Luxury hotel Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers: a pleasant stay with snom telephones

snom's energy efficient technology and elegance impress in 4 star hotel:

The Challenge

: Crown Plaza Copenhagen

Immediately after its opening in November 2009 the first CO2 neutral hotel in Copenhagen, the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers, faced its first major challenge. During the UN Climate Change Conference, the 4 star hotel's 366 rooms were fully booked, and nothing less than a perfectly smooth operation was expected from both the new luxury hotel's staff and technological infrastructure.

A basic requirement for an effective and successful hotel business is always efficient communication – within the team as well as with guests. In order to guarantee this for their new flagship project in Copenhagen, the managers at Crown Plaza opted for a state-of-the-art and flexible IP communications system which was to be implemented by Danish provider and specialist for business telephony, ipvision. Concerning the telephones the decision was quickly made in favour of the energy efficient and elegant high-tech VoIP telephone snom 820 by snom technology.

The requirements

Crucial to the decision to install an IP based telephone system was the requirement in the 4 star hotel for comprehensive application options, flexibility, adaptability and user-friendliness throughout the whole communications system, including the telephones themselves. The fundamental specifications of the planned telephone system included complete integration into the hotel management system (Micros Fidelios), the integration of VoIP and mobile telephony, and the possibility to use all unified communications features.

With regard to the telephones, in addition to comprehensive functionality and intuitive user guidance, the Crown Plaza decision makers placed particular importance on an elegant design which would do justice to the visual standards of their 4 star hotel.

Further criteria were the possibility of depicting individualized graphics on the telephone display, and the programming of an individual menu navigation system. Last but not least, the energy consumption of the 750 (minimum) planned VoIP telephones also played a role – after all, the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers is an innovative, carbon neutral building: with a 2,400 square meter facade of solar panels and a comprehensive energy-saving concept, the hotel meets the EU standards of a "Green Building" and conforms to the latest strict Danish low-energy laws.

The implementation

: snom 820

The managers at Crown Plaza chose the solution provided by ipvision, a Danish provider and specialists in business telephony with a focus on hosted IP PBX, IP telephony, mobile telephony, MPLS networks and hosted security solutions. At Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers, ipvision implemented a specially configured PBX (based on Asterisk PBX) with additional modules, including ipvision Hotel Management and Billing, ipvision Connect Switch Board and ipvision Presence. Together with the energy efficient snom 820 VoIP telephones, which left nothing to be desired in terms of technical facilities and design, ipvision was able to present a solution which met every requirement of the luxury hotel.

Advantages of the new solution

: snom 820 in Hotel room

At check-in, the advantages of this fully integrated telephone system immediately become noticeable: as soon as the guest is registered, the telephone in the relevant hotel room is automatically reset. The name of the newly checked-in guest subsequently appears on the snom 820's colour display. Speed dial keys for wake up calls, reception or room service as well as the clearly arranged colour display, specially programmed for the Crown Plaza, make it child's play for guests to use VoIP telephone.

A further advantage, and an example of the high efficiency of an integrated communications solution, is the employee user menu. This allows chambermaids for instance to set the room's status to "room clean" or "room dirty" simply by pressing a button on the telephone after entering their employee code – the status is then automatically transferred onto the system and can be viewed immediately at reception or any other workstation.

The Conclusion

While the UN Climate Change Summit delegates left the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers after a few days, hotel employees and future guests are left with the convenience of a telephone system that is one of the most modern in every regard.