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Lower Toll-Free Phone Rate, And Keep Your Existing Number. |
| Until January 1996, there was a telecommunications regulation that
prohibited the transfer of a Toll-Free number from one long distance carrier
to another. This allowed AT&T to keep over a 80% market share
on the toll-free 800 market with their AT&T Readyline product.
The reason for this market share of AT&T was not because everyone loved their product. The problem was that hotels had all of their literature such as brochures and Yellow Pages ads printed with their toll-free number. Therefore, they couldn’t change their existing toll-free number. In the last few years, all that has changed. Now, a hotel can change its long distance carrier and retain its existing number. That is called “portability”. This means that a hotel can lower its rate on its toll-free line immediately. Besides the lower per-minute rate that the hotel will receive, it will probably be able to eliminate a major “hidden fee” that generally surrounds toll-free numbers. This fee is called a “Monthly Recurring Charge”, and can be up to $20 per month. The hotel only benefits by having their number listed in a toll-free directory that is utilized extensively by telemarketing companies that like to solicit hotels on their own toll-free number. Because the clients that use the hotels toll-free number have seen it advertised in brochures, the Hotel and Travel Index, and the Yellow Pages, it is in their favor to not have this “Monthly Recurring Charge”. This alone can save the hotel $240 annually on their phone bill, per each line that is toll-free. There are other uses of toll-free numbers. First of all, the sales department at the hotel should put in its own “toll-free” fax, which would allow potential clients who would be booking groups to place their group contracts with the hotel on a “toll-free” basis. It becomes a sales tool. The hotel could do the same thing with its reservation department, to take reservations by fax on a toll-free basis. This method is less labor intensive than having the clients call into the toll-free number, where they tie up a reservation agent. Finally, the hotel can put in toll-free numbers that can ring onto the
voice mail of the Director of Sales. This allows the Director of
Sales to easily access their messages while they are out on sales calls.
It also allows their clients and the hotel to get a hold of them easier.
Works for the GM too.
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