Best Hotel Phone Systems 2024: Which Is Best for Your Business?

The best hotel phone system is RingCentral, thanks to its vast selection of third-party integrations for hotels, flexible pricing plans for hotels of any size, and top-tier customer service functionality across multiple channels to get in touch with guests where they want.

RingCentral obviously isn’t the only phone system that will work for hotels. 8×8, for example, is an excellent option for multinational hotels, because it offers free international calls for 48 countries. Vonage is another good option for hotels on a budget, as its starting price is decidedly low at only $13.99 per user, per month.

In this guide, we’ll cover the best VoIP providers for hotels, as well as how much you can expect to pay for a new VoIP system. You can get started comparing VoIP providers for your exact hospitality needs with our free, no-obligation VoIP quotes tool. Simply answer a few questions and we’ll connect you with the best deals for your requirements.

In this guide:

• Best Hotel Phone Systems: Ranked
• Hotel Phone System Reviews
• How Do Hotel Phone Systems Work?
• Why Should Hotels Use Phone Systems?
• Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Hotel Phone System
• Methodology: How We Rated Hotel VoIP
• Verdict: The Best Hotel Phone System

Best Hotel Phone Systems Ranked

Our industry experts determined that seamless communication, ready-made integrations, personalized customer experiences, and hospitality-specific features were the most important VoIP factors to consider in our testing. As such, our scores reflect how well these brands performed when we put each hotel phone system head-to-head.

Take a look at our top VoIP systems for hotels, compared side by side:

Hotel Phone System Reviews

Our impartial research determined that the best hotel phone system is RingCentral, but depending on your business’ needs, there could be a better fit. Below we’ve summarized the top features, pricing, pros and cons, of all the leading hotel phone system providers for 2024.

1. RingCentral – Best hotel phone system provider
2. 8×8 – Best for multinational hotels
3. Vonage – Best for training staff
4. Ooma – Great chap hotel phone system
5. Nextiva – Best customer support for hotels

1. RingCentral

• Best hotel phone system overall
• Price from $20 per month
• Compatible with Poly, Cisco, Yealink, and Unify

RingCentral is our top choice for hotels looking for a reliable VoIP solution. When we tested its features, external connections, customer support, and the cost of its overall entrance price, it performed better than other leading VoIP providers. In other words, we’re confident RingCentral has everything a hotel, motel, restaurant, or other hospitality business needs to run a smooth operation and ensure no bookings are missed or lost.

RingCentral hotel phone features

With call forwarding, delegation, call screening, and caller ID, RingCentral offers plenty of useful call management features for the hospitality industry. After testing out the service, we found it offered a number of features providers like 8×8 lacked, including analytics and spam prevention. Our researchers also found it to have good customization across the board, for tailoring your guests’ experience.

Example of how RingCentral looks on a desktop device. Image: RingCentral

What’s more, we found RingCentral is really easy to set up and integrate with existing systems like Salesforce, allowing you to match incoming calls with existing customer contact information, which can seriously boost your hotel’s customer relationship management.

Microsoft users will like that you can consolidate all your voice and fax messages easily, using RingCentral’s email forwarding Outlook integration. Plus, you can make outgoing calls simply by clicking on an Outlook contact, web page, or document.

RingCentral pricing

The downside to RingCentral is it’s very slightly more expensive than some other systems we analyzed. RingCentral has three pricing plans, priced per user, per month.

• The Core plan costs $20 per user, per month.
• The Advanced plan costs $25 per user, per month.
• The Ultra plan costs $35 per user, per month.

Check out our RingCentral pricing guide for more information

Is RingCentral the right fit for your hotel?

RingCentral was the best hotel phone system we tested, so chances are it’ll serve your business very well. Its advanced call management features are what truly sets it apart from the competition, alongside its onboarding support and external connections with brands such as Poly, Cisco, and Yealink.

However, while RingCentral offers the best functionality for businesses in the hospitality industry, it’s not the cheapest provider on the market, making it less well-suited to smaller operations with modest budgets.

If you’d like to compare price quotes for your business’ exact needs, you can always use our free VoIP comparison tool to see how all the top telephone systems compare side by side.

2. 8×8

• Best for multinational hotels
• Price: Custom
• Compatible with Poly, Cisco, Yealink, and Panasonic

8×8 isn’t the best hotel system overall, but it’s pretty close. In our independent testing, it came in second place with an overall research score of 4.5/5, thanks to its versatile hospitality calling features and solid user experience, like free international calls for 48 countries around the world.

Like RingCentral, it offers excellent customer service, including 24/7 live chat and phone options and provides scalable features like local numbers, ring groups, call whisper, and call barge.

8×8 also offers unlimited domestic inbound and outbound calls on all of its plans, which is especially good for succinct customer management. Use our free VoIP comparison tool to see how other top hotel phone systems compare.

8×8 hotel phone features

Compared to other VoIP systems, we were really impressed with 8×8’s features in our last round of testing, awarding the provider a near-perfect score of 4.8/5 for its toolkit.

8×8 also has a number of features that are ideal for hotels and other hospitality businesses, like customizable hold music and ring groups. Its video conferencing package is pretty extensive – with a range of moderation calls, customizable meeting screens, end-to-end encryption, desktop, and mobile access, plus the option to invite people from outside the business.

8×8’s contact center software is probably one of its best features. Its multi-channel compatibility, easy telephone integration, smart call routine, reporting, and agent tools make it a great tool to help improve customer experience and business productivity.

Check out our full 8×8 pricing guide for more information

8X8’s video calling capabilities on full display. Image: Tech.co testing

8×8 pricing

8×8 offers five different plans, but none of them provide publicly available pricing, so you’ll have to contact the 8×8 sales team to learn more about exactly how much they actually cost.

Based on past research, though, the pricing used to range from $24 per user, per month to $140 per user, per month. Whether or not that pricing is still intact remains to be seen, particularly because the new custom pricing model will be based on your particular hotel.

Here’s how the pricing plans match up on basic features, though, even if we don’t know the specific price:

Is 8×8 the right fit for your hotel?

8×8 offers an attractive telephone system for hotels, with features only slightly less impressive than RingCentral, and the best customer support we’ve found (on par with RingCentral). Ultimately, we think RingCentral will be more beneficial to hospitality businesses overall, but 8×8 is a great value alternative.

You can compare other VoIP providers using our free VoIP comparison tool.

3. Vonage

• Best hotel phone for training staff
• Price from $13.99 per month
• Compatible with Polycom, Panasonic, Yealink

Vonage came in third place in our VoIP testing for hospitality because of its impressive suite of features – including customizable hold music and call queues – and its low starting price that undercuts industry leaders like 8×8 and Nextiva.

However, it doesn’t have the best customer support, or options for external connections, which means hotels may find it harder to set up and use alongside other software they already have, or plan to get. Experienced VoIP users at larger hotels might be interested in switching to Vonage, if unhappy with their current setup.

Vonage hotel phone features

Vonage does have some useful features for hotel businesses, particularly with the Premium plan. The virtual receptionist and CRM integrations are great for hotels that have a lot of customer interaction prior to arrival, and it also offers unlimited calls to the US and Canada and 24/7 support in case something goes wrong. Plus, on-demand recording, call monitoring and two-way audio and video calls are especially useful for training.

The team messaging functionality in Vonage is quite comprehensive. Source: Vonage

Vonage’s app-based system is also very easy to use, whether you’re using a desktop, mobile, or a traditional desk phone, its great online training documents and videos are super useful, and help your staff become easily accustomed to the software. Overall, our researchers found Vonage features to be better for hospitality businesses than Ooma and Nextiva.

Vonage pricing

Vonage has three pricing plans starting and they’re priced per user, per month. However, Vonage will give you discounts based on the number of users you have.

• The Mobile plan costs $13.99 per user, per month.
• The Premium plan costs $20.99 per user, per month.
• The Advanced plan costs $27.99 per user, per month.

Check out our full Vonage review for more information

Is Vonage the right hotel phone system for you?

Vonage is a solid choice for a reliable hotel phone system, but we’d still choose 8×8 or RingCentral if push came to shove. While its training videos and features were especially helpful for hotel staff, RingCentral and 8×8 have a better range of external connections and features that can make connecting with guests and staff easier.

You can get a custom quote from Vonage and all the other leading VoIP providers by using our free quote comparison tool.

4. Ooma

• Great low-cost hotel phone system
• Price from $19.95 per month
• Compatible with Yealink

Ooma excels for all manner of small businesses but it is also a good fit for hotel businesses. In our independent testing, its features – which include spam prevention and customizable hold music, achieved a promising score of 4.5/5. Ooma also offers an excellent 24/7 customer support center and solid and good onboarding options that topped Vonage’s in our research.

Ooma users also tend to report high satisfaction levels. This could be helped by the fact that Ooma is very affordable for most small- and mid-sized hotels; although the most useful hotel phone system features are reserved for the higher cost plans, which makes Ooma slightly worse value for hotels than other business types.

Ooma hotel phone features

In comparison to Nextiva, Ooma offers a better range of call management features. Call Flip, for example, lets you easily move calls between different devices, while Call Park lets users put a call on hold before picking the call back up on a different device, or with a different user. However, Ooma doesn’t offer the breadth of features available with RingCentral or 8×8.

We find the Ooma directory to be a simple and intuitive spot to house all the important numbers for our business. Source: Tech.co testing

Ooma doesn’t offer too many external connections either, lacking external and live chat integrations, as well as helpdesk add-ons on its cheapest tiers. Still, Ooma does offer some integrations with services that can help manage your hotel’s booking and marketing. Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft 365, G-Suite, and Service Now all work seamlessly with Ooma which can save your teams a crazy amount of time, but when we compared it to other VoIP providers, our researchers for found that 8×8 and RingCentral offered better external connections overall for hospitality.

Learn more about the provider’s features in our full Ooma review. 

Ooma pricing

Ooma offers three small business pricing plans and three enterprise-level pricing plans. These plans are for fairly basic communication, allowing for unlimited US calls, analytics, and call recording, although some features are only available in the Pro and Pro Plus plans.

• The Office plan costs $19.95 per user, per month.
• The Office Pro plan costs $24.95 per user, per month
• The Office Pro Plus plan costs $29.95 per user, per month.

Then, there are the enterprise-level plans, which offer more advanced features like team messaging, document sharing, and call monitoring.

• The Standard plan costs $19.99 per user per month.
• The Enhanced plan costs $27.99 per user per month.
• The Call Center plan costs $49.99 per user, per month.

Is Ooma right for your hotel?

With its affordable pricing options and reputation for high user satisfaction, Ooma will likely be a good hotel phone system option for many small hotels, but it isn’t the best option on the market, in our opinion. Its flat-rate calling costs and unlimited coverage of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada and the US are desirable, but its external connections leave a lot to be desired (2.8/5) and other providers, like RingCentral and 8×8 deliver a lot more for a similar cost.

Ooma might offer all that your hotel needs, or it might restrict you in the long run. For more information, you can request an Ooma price quote.

You can also check out Ooma’s pricing compared to leading VoIP providers here.

5. Nextiva

• Best customer support for hotels
• Price from $20 per month
• Compatible with Polycom, Cisco, Yealink

Nextiva is a popular player in the VoIP industry, primarily designed for big call centers. It offers generous user allowances and conference calling facilities, but they’re not exactly must-haves for many hotels, which is why it scored just 3.9/5 overall in our testing.

Its customer support, however, is pretty impressive, as the company is used to supporting businesses that need their phones sorted quickly and effectively. Nextiva also offers great integrations with a bunch of different CRM providers and some enticing pricing models.

Nextiva hotel phone features

When our researchers tested Nextiva against other VoIP providers, it was clear that its hotel phone system features couldn’t quite match up to RingCentral or 8×8. While it does offer a desktop app that supports voice and video calls, emails, messaging, sales, and service tools, there are some features such as call monitoring and analytics that aren’t included in any package – only as an add-on, which is disappointing.

Nextiva’s AI virtual receptionist feature. Source: nextiva.com

Therefore, if you’re in need of specific calling features, we think you’d have better luck with RingCentral or 8×8 instead. Nextiva is compatible with the following hardware: Cisco, Yealink & Polycom, however, making it a solid choice for hotels using this hard phone technology.

Nextiva pricing

Nextiva has four pricing plans and the prices for each plan change depending on the number of users that you need. Recently, Nextiva changed its pricing model in a serious way, revamping its pricing plan names and prices. Check out the new prices below:

• The Digital plan costs $20 per user, per month
• The Core plan starts at $30 per user, per month
• The Engage plan costs $40 per user, per month
• The Power Suite plan costs $60 per user, per month

Check out our full Nextiva review for more information

Is Nextiva the right hotel phone system for your business?

While we like the pricing structure for Nextiva, and scored its value for money 4/5, we feel it doesn’t provide the essential tools a hotel business will need. Operating with Nextiva might not be as seamless for a hotel as if they’d picked to work with a brand like RingCentral. Still, it does offer good customer support, such as 24/7 phone and chat, and is a recognizable brand with fairly good integrations.

How Do Hotel Phone Systems Work?

Hotel phone systems need to connect guests to the front desk, as well as letting the front desk reach the outside world. That’s why we recommend VoIP services, such as Ooma – the best VoIP system for customer experience, which can give you all the features of a traditional PBX without the complex wiring. See how Ooma compares to top VoIP providers like Magic Jack and RingCentral.

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Why Should Hotels Use VoIP Systems?

Hotel VoIP systems can bring huge advantages over traditional phone systems, including improved efficiency, lower costs and easy expansion. See our top advantages of VoIP systems for hotels below.

Ease of use

Advanced VoIP phone systems can sound complicated but, in actuality, they make everyday tasks far easier — from making inbound and outbound phone calls to working with the rest of your hotel’s computer phone system.

• You can easily manage reservations and bookings with linked phones and computer systems.
• Internal communications can be improved as you’ll be able to talk to staff on the go with softphones and mobile VoIP apps.
• You can fulfill hotel guest requests quicker and easier. Room service request? You can easily fire off the order to a kitchen display from your computer.
• Receptionist staff will find it easier to transfer and hold calls from prospective guests and internal customers — you’ll no longer lose customers while they’re waiting to get through.
• Facilitate good professional phone etiquette to ensure your guests feel taken care of across the board.

Lower costs

The most pressing advantage, perhaps, is that VoIP systems can be significantly less expensive than traditional wired solutions.

By paying a low monthly fee, especially so with services such as 3CX, you can eschew all of the wiring and logistics involved with traditional phone systems. These infrastructure points cost extra money for upkeep and maintenance. Plus, you’ll need to pay for traditional desk phones.

VoIP systems can work with traditional desk phones. However, they also work with softphones — basically computers and mobile devices — which your hotel will need regardless. By choosing a good VoIP system, you won’t need to buy two different pieces of hardware. Instead, you can get a single computer-based phone system that does both.

Improved efficiency

All of the providers we’ve listed offer integrations with popular CRM and business management software.

There’s a fair chance your hotel might already be using a system such as Salesforce, Google Workspace, or Microsoft 365. A VoIP system, such as Ooma, will allow your staff to manage data, files, booking, and customer information easily, with no complicated or laborious record-copying — everything will be done automatically.

Easy expansion

Aside from the phones on your front desk, a VoIP system can easily manage phones in guests’ rooms — without the need for wiring.

This means that, as your hotel and businesses grow, you can easily add extra phones wherever you need them — it doesn’t have to be a complex logistical proposition.

Seamless integrations

Internet-enabled VoIP systems can integrate with other business systems too like CRM or POS systems. This helps you extend the use of your phone service and keep data in one centralized location.

Looking for an accompanying POS system too? Read our full guide to the best hotel POS systems

Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Hotel Phone System for You

Choosing the right phone system for your hotel will require you to consider a number of factors about your business and its future. Here are some things to bear in mind when choosing a phone system for your hotel.

• Integrations – Phone systems allow businesses to communicate across platforms, unlike traditional phone lines. However, if your business is looking to integrate your phone system with other communication tools, you’ll need to ensure your chosen provider offers this connection first.
• Business expansion – If you have plans for growth you should select a telephone system that is capable of changing easily as demand for your business expands. As a general rule of thumb, we’d recommend prioritizing providers with scalable packages and useful add-on options.
• Accessories – Some hotels may need a fully functioning telephone system with a range of accessories integrated into the system such as iPad POS apps, business VoIP headsets, or voicemail. Reflect on what your business needs, and then only consider systems with these accessories.
• Staff training – Often overlooked, this is a key consideration. You need to consider whether staff will need training on any new phone system and how this is to be delivered. Sometimes phone suppliers offer free training, so it’s always worth asking at installation.
• Automation features – Streamlining processes with automated features is a great time to save worker time, especially if your hotel deals with busy periods. Some useful automation features to look out for include automated messages for when your line is busy and automated table reservations.
• Booking and reservations – If you are a formal, fine dining establishment, you would probably benefit from more than one telephone line so you can take reservations. Or perhaps you have a delivery service, in which case a multi-line phone system for small businesses may be best, as you’ll need different lines for reservations, payments, and customer concerns.
• Deskphones – We’d recommend that hotels use softphones but, if you’re able to forego some flexibility, hard phones allow for slightly better call quality. Our top picks for hotel headphones are Polycom VVX 601 and Cisco 7941. Learn more about our best VoIP desk phones.

Methodology: How We Rated the Best Phone Systems for Hotels