Open by day. Answered all night.
Video intercoms and controlled entry for NYC hotels, boutique properties and short-term rental buildings: front desk answering, after-hours guest entry, service staff access and deliveries, working with your access control and your front desk routine.
Guests can use their room key card at the entrance reader when the hotel's lock system supports an entrance reader; otherwise they get a separate card or a code. We check that against your lock system first.
Every entry point, answered from the desk.
Guests, visitors, staff and deliveries each come in their own way. The system handles each one without tying up the desk.
Front entrance video station
A camera and intercom at the main entry. Desk staff see and talk to guests before releasing the door. After business hours, calls go to the night manager or on-call staff.
Front desk monitor
A master station at the desk, or software on the desk workstation. Staff release the door with one press while they check someone else in.
After-hours guest entry
Late arrivals call through the intercom, and the desk or the night manager confirms the reservation and releases the door remotely. No key under the mat and no lockbox.
Service staff access
Housekeeping, maintenance and room service staff use access control credentials at the service entrance. The intercom handles guests and deliveries.
Delivery and vendor management
A station at the loading dock or service entrance for food deliveries, laundry and vendors. Staff confirm the delivery before releasing the door to the service areas.
Visitor log
Every call logged with a timestamp and a camera snapshot, for incident records, guest disputes and audits.
Every call point rings the desk, with its location on screen.
Parking, pool, side and service entrances each have their own station. Pick one, or a busy night, and see where the call lands and what the desk can release.
Small boutique hotels and owner-run properties often have no desk coverage overnight. A video intercom with remote answering lets the night manager or the owner admit late arrivals from anywhere by phone.
Hotel lobbies attract people looking for amenities or guest floors. A locked entrance with an intercom check lets staff decide who gets past the front door.
Housekeeping and maintenance staff use their credentials at the service entrance, which keeps service traffic away from guests and makes each entry auditable.
A video log of every person let in is useful documentation when something happens. Properties with controlled entry and a timestamped log are in a better position when disputes come up.
What goes on the doors, the desk and the network.
Commercial IP intercom hardware, set up around your desk hours and your overnight routine.
Entrance station with card reader
Street doorA video door station with a call button and a card reader for guests, in an IP and IK rated housing for an exposed entrance, or a lobby-grade housing under a canopy or in a vestibule.
Desk master station
Front deskA master station or a software client at the desk shows which call point is calling and releases that door, with a handset for privacy.
App and call forwarding
OvernightCalls forward to the night manager's phone on a schedule. Video and door release work in the app over any data connection.
Schedules on the entrance
Day and nightThe entrance unlocks and relocks on a schedule set to your desk hours, and you can change it without a service visit.
Locks and lock power
12 or 24 V DCElectric strikes or magnetic locks, matched per door, on a separate low-voltage power supply through the relay. A magnetic lock needs a free way out from inside at all times. We pick the lock for each door around its use and the building's fire and life safety requirements.
Gate relays and one log
Parking and serviceDry contacts to parking gate operators, stations at the service entrance, and one log with time and snapshot across every call point.
From the property walk to a tested door.
Four steps, scheduled around your occupancy.
Property walk
Every entrance, the parking and service entries, the desk and the overnight routine. We also check what your door lock system can do at the entrance.
Call plan
Which call point rings where, by day and overnight, and which doors release from the desk or the app. A written scope and price before work starts.
Install
Stations, locks and cable installed and labeled, scheduled around your occupancy. Every penetration we make through a fire-rated wall or floor is fire-stopped.
Release test
Every door and gate release tested from the desk and from the app, forwarding tested on the overnight schedule, and staff trained.
Hotel intercoms, answered.
Can late-arriving guests be let in without front desk staff on site?
Yes. An IP video intercom forwards the call to the night manager's phone. The guest presses the button, the manager sees the camera and talks to them, confirms the reservation by name or booking reference, and releases the front door from the app. It works from anywhere with a data connection. For small boutique properties without overnight staff, this is often the whole after-hours entry setup.
How does the intercom work with our property management system?
It varies by system. Basic integration usually runs through the intercom's log: entries with timestamps that can be checked against arrival data. Some IP intercom platforms offer a direct property management connection, through an API or a webhook, for tighter workflows. We look at your property management system during the quote and tell you what level of integration is realistic.
What about guests who want visitors to come up to their rooms?
The standard setup is that the guest contacts the front desk from the room, by the room phone or the hotel's own system, and the desk lets approved visitors in at the lobby. Some properties prefer guests to buzz in their own visitors from the room; that is possible, but it needs room stations or app-based access for guests. We set the workflow during the system design, around how you prefer to run it.
Can the system handle several entry points, like the lobby, parking and the service entrance?
Yes. Each entry point gets its own station and its own routing. Lobby calls go to the front desk, service entrance calls to the loading dock manager or the facilities phone, and parking gate calls to whoever runs parking. All of them are on one system, managed from one platform, with one log.
How durable is the door station for a busy NYC hotel lobby?
We use commercial stations in brushed stainless steel or anodized aluminum, built for heavy daily use. Under a canopy or inside a vestibule, a lobby-grade station works; an exposed entrance gets a weatherproof model with an IP rating for weather and an IK rating for impact. Consumer video doorbells are the wrong tool for a hotel entrance.
Intercoms for every kind of business.
Running a residential building instead? See residential intercoms for homes, brownstones, apartments and co-ops.
Ready to upgrade your hotel's entrance?
We walk your entry points, talk through your overnight routine, and give you a clear written scope and price. Installs are scheduled around your occupancy.