How to Cast Your Phone to a Hotel TV
It’s hard to imagine a time when hotels didn’t have smart TVs. Not long ago, some even made their TVs an item for sale by plastering “free HBO” on roadside signs. These days, guests are more likely to use their phones, sacrificing the beautiful 48-inch flat screen of their room at the altar of TikTok and YouTube. But with a little extra effort, you can get the best of both worlds by casting everything on your phone to your hotel room’s smart TV.
How to Cast Your iPhone to a Hotel TV
There are official and unofficial options for sending your iPhone content to your TV. Let’s start with the most legal one.
Use AirPlay (provided your hotel supports it)
Starting today, iPhones can now use AirPlay to stream content from their phone directly to the TV in select hotels. The feature is launching at ” more than 60 ” IHG Hotels & Resorts properties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, so give it a try the next time you stay at a Holiday Inn or Candlewood Suites.
The process is fairly painless: When you turn on your TV, you should notice a QR code on the welcome screen. Simply scan it with your compatible Apple device to connect to Wi-Fi and authorize AirPlay on that screen.
And that’s it – since the QR code is unique to your hotel room, you don’t want to accidentally stream to other guests’ TVs or vice versa. Apple says more locations will be added ” in the coming months ,” which makes sense—the limited rollout likely has something to do with the special LG TVs required for installation.
But what if you’re not staying at an IHG hotel? This is where khakis come to the rescue.
Other Ways to Cast iPhone to Hotel TV
There are plenty of dongles, like Roku and Fire TV, that work with AirPlay right out of the box. The problem is getting hotel television to accept them.
Hotel TVs tend to be a little strict about what devices they allow you to connect to. This is thanks to special control units that block them. Luckily, if you can physically reach the TV’s connectors, you can (carefully) remove these boxes. Lifehacker has covered this before , but the gist is to find an Ethernet cable (or perhaps an HDMI cable), carefully unplug it, and reboot your TV before connecting accessories. Depending on your hotel, you may also want to unplug the control unit from power if you can.
After connecting the device, try changing the TV input to the dongle and see if it works. If so, just connect it to Wi-Fi (you may have to open a browser page to do this, depending on your hotel) and you’re good to go. If using hotel Wi-Fi isn’t an option, don’t worry —AirPlay can work without it , and you can always use a mobile hotspot.
(Just remember to reconnect your TV control unit before checking!)
How to Connect an Android Phone to a Hotel TV
Streaming from an Android phone like the Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S24 Ultra to a hotel TV is very similar to streaming from an iPhone, but with some additional quirks, some of which may work in your favor. For example, hotel chains like Wyndham and Hyatt already have Chromecasts built into their TVs, allowing you to cast content from your phone or at least log into their streaming services, depending on how blocked they are. If you’re lucky enough to have your Chromecast set up officially from the start, just follow your hotel’s instructions and you’ll be fine.
For everyone else, you’ll probably want to bring your own dongle, like a Fire TV Stick or Chromecast. While it’s possible to stream content from an Android phone to a TV without a dongle, it’s likely not going to be easy in a hotel environment since these workarounds typically require access to certain apps or smart TV features that are independent of your hotel. have or allow you access.
For the best experience, I recommend Chromecast, as some other dongles can only mirror your screen and not transfer content between devices. With casting, you’ll get the best resolution and generally have a more visceral experience. (Please note, however, that Chromecast devices require Wi-Fi to boot.)
Once you’re in your hotel room with your key, you’ll need to connect it to your TV using the same steps outlined in the iPhone section above: carefully disconnect the hotel control unit’s connection to your TV, reboot your TV, connect Turn on your Chromecast and switch to correct input to check if everything works.
If so, try connecting the dongle to Wi-Fi (again, you may have to open a browser page). If your hotel Wi-Fi isn’t working, you can use a mobile hotspot to try streaming, or you can mirror without using Wi-Fi at all, depending on your dongle (Fire TV Stick is a good choice if that’s a concern) .