Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center Revolutionizes Hospitality Industry with Convergence and Avaya Intelligent Communications

The newest five-star hotel to open in Alabama’s state capital, the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center, is revolutionizing the hospitality industry with an Avaya Intelligent Communications solution. Running on a fully converged voice, data and video network, the Avaya IP Telephony-based solution provides both guests and staff with features and capabilities that help make guest-stays a unique experience. Avaya is a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services. Pruitt Communications, an Avaya authorized BusinessPartner, implemented the Avaya IP Telephony solution.

At the new Renaissance Hotel, each of its 345 rooms is considered a “guest portal,” designed to enable new opportunities for serving guests and for guests to interact with the hotel community. With the converged voice, data and video network, guest room phones and televisions are both endpoints on the new Renaissance Hotel’s network, often interchangeable, and are integrated with a number of hotel systems.

“In the hotel business there’s a term called ’triple-play,’” said Scott Watts, Director of IT, PCH Hotels and Resorts. “This takes that concept a step further and creates a completely converged environment with one network supporting wired and wireless voice, high-speed wired and wireless data networking, as well as IPTV and video on demand. To our knowledge, no other hotel in the U.S. has a system like this up and running.”

Avaya’s total guest room solution for the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel includes wireless IP phones in every room that guests can carry anywhere throughout the hotel and conference center and that operate to within a two block radius of the site. Touch screen phones offer applications and service opportunities that provide the rooms with the “wow” factor hoteliers strive to achieve. The phones enable guests to check stocks, weather, make spa, dining or show reservations, or zoom into street level views of city maps.

Guests can opt to use either their phone or the television to set a single or a visit’s worth of wake-up calls. If a guest neglects to respond to the wakeup call, the system automatically alerts the main reception, which in turn notifies a hotel employee via a text message to his or her Avaya Wireless IP phone that a personal visit is needed to check on the guest. Similarly, special requests entered into the hotel CRM system by a guest trigger text messages to the nearest hotel staff member, who can respond via text that service is on the way or via voice if more clarification is needed. If the system logs no response from the employee, it will automatically escalate to another staff member. The Avaya system is also linked with the hotel’s property management system, which enables the hotel to automatically personalize guest phones and communications services at the time of check-in.

“We’ve been challenged by the owners to be creative, to find and develop unique capabilities that continually will surprise and delight our guests,” said Watts. “We’re only tapping the tip of the iceberg.”

The Renaissance is also rolling out Avaya Mobility solutions including one-X™ Mobile and Speech Access for Modular Messaging for executive staff that travel frequently and are on call 24-hours a day. The mobility solution allows the executive to set preferences for who can directly reach him or her during specific times or the day or when they are in certain locations. For example, if the executive is in a meeting or off-duty, access might be limited to allow only top priority calls to ring through, while others go to voicemail.

The Avaya solution for The Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center is based on Avaya Unified Communications and Customer Service applications. Pruitt Communications – an Avaya Silver-certified BusinessPartner - implemented the solution in less than 45 days, including all servers, software and over 1000 IP Telephony Endpoints. Avaya DevConnect program members, Teledex and FCS provided the touch screen phones and applications. Both Teledex and FCS have significant expertise in delivering cost-effective telecommunications solutions to the global hospitality market, built on the Avaya Intelligent Communications portfolio.

Guest-Tek served as the general contractor for the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel networking project and provides HSIA, IPTV, and video-on-demand services to the property. Guest-Tek will handle all 24/7 telephone support for voice, data, and media services.