TECHNOLOGY
Where in-room entertainment
GOES NEXT
INDUSTRY EXPERTS OFFER DATA AND INSIGHTS INTO WHAT WILL MATTER TO CONSUMERS AND HOW HOTELIERS COULD BEST ADAPT .
By JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
The in-room entertainment experience has become far from traditional , with guests traveling with their own devices and preferred content not always found on traditional television .
At the same time , in-room entertainment providers are challenging tradition as well , to maximize the experience and give hoteliers another point of difference . Providers are working to optimize costs and offer flexible and alternate billing models .
That said , the free-to-guest entertainment model should have longevity , according to Kim Twiggs , assistant vice president , Market Development , Commercial Lodging & Institutions , for DIRECTV . “ We ’ ve done research ( 1,200 U . S . consumers in October 2020 ) on the state of travel and how TV and video capabilities influence the choice of a hotel brand and property , and our study indicates that live TV is still the most widely used and preferred in-room media option , with 83 % of our research respondents saying they would choose one hotel over another if it offered easy access to local , live and on demand TV and music .”
What remains perhaps the biggest news in in-room entertainment is the movement toward guests using their own subscription streaming video on demand ( SVOD ) services like Netflix , Amazon Prime , Hulu or HBO , with recent data suggesting 73 % of U . S . households access content via this route . With so many new services emerging , it is challenging for hotels to keep pace and offer new services that enhance the customer experience , and with COVID impacting guest stay patterns , providing a more robust in-room package so they can cocoon in comfort provides another point of difference .
In-room entertainment continues to evolve to match consumer behavior . Recent research cited by in-room entertainment solutions provider Allbridge shows that advertising-supported streaming services continue to be the fastest growing streaming category , with 25 % of U . S . internet users now relying on a mix of Advertisingfunded AVOD ( e . g . YouTube ) and FASTv ( Free Ad-
108 hotelsmag . com September / October 2021