The phone system for independent hotels

Every call gets to the right person. Every request gets followed through.

Teleseme is a managed cloud phone system for hotels with 25 to 120 rooms. Guests use the room phone as they always have. The call rings whoever is on shift, on their own phone, and the request it starts stays open until someone closes it.

Join the pilot

Forming now with a small group of US hotels.

Example request

Room 214: extra towels

Rings Housekeeping: Ana, on shift

Acknowledged 14:03, due 14:20

Where the name comes from

In the 1890s, a hotel guest could ask for 137 things by turning a dial.

It was called a teleseme. We named the company after it because it got one thing right that hotel phones have never managed: a request went to the office, and somebody had to answer it.

  1. 1890s to 1910s

    The teleseme

    A dinner-plate dial on the wall of each room, with requests printed in rings: hot water, a porter, the newspaper, a carriage. The guest turned the pointer and pressed a red button. In the office, a red spot appeared on a glass panel under the room's number, and someone came.

    Drawing after Electric Telegraphy (1896), Fig. 139.

  2. 1910s to now

    The hotel PBX

    Hotels swapped the dials for a telephone in every room and a switchboard at the desk. Guests could say anything, but a request lasted only as long as the call. If the person who answered got busy, it was gone. Many small hotels still run that design, on copper lines.

  3. 2026

    Teleseme

    The phone system again, with the dial's best idea put back. A call reaches the person on shift wherever they are, and the request it starts has an owner, a room and a deadline until it is done.

Products

One phone system, three ways in.

We provide the phone service, the room-phone setup and the software, and we look after it. Teleseme is designed to keep the room wiring you already have.

  • TelesemeDesk

    The front-desk console. Every line, every open request and everyone on shift, on one screen.

    • Answer, hold and transfer to a role, not an extension number
    • Turn a call into a request with the room already filled in
    • See what is overdue and who has it

  • TelesemeStaff

    The phone app for your team. A call to maintenance or the manager on duty rings whoever is on shift, on their own phone.

    • Requests arrive with the room, a deadline and an acknowledge button
    • Unfinished work carries over to the next shift
    • Message colleagues and whole teams in the same app

  • TelesemeSafety

    When someone dials 911 from a room, or an employee raises a panic alert, every on-shift employee's phone shows exactly where: building, floor and room.

    • Built to alert on every on-shift phone, not a beep at an empty desk
    • One tap tells everyone else you are on your way
    • A log of each event you can export

Teleseme is in development. Pilot hotels use it first and help decide what ships next.

Why now

Your phone system may have to change anyway.

A small hotel rarely replaces its phones because something better exists. It replaces them when it has to. For many properties, that time is now.

Copper lines are being retired.

Phone companies are shutting down the copper lines that older hotel phone systems were built on, and federal rules now make it easier for them to do it on short notice. When the line goes, the old system goes with it.

Federal law sets the bar for 911.

Kari's Law and the RAY BAUM'S Act apply to multi-line phone systems, hotels included. In short, they require that:

  • anyone can dial 911 directly, with no prefix such as 9;
  • someone on site is notified when 911 is dialled;
  • the call carries a location precise enough to find the caller.

The on-site notification is often a beep at a front desk nobody is standing at. Teleseme Safety is built to put it on the phone in every on-shift employee's pocket instead.

This is a summary, not legal advice. Read the FCC's guidance on 911 requirements for multi-line telephone systems, and ask your counsel what applies to your property.

Example alert 911 call: Room 306, Floor 3 Shown on every on-shift phone at the moment it is dialled, with the time and who has acknowledged.

How it works

From the room phone to done.

  1. A guest calls.

    From the room phone, they dial the front desk, housekeeping or maintenance, the way they do today. Nothing new to learn and nothing to download.

  2. The right person answers.

    Teleseme knows who is on shift. The call rings that person's phone, wherever they are on the property, and is built to move on to the next person if nobody picks up.

  3. The request is followed through.

    The call becomes a request with the room, an owner and a deadline. It stays open until someone marks it done, and anything unfinished carries over to the next shift.

Pilot program

Help us build the hotel phone system you'd choose.

We are forming a small pilot group of independent hotels in the US. Pilot hotels use Teleseme first, work directly with the people building it, and shape what ships next.

Join the pilot Or write to hello@teleseme.io

A good fit if

  • you run a hotel with 25 to 120 rooms;
  • your phone company has told you your copper lines are going, or your phone system is near the end of its life;
  • you want staff alerted on their own phones when 911 is dialled or someone needs help.