Is your hotel ready to cater to your guests’ new television consumption habits?

Tomeu Fiol, CMO of Hotelinking

A few years ago, this question would not have made much sense. Now, with the rise of OTT or streaming platforms (Netflix, HBO, Disney +, Amazon Prime…), there are increasingly more guests who want to continue enjoying their favourite TV shows or movies while staying in your hotel.

A good selection of several international television channels continues to be a must. Still, the new forms of television consumption force hotels to adapt their infrastructures so that their guests can enjoy their favourite TV shows and films whenever they want during their stay.

The popularity of these platforms gives rise to a series of problems when customers want to connect to them through their in-room TV, just as they would at home.

Some of them are:

• Problems due to poor WiFi coverage or limited bandwidth.
• The need to enter the credentials of the platform we want to use on the hotel TV and the probability of forgetting to log off when checking out.
• Bad user experience when having to connect to another WiFi network within the same room.
• Apps that work separately by forcing the guest to register on the TV again through new credentials.
• Need for all potential apps to be installed on the TV.
• Simultaneous use of the remote control and the mobile device to connect to the television.
• Security vulnerabilities.
• Compliance with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Luckily, there are already solutions in the market that help us solve this broad problem.

One that we already work with at Hotelinking is the one based on Google Chromecast technology, a device made by Google, from which you can send content from a mobile, tablet or laptop to the television in the hotel room.

This solution also provides a series of exciting tools and features for the hotel:

• It works with the hotel’s WiFi.
• Digital signage feature, allowing you to set up logos, colours, backgrounds, images and customisable texts.
• Possibility to send mass, group or personalised messages.
• User friendly.
• Terms and privacy settings.
• Remote activation and deactivation.
• Log in and out through QR.
• Generation of statistics.
• Compatibility with all types of mobile devices.
• Monitoring the system status at all times and being able to deactivate or activate specific rooms.
• Linkage with the PMS.

This system is easy to implement in any hotel regardless of the number of rooms; the only requirement is having a WiFi network and any TV with HDMI.

Once connected to the WiFi, the guest will only have to scan a QR code that will appear on their TV or write a URL with a code on their device and accept the terms and conditions of use of the service.

If you currently have problems with this service or are considering the possibility of incorporating it into your property, at Hotelinking we can advise you, we are experts in this type of solution.

Original article: https://www.hotelinking.com/en/technology/is-your-hotel-ready-to-cater-to-your-guests-new-television-consumption-habits/