Commentary

Travelers Voice Their Desires About In-Room Entertainment

One of the few constants you’ll find in every hotel room around the world, no matter what country you’re in or what price point you’re paying, is the presence of a television. After all, Americans watch an average of five hours of TV per day, and estimates are that we’ll spend a cumulative nine years of our life fixed in front of a TV. 

But the entertainment needs of today’s consumer are evolving as quickly as the technology that delivers it, and for those of us marketing hospitality and creating products to attract travelers, it’s important to understand what people really want and expect from their in-room entertainment experience. 

For instance, in this age of portable devices, do travelers even want or need to have a TV in their room?

On my visit to Rome last month, my wife and I stayed at the highly rated CasaCau apartment hotel and, upon check-in, we were handed our entertainment system: an Apple iPad preloaded with Netflix and other resources. There was no TV in the room and, candidly, we didn’t really miss it. Mostly because we were already traveling with our own mobile devices filled with movies and our preferred streaming services. 

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Recognizing these changes and to help the hospitality industry understand consumer attitudes about the relative value and importance of in-room entertainment systems, ADB, which is a leading provider of software, systems and managed services that support multimedia convergence and connectivity, recently conducted a comprehensive study that included qualitative research with hotel executives and consumers, as well as a quantitative survey of 2,100 consumers. 

As you could expect, in-room entertainment (IRE) is still viewed as being of high value and importance to guests. What’s especially interesting is that guests say they actually expect the in-room experience to be as good as or better than what they have at home, citing picture clarity, more channels and premium content as the areas that are fueling those expectations. And the research shows that guest expectations for a superior in-room entertainment experience continue to elevate as you move up the price scale to luxury hotels. 

Just as importantly, increasing numbers of guests, especially Millennials, want to be able to view their own content on hotel room televisions, and would like the IRE system to support screencasting (the ability to display streaming and other services from a guest’s own device on the in-room TV). 

To underscore the extent to which travelers are looking to expand the functionality of today’s guest room entertainment systems, note that 29% of luxury travelers bring their own HDMI cable so they can connect their mobile devices to the in-room TV and over 18% of them are bringing Chromecast, Roku or something similar when they stay in a hotel. 

What’s equally revealing is that while 44% of guests are watching streaming media on their own device (a number that grows to 52% for Generation X and 62% for Millennials), a significant number of these audiences would actually prefer to watch their streaming media on the hotel room TV if they could (37% of Millennials and 29% of Generation X). 

More than just enabling travelers to watch their own content on an expansive screen, there is also a desire to see the in-room systems be communication tools that go well beyond what they provide today. While many hoteliers believe these systems add value to the guests by providing video check-out and pay-per-view movies, the guests themselves rate those features relatively low and would instead prefer interactive program guides (like they have at home), better hotel and area information, free video on demand, group messaging and the ability to pause live TV. 

When travelers were asked how they would prefer hotels communicate with them regarding items like housekeeping and fulfilling other requests, over 50% said they wanted the information texted to their mobile device and displayed on the in-room TV. Survey respondents also showed an interest in being able to get messages on their TV that were specifically targeted to those in their group. 

Millennials were especially attracted to these kinds of communication features and 29% said they would pay extra for them, with that number jumping to 47% when asked specifically about paying extra for getting conference messages, schedules and other group-related communications unique to them. 

The bar is forever being raised and our industry is playing catch-up to meet these growing expectations and desires. The fact that our industry typically links IRE upgrades to property renovations only compounds the problem, as the traditional four- to seven-year rehab cycle can feel like light years when it comes to technology, and these systems can easily become dated and obsolete almost as quickly as they are installed. Nonetheless, there is enormous potential to innovate in this arena and no doubt the growth of cloud-based systems and new approaches in software, hardware and content distribution will all play a role in helping us redefine what in-room entertainment systems look like moving forward.

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