In-Room Entertainment Preferences by Hotel Guests

• Hotel guests are increasingly opting for hotels that offer in-room tech matching their home life.
• Gary Patrick, CEO of Hotel Internet Service (HIS), states that a survey they carried out reveals that although guests may have at one point "looked to hotel amenities for inspiration on how to improve daily home life, they now continue to increasingly expect hotel services to adopt the same heightened level of instant convenience and customization that consumer-based technology can provide."

• The survey also showed that the growing diversity of apps now increasingly used by guests such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney+, call for hoteliers to take up comprehensive in-room entertainment services compatible with the diverse range of third-party applications in order to offer a high-quality and personalized guest experience.
• At least two in five (43%) of those who want hotels to better match their home life identify in-room technology that integrates with their personal devices to be among their top three wishes. This is due to the mass adoption of streaming services and at-home casting technology by consumers. This is motivated by their desire to cast personal content from devices to guestroom televisions, a trend that continues to grow rapidly, with 67% of 2020 guest respondents seeking availability of the casting feature in guestroom televisions.
• Hoteliers are encouraged to take into consideration that 50% of hotel guest respondents surveyed indicate that the availability of wireless casting is likely to affect their booking decision. Only 26 percent of hotelier respondents surveyed reported being currently able to offer the functionality.
• A report by HIS found that when hotel guests were asked what features they would prefer on their guestroom televisions, 54% expressed interest in casting content from a personal device to the television.
• When asked to choose between casting content from their own device versus directly inputting login details into apps on the guestroom television, 82% of respondents opted for casting.
• When surveyed, only 29% of hoteliers say they believe guests are still interested in using video-on-demand services in the guestrooms. Of the guest respondents surveyed, 39% percent said they were still interested in VOD. This number only drops to 36% of guest respondents when asked to choose between watching VOD movies versus casting content from their device in guestrooms.

Considerations by Hotels When Selecting a Service or Vendor

• Consumer behavior trends inform hoteliers' adoption of in-room entertainment technologies. Some of these trends include increased TV viewership and increased subscription to streaming services.
• Enseo’s "Hotel TV in the Age of COVID-19" white paper, revealed that a 49.3% increase in TV viewership in occupied hotel rooms was observed in the period from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020.
• In 2019, more U.S. households subscribed to a streaming service (69%) than to a traditional satellite or cable TV provider (65%) for the first time.
• Hoteliers therefore adopt technologies that align with these trends, in conjunction with television companies. Television companies such as Philips Professional Display Solutions are now releasing products with casting already built in. With the service built into the TV, hotels "do not need to turn to third-party providers to sell them the Chromecast dongle and then manage that solution for them, saving on operating costs."

RESEARCH STRATEGY