Telephone in a hotel room: should we still keep it in 2026?

“Nobody uses them... but we don't dare to remove them”

This is a common situation in hotels.

The telephones are still there, placed on the desk or bedside table. They have been part of the decor for years, sometimes without even asking ourselves the question of their usefulness. However, in many establishments, their use has fallen sharply.

Customers use their own smartphone to call, send a message, search for information, or contact the outside world. For their part, the teams often notice that the telephone in the room is only used for a few specific requests: contact the reception, request a service, report a problem.

This is precisely why the subject deserves to be put another way. The real question is no longer whether the in-room telephone existed or whether it was useful for a long time. The real question is much simpler: is it still the right medium to make your services accessible today?

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The telephone in the room is no longer always essential, but the need for contact remains intact

It's not the device that matters.
It is the customer's ability to easily reach the hotel, at the right time, without friction.

In some establishments, the fixed telephone still makes sense. This is the case when it corresponds to customer uses, the organization of services or a requirement for immediate simplicity. In others, it is mostly retained out of habit, even though its real use has become marginal.

The right decision is therefore based on the use, not the object.

A hotel should not ask itself whether to keep a handset to respect a tradition. He must ask himself how to allow the customer to easily contact the reception, room service or other service, in simple, visible and reliable conditions.

Why is the debate coming up again today in a lot of hotels

For a long time, the presence of a telephone in the bedroom was a matter of course. It met a clear need: call the outside, contact the reception or access certain services from the room.

This context has changed.

Today, almost all travelers arrive with their own phone. Their first instinct is no longer to pick up a fixed handset, but to use their personal device. This is true for practical information, for service requests, and more generally for their entire stay.

In this new framework, many hoteliers find themselves facing a contradiction. They note that the fixed telephone is rarely used, but still continue to bear its constraints: purchase, maintenance, cabling, equipment management, consistency in the rooms, replacement in the event of a failure.

At a certain point, it becomes legitimate to ask whether this service should be maintained as it is, or redesigned.

The telephone in the room still meets certain very concrete uses

Saying that the fixed telephone is less used does not mean that it is no longer useful.

In a hotel, some needs remain very direct. A customer may want to quickly reach the front desk without looking for a number, requesting an extra pillow, reporting a technical problem, or ordering service. In some cases, immediate access to a simple point of contact remains reassuring.

This is particularly true in establishments where customers expect a high level of service, where the use of room service is frequent, or in certain contexts where simplicity takes precedence over everything else.

The subject is therefore not a brutal contrast between the old and the new model. Rather, the subject is whether the fixed telephone remains the most relevant way to meet these needs.

This is why more and more hotels are considering an alternative

In many institutions, the question comes first from the field.

The corded telephone takes up space, adds a constraint to the layout of the room and assumes an ongoing cost, even when it is not used much. In addition, there is an even more important point: it no longer always corresponds to the logic of the current customer journey.

Today's traveller wants to access services from their phone, consult information whenever they want, book in a few clicks, and avoid unnecessary friction. When it has to go through a separate medium for part of the experience, the whole loses coherence.

It is this evolution that is pushing more and more hotels to think no longer in terms of equipment, but in terms of access to services.

The real question: how do you make your services accessible without depending on a landline phone?

Once you rephrase the subject in this way, the decision becomes much clearer.

A hotel needs its customers to be able to:

• Easily reach the reception or service
• Report a need effortlessly
• access useful information from their room
• request a service without multiplying contact points

The fixed telephone meets some of these needs. But it doesn't always cover the rest. It allows you to call, but it does not help you discover a service, consult an offer, book an activity, find a schedule or access richer support.

This is where the limit of the traditional model appears.

Guest app and VoIP: a more consistent alternative in some hotels

For many establishments, the best alternative is not simply to remove the phone. It's from the replace with a system more adapted to current uses.

The association of a Guest app and a solution of voip makes it possible to respond to this logic. The customer maintains direct access to hotel services, but from a medium that they already use naturally: their smartphone.

That changes a number of things. Access is becoming easier for some travelers. Calls can be integrated into a more comprehensive interface. Above all, contact with the hotel is no longer limited to voice. It is part of a larger package including information about the stay, additional services, practical requests and sometimes even communication before arrival.

In other words, you don't just replace a phone. We are reconfiguring a customer journey touchpoint.

The real benefit is not only technical

Seen from a distance, the subject might seem purely technological. In reality, the decision also has a direct impact on operations.

When a hotel switches to a more integrated solution, it often simplifies several subjects at the same time: room equipment, maintenance, access to services and the valorization of certain services.

This is also what makes this development interesting from a business point of view. A fixed telephone allows you to reach a service. A digital interface connected to telephony also makes it possible to make services visible, to streamline certain requests and to better support the customer during their stay.

The subject therefore goes well beyond the question of appeal. It affects the organization of the customer experience as a whole.

The telephone in the room, a necessity beyond classification

Why invest in a telephone system when customers now come with their phones in their pockets? 📱 In addition to meeting the requirements of the Atout France ranking, this service still meets many travellers' needs.

Reminder about criterion 89 of the hotel classification grid in France:” Telephone in the room dedicated to accessing hotel services”:

• optional criterion for 1 or 2 star hotels and mandatory for 3 or more star structures;
• points gain: 2.

More info on What you should know about hotel rankings

So should all the telephones in the room be removed?

Not necessarily.

As is often the case, the right answer depends on your positioning, your customers and your real functioning. In some hotels, keeping a landline phone makes sense. In others, it is possible to replace it provided that the alternative is perfectly clear, easy to access and consistent with the customer's uses.

The wrong decision would be to remove a support without rethinking the experience behind it. If the customer no longer knows how to contact the hotel, or if he has to make an extra effort to do so, the technical gain quickly becomes a loss of perceived quality.

On the other hand, when an alternative is well thought out, the experience can become more fluid than before.

What to look for before making your decision

Before deciding, it is useful to assess a few very concrete points.

First, the real use. Do your customers still use telephones in their rooms, and for what reasons? Then, the overall cost, not only in terms of purchase but also in maintenance and management. You also need to look for consistency with your positioning. A high-end establishment, a hotel that is very oriented towards autonomy or a residence will not necessarily have the same trade-offs.

Finally, you have to ask yourself the most important question: if you remove the fixed telephone, will your customer have a simpler or less simple solution than today?

It is this criterion that should guide the decision.

What to remember

The telephone in the room is not necessarily a relic. But it is no longer an obvious reflex either.

What remains essential is the possibility for the customer to easily reach the hotel and access frictionless services. Depending on the establishment, this can still be done by a fixed telephone or, on the contrary, by a solution more adapted to current uses, such as a Guest app linked to VoIP.

So the right approach is not to defend equipment as a matter of principle. It is choosing the support that is most consistent with your customer experience, your organization and your operating constraints.

And now?

If you're wondering whether or not to keep phones in the room, it's often a sign that a broader trade-off is emerging on your customer journey.

This topic is not just about telephony. It affects how your customers access your services, how you equip your rooms and the overall consistency of the experience offered.

GetWelcom helps hotels rethink this point of contact by combining guest apps and VoIP telephony, to maintain easy access to services while modernizing the customer experience.

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SPRINGS. :

Article Le Figaro - 2008: Telephoning the hotel: the end of the scam?‍

BnF (National Library of France) | The Gallica Blog: History of the telephone

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