funnyfarm299

Why do so few Hilton properties offer in-room streaming on the TVs? I know I could take a Roku or FIre TV, but it's a pain to pack it every time.

I've stayed at Hilton, Doubletree, HGI, and Hampton Inn this year, and the only place I've seen with any sort of Smart TV was Resorts World Las Vegas. On the other hand, at least 90% of the Marriott hotels offer in-room streaming services.

I'm still deciding on my preferred hotel brand, and it's probably the only reason I'm still leaning towards Marriott.

Leonvomp

I too have noticed this. My routine at Hilton’s is always to check if TV can come away from the wall even just a little, figure out which HDMI port is unlocked, navigate through Wi-Fi portal, face full of dust at the end (no one cleans the back of TVs). It would be nice if they all had smart capabilities or streaming built in.

Having said that, I’ve been to Marriotts where the advertised streaming just outright didn’t work. Issues with Chromecasts not syncing or the actual devices being stollen from rooms. IO pass throughs not working at hotels that have them. Always a mixed bag. Sometimes it better to just bring your own streaming device. I leave my Fire TV Stick in my travel bag at all times now.

SarahWest

Perhaps it's because most televisions, even ones with a special hospitality mode, don't have a dedicated guest mode for streaming services. This means it requires manual use of the remote control to sign the television out of streaming accounts once they've been set up. In a hotel this is a nightmare to manage because most guests won't sign themselves out at the end of their stay. Roku does have a guest mode which can be managed remotely but a hotel would probably want smart televisions to be linked to the reservation system and sign out automatically at the end of a guest's stay.

It may also be that the hotel doesn't have enough internet bandwidth to allow sufficient numbers of guests to stream at the same time.

writerguyfl

Marriott is a couple of years ahead of Hilton on this front.

Article dated January 2015:
"This week, Marriott announced the launch of a test initiative in eight of its hotels that would let you stream Netflix and other streaming services directly to a smart television in your room."
Source: https://www.techlicious.com/blog/marriott-hotel-offering-in-room-streaming/

In contrast, the first mention (that I could find) of Hilton using streaming direct to TV was December 2017.
"Hilton today unveiled Connected Room, a first-of-its-kind, high-tech guest room that enables guests to personalize and control every aspect of their stay from one central point – their mobile device. Currently in beta testing, Connected Room is live in one hotel, will deploy in coming weeks in several more, and will begin to scale rapidly to hotels across the United States in 2018."
Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171207005545/en/Hilton-Announces-%E2%80%98Connected-Room%E2%80%99-Mobile-Centric-Hotel-Room

When you looking at technology, being an early adopter can be great or it can be a massive mistake. Frankly, it's tough to know if Marriott was a winner unless we know how much they spent on all the technology to implement streaming TVs. If they spent tons of money (or more accurately made their franchise owners spend money) on new TVs without seeing a return-on-investment in the form of more rooms booked, the decision might have been a poor one.

-----

The Hilton Owner's Portal provides this brochure about the Hilton Connected Room program, including pricing.
https://www.hiltonownersportal.com/r...edRoomBrochure

Super Mario

They probably aren't too interested in their wifi being bogged down even more and/or having to buy more expensive wifi. Streaming isn't currently high on the list of make or break amenities for a lot of guests. Having internet slowed to a crawl is surely going to be hell for a hotel.

hotscot

Can't help..I'm Diamond but have never even turned on the TV for years. Prefer to read or surf on my tablet.

I do wish all hotels came with USB though.

aww3583

I stayed in a new-ish HGI last week. The TV had smart buttons on the remote for Netflix and YouTubeTV. When I turned the TV on, there were on-screen icons for both streaming services and both said "Watch Now!" I was very excited until I clicked on both and they needed my personal login info.

ChinaShrek

Isn't that better than having DirecTv or cable?

timfountain

Hilton's still have TV's? I only slightly say this in jest, as I haven't turned on a TV in the room for literally years. I just stream to my laptop. I recall a situation a few years ago when, on checking out, they discounted my room 50% because the TV wasn't working. I wouldn't have even known had they not said something, as I didn't even try to turn it on....

aww3583

No.

DirecTV is superior programming compared to the 25 channels of garbage most other properties have. At least with DirecTV, the channel listing is the same everywhere you go.

Can't watch college football on Netflix :-)

krazykanuck

I just wish more hotels had TVs that are smart capable to be able to mirror from my laptop. Like others I don't want to use my credentials to login to streaming services on the TV.

funnyfarm299

All the Marriott TVs integrate with the PMS and log you out when you check out. You can also manually perform a logout, which basically does a complete data reset on the device. It's actually pretty nifty.

I've also been in Marriotts that are completely unable to stream on a laptop (sub 250 kbps) but all the streaming services worked perfectly fine on the TV. It's definitely nice to have the additional option.

funnyfarm299

That's one thing I really appreciate about Youtube giving me an OAuth option. Don't have to give the hotel my credentials.

The in-room streaming devices typically use a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi. Less Wi-Fi data used for streaming = better Wi-Fi experience.

Thanks for the link. $160 per STB is actually a lot less than I expected.

Larrude

I discovered by happenstance recently, that Tru by Hilton have Netflix streaming available in their rooms.

https://newsroom.hilton.com/brand-co...s-with-netflix

hhdl

Newer brands/builds are more likely to have streaming, I suspect. For older properties, a nontrivial subset of franchisees probably still view LodgeNet PPV (especially the "educational" films) as a profit center.