Four Factors How Hotel TVs Control Today’s Guest Stay
Is your home television today similar to the TV you watched five years ago? Probably not. If you’re like one-in-five U.S. households, it isn’t even attached to a cable or satellite TV service anymore.
Five years ago, there were close to 100 million households that received pay TV services. Now, it is around 83 million, and by 2024 that figure is projected to be under 61 million, by many measurements.
TV’S EVOLUTION
That’s because TVs that sit at home and in hotel rooms have quickly developed into something else entirely. In terms of physical design, in-room TV systems continue to expand in size and slimness, enabling hotels to reinvent their guest spaces.
But perhaps just as important, they’ve evolved into these two-way application-delivery platforms that have provided hotels with tools that help differentiate the in-room experience.”
Today’s smart TVs are networked entertainment platforms, able to manage over-the-top (non-cable, non-satellite) programming, hotel marketing and communications and guests’ own favorite media choices.
Before long, it’s highly likely that the in-room TV – not a different smart-room device – will be the integrated hub for controlling music, lights, climate settings and more.
Here’s a look at four hotel in-room entertainment trends to watch for as we head into 2024:
Larger TVs
TV production economics has recently coalesced such that TVs that are 49 to 55 inches (diagonal) are now the new standard for in-room entertainment, driven largely by less-costly larger screens reaching the consumer marketplace.
Some hotel brands have even standardized on 65 inches, and hospitality-specific models exist that are as large as 75 inches.
For several years, this created a mismatch between the grander TVs that moved into rooms, and what they played. The output was older-format content being shown on HD televisions at many hotels.
But that old analog, low-resolution content, an eyesore on today’s larger, high-definition televisions, has disappeared from most hotels in favor of all-HD content that takes full advantage of large-screen televisions. Hence, in-room entertainment experience matches (and in some cases beats) guests’ home entertainment experience of theirs.
And with larger, 4K Ultra HD TVs gaining acceptance, hotels are realizing the benefits of wall mounting rather than using furniture or credenzas.
For one, it’s an experience that greatly improves the distance at which the guests watch when one mounts a 55-inch, flat-screen TV on the wall. Hotel designers can use the extra room to enhance the interior design and maximize guest experience. It needs less furniture to support the in-room television saves on cost and allows for a more spacious hotel room.
Better TVs
In the past, when foundational TV technology has improved dramatically, that means two things: more expensive TVs. When the first organic LED (OLED) TVs hit the market with their picture quality, we could understand how hospitality brands, which might buy hundreds of TVs at once, would want to wait and see.
Now, following the OLED TV boom in the consumer sector, affordable consumer OLED TVs are available to the hospitality sector. Also, some LCD TVs with new nanoparticle technology that can significantly improve the quality of the big screen.
Computers get rid of unwanted light waves, which amplifies on-screen colors and enables guests to enjoy the picture from multiple angles. And that nanotechnology leads to a slimmer profile – TVs around 2.5 inches thick – which can lead to even more room design innovation. Such nano TV technology exists today.
4K Content
Guests will begin enjoying more higher-resolution content on their TVs in their rooms, namely 4K. Streaming services already offer more programming in 4K, despite needing as much as five times the network bandwidth of 1080p HD to deliver it.
For all kinds of reasons, more hotels are getting into the IP-based television act in their rooms, whether to enable services like Netflix and YouTube or just allow guests to access hotel programming and information.
Once hotels have constructed the network infrastructure, that will be critical not only for IPTV content but reliable internet access for guests, pervasive digital signage, and eventually network-based automation, control, and AI. They will be in a position to deliver even more 4K entertainment.
Even if hotels don’t immediately invest in the network infrastructure required to support 4K entertainment, the 4K UHD TVs they are installing today can still provide a far better viewing experience.
It turns out that a majority of the new 49- to 65-inch TVs that hotels are purchasing are actually 4K UHD TVs. And the latest versions of 4K UHD TVs are better and better at taking an existing HD signal, and upscaling it up so it fills the 2 million pixels, available for best viewing. Today’s TVs also incorporate capabilities like high dynamic range, which enhances a TV image’s contrast ratio and color accuracy. That will lead to a better picture even for material that isn’t at true 4K yet.
BYO entertainment
Because today’s hotel-room smart TVs are application platforms, they have the capability to enable guests to personalize their entertainment experience. There are two main methods that individuals can use to bring their own media.
The first method is to sign in to their streaming accounts on the TV itself. Guests sign in using their own existing credentials on services like Netflix and Pandora to experience personalized programming. TV providers, hotels, and technology integrators make sure the login information is safe and sound, and guests get to enjoy the same streaming media they would at home.
However, entering their log-in information on a hotel TV may still not be convenient or desirable for guests. Hence, a second, nascent kind of BYO entertainment is starting to crystallize. “Casting” enables guests to take whatever they’re watching on their devices and “cast” it to the TV, meaning it appears on the big screen. The experience is largely the same – guests use the streaming services to which they already subscribe – but without needing to login separately.
Final Thoughts
For many, this may be the holy grail of in-room entertainment. Guests may determine that what is available via their smartphones is the only content they need access to while in house, enabling hoteliers to reduce their investment in traditional programming and delivery.
Some properties are already rolling out some of the casting services. Google’s Android platform and Chromecast technology works well. But as more mobile platforms add in-room-casting support, more hotels will want to activate their smart TVs to receive those streams.
And though all these trends have a positive impact on the guest stay, TV technology is maturing as well on the operational side. Since hotels invest in more smart TVs and build on their network infrastructure, there are software-based solutions available to operators that enable them to run and personalize the in-room experience from one location.
The TVs that guests watch at these days are not the TVs they stared at five years ago. To a degree they’re what hotel brands want them to be.
The benefit of an IP-based, open hospitality entertainment strategy is hotels can create solutions that meet their specific requirements and enable them to create unique, differentiated relationships with their guests.
