and its events and services, guest e-mail access, and local and long-distance calling services.
The in-room system is a “thin-client” device with a touch-screen display, and a wireless keyboard and mouse, designed to minimize deployment costs and simplify operations.
The back-office software that provided the basis for the hotel’s custom views runs on SessionSuite SOA Edition from BlueNote Networks.
When the hotel’s management first envisioned the applications, they had several requirements. First, the hotel’s IT staff was asked to deploy the first phase of the project within 90 days with limited development resources. Second, the deployment had to be completed without any upgrades to the existing voice and data network infrastructure so the application had to work without replacing the existing Nortel Meridian (TDM) PBX. Third, management wanted to improve the guest experience with a feature-rich yet easy to use Web portal. And finally, the Web service interface had to easily interoperate with the hotel’s existing Property Management System leveraging guest information to personalize both content and services.
The results? The whole system was up and running within 60 days, according to Greg Piasano, director of market development at Blue Note. Using the BlueNote software’s embedded APIs gave the hotel IT staff the ability to initiate phone calls using simple XML/SOAP messages that could initiate phone calls from the touch screen (still using the existing Nortel Meridian PBX without PBX dial plan or route table changes). Long-distance calls from hotel guests are now routed to a VoIP service provider saving up to 80% over previous long-distance costs, so the hotel now promotes complimentary click-to-call VoIP service. In a case study note, John Burke, vice president of technology at Seaport, said: “The launch has gone very smoothly. The feedback has been tremendous, and we feel it’s a real competitive advantage for us.”
Our observation: It looks like extending unified communications to hotel guests may be a pretty good idea for the hospitality industry.
