Hotel Hospitality TV Explained
It takes more than just putting in a flat-screen TV in your guest rooms to keep your visitors satisfied and amused. The TV screen itself may be the least important part of your guestroom TV arrangement. The modest screen becomes vibrant with the help of a hospitality TV system, which manages your TV channels, on-demand and streaming content, interactive and branded content, and even an interface where visitors can buy upsells and add-ons.
A robust hospitality TV system will also include an interface that lets you control what your visitors watch, monitor use, and personalize their stay. In addition to providing entertainment, hospitality TV may improve overall client happiness, raise topline income, and empower your team to work more productively.
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing the best Hospitality TV system for your hotel, from functionality and support to user experience and cost. This guide will assist you in finding the top Hospitality TV suppliers, knowing what to ask during a demo, reading frank evaluations from comparable hoteliers, and much more.
Why Is a Specific Type of TV Required for Hotels?
Powers TV entertainment in the room: A hospitality TV system provides a plethora of entertainment alternatives for visitors, including on-demand movies, music, fitness videos, local and cable TV channels, streaming applications (Netflix, Hulu, etc.), and much more.
- Enhances the TV experience: You have the ability to customize what visitors see when they switch on the TV, including branding elements like your logo and images and a personalized greeting that can include the visitor’s name.
- Presents interactive media: A digital hotel directory and facilities to showcase promotions and upsell chances to customers are often included in hospitality TV packages.
- Offers tech support resources: Your workers and visitors may get assistance troubleshooting TV problems from representatives of the hospitality TV supplier.
- Creates more opportunities for you to interact with visitors and establish brand awareness: Make the most of the large, elegant TV screens in your guestrooms by presenting your outlets, brand, and deals that will boost your revenue. By adding a visitor’s name to the TV experience, you may enhance guest interactions and bolster your hotel’s brand with a completely personalized welcome screen.
- Allows you to increase guest satisfaction: Today’s visitors choose to stream their favorite Netflix program or take an on-demand fitness class rather than watching pay-per-view movies or local TV stations. It would be appreciated by visitors that they can cast media from their own device onto the TV or easily stream their program on the TV in their guestroom.
- Transfers tech support responsibilities from your on-site IT department or front desk employees: If your team can delegate the task of fixing visitors’ TV problems to the customer service professionals employed by your TV vendor, they will be able to do their responsibilities more effectively.
What is the estimated cost of hospitality TV services for hotels?
The cost of hospitality TV services varies significantly according on the size, location, and features you want. Monthly fees are often included in contracts for each room, and there may also be an installation cost. An approximate monthly cost per room for a basic hospitality TV bundle that just includes a few local and cable channels is $5 to $10.
Adding streaming services, personalized content, weather and flight monitoring widgets, and a management interface to an already complex system may easily double or treble the cost of a basic channel package. Upon request, hospitality TV providers may provide customized estimates depending on the specifics of your property.
How much time does it take to set up and get started with a new hotel TV provider?
The first stage in your hotel TV project is to acquire the TVs if you want to buy and install new ones. The TVs may take weeks or months to arrive, depending on how many you purchase and where they are made. A professional installation crew is often hired by hotels to unpack, mount, and program the TVs. Once the hardware arrives, TV installation doesn’t take too long each room, so you may not need to reserve rooms for more than a day or two.
You’ll need to set up your TV service once your TVs are operational. You will have access to a management portal via your vendor, where you may configure any special content, you want to show, such as pictures or videos of your property and a customized welcome screen. Additionally, you may link your TV system to other hotel technologies, like your PMS or CRM, to send information about each guest’s profile—including their name, which allows you to greet them specifically—to the TV. Your hotel TV provider will provide you with a lot of assistance throughout this process, in the form of a specialized account representative or a centralized onboarding team.
You should test each TV after finishing the primary setup procedures to make sure everything is operating as it should. Turn on the TV, verify that you can access TV channels, on-demand movies, and applications, and make sure your hotel content appears as intended. It’s a good idea to provide your personnel with training on frequently asked topics by visitors. Your vendor’s customer support team can handle technical difficulties, but your front desk personnel should be prepared to manage simple inquiries like how to activate parental controls or access Netflix™. Finally, it’s a good idea to provide a quick TV instruction booklet in each guestroom so visitors know how to switch on the TV and access content, as this will cut down on needless questions for your staff.
