Suddenly, I find these models to be a very attractive design, but I'm finding little information about them online. When were they made? What is the difference between the two? How do their model numbers fit into the grand scheme of things? Are they as well-built and reliable as their contemporaries, and can most be expected to still work fine today?
The 553/653 "hotel" phones were essentially wall phones made from the 534/634 subsets by adding a receiver, transmitter, hookswitch & dial to the assembly. The 5 in the series number indicates a sidetone set & the 6 would be the anti-sidetone version. The 653 sound quality would be about the same online as a 302 since the components would be the same. Many of the 553's would have been converted to 653's during a later refurb.
I was thinking it looked more or less like a subset with candlestick-like components mounted on the front. Now that you mention its nickname as the hotel telephone, I was able to find a couple more mentions of it online. Thanks! I may look to add one to my collection sometime next year. This year's money is gone, though. :)
Good thing I found this post, I thought I had a home brew phone
You can see where the "553A" was painted over and recoded "653A" when they converted it. Also, the induction coil was changed to the 101A type used in a 302. The dial was once a 2A with outside finger stop; notice that the original "W" terminal has been restamped "R."