Leveraging technology to boost cost-savings and customer satisfaction at an Arizona hotel, a Toronto-based company today announced that it’s delivering a unified communications solution that includes VoIP.

 

Officials at Nortel (News - Alert), a communications solutions provider, say they’re transforming the Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson into an “all-IP resort.”

 

According to Joel Hackney (News - Alert), president of enterprise solutions at Nortel, Miraval stands to bring its guests a reliable, cost-effective communications industry that’s based on his company’s IP data infrastructure.

 

 “These products are third-party proven to provide 20 times better performance and seven times more resiliency than our chief competition while consuming up to 40 percent less energy and costing less than half as much to own and operate,” Hackney said.

 

Specifically, the UC solution includes Nortel’s Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, Ethernet Routing Switch 5520, Communication Server 1000 and IP Phone 1100 Series desk sets.

 

Together, Miraval officials say, the products will form an IP backbone network for secure, reliable VoIP and other services that will bolster back-office operations and allow staff members to be more efficient and responsive to guests. According to Nortel, third-party studies show that UC solutions including VoIP can lead to productivity gains of as much as 18 percent.

 

Nortel makes its announcement as it rolls out a series of hospitality solutions at high-end hotels and spas that include the first Shangri-La Hotel in North America, Bavaria Executive Suites and Bonnington Tower in Dubai, and Venetian and Palazzo hotels and casinos in Las Vegas.

 

With a slower economy, now is an important time for hotels, as for many other businesses, to examine ways that IT can help save money and boost production and customer satisfaction.

 

The Arizona Republic is reporting that a tumultuous stock market and cuts to airline flights are crimping travel to areas such as Phoenix at a time when hotels are adding new rooms.

 

“Hotels around the country are hurting, or at least starting to see a slowdown, leading to the recent national sales launched by Hyatt, Starwood and other large hotel chains to spur business,” writes the newspaper’s reporter, Dawn Gilbertson.

 

“Industry indicators have been on the decline all year and are getting worse instead of better, paralleling the daily economic headlines,” Gilbertson continues.

 

The Miraval in Tuscon, which is about 116 miles from Phoenix, is a hotel with a strong reputation already, as a two-time winner of SpaFinder’s Crystal Award for Best Spa in North America and site of the 2007 ‘Live Your Life Best Week’ episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

 

With the Nortel UC solution in place, the Miraval could boost that reputation even further.

 

Nortel officials say they’re transforming the hospitality industry with innovative technologies and strategic services that can help enhance the guest experience, generate new revenues and improve operational efficiencies for not just hotels, resorts and casinos, but also stadiums and arenas.