Experienced travelers who fly via cheap airplane tickets and stay at discount hotel rooms usually own cell phones and know that hotel landlines are typically very expensive to use. Unfortunately hotels have been unable to do away with their landline phone systems since guest safety and security demand they stay in place.
Hotel guests use room phones if they need to call the hotel for help. Typically they call to order room service and to request wake up calls.
Many hotels in New York City charge $1.50 to make a local call and a $4 fee to connect to a long distance carrier.
Hotel phone lines used to be a revenue center but over time have turned into a cost center. The declining use of hotel room phones reflects the wider trend that has landlines disappearing from homes and guests using their cell phones to make calls.
It is costly for hotels to install and maintain house phones. Between the mid 1980 to the early 1990s hotel phone income contributed about 2 percents of hotels profits. Now hotels are spending $3 for every $1 generated from in room phones.
Hotels are hoping to be able to figure out how to replace room phones. One hotel experimented with a handheld gadget that combined the phones functions with light and climate control. Unfortunately the hotel found that its guests wanted this gadget in addition to, not instead of, a dedicated room phone. www.cheapfares.com