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iPhone's New AirPlay Feature for Hotel Room TVs Begins Rolling Out

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Apple has announced that iPhone and iPad users can wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from their device to their hotel room TV via AirPlay at select IHG Hotels & Resorts properties in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico starting today, including select Holiday Inn, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, Atwell Suites, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, and Avid locations, and some others.

IHG-Hotel-AirPlay.jpg

Apple says IHG has made AirPlay available at more than 60 hotels so far, and additional hotels will support the feature "in the coming months."

The feature allows you to scan a unique QR code on the hotel room TV to establish an AirPlay connection, allowing you to wirelessly stream content from your iPhone or iPad to the TV. After the pairing process, your device will also automatically be connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi network. The device must be updated to iOS 17.3 or iPadOS 17.3 or later.

airplay-hotels.jpg

In addition to services like Apple TV+ and Apple Music, AirPlay on hotel room TVs works with Apple Arcade for gaming and Apple Fitness+ for workouts.

Apple emphasized the privacy and security of the AirPlay feature. When a guest checks out of the hotel, the company says their connection to the TV is erased, preventing future guests and hotel staff from accessing the user's activity.

Apple first announced this feature at WWDC 2023 last June, in partnership with LG. Google already offers a similar Chromecast streaming feature on many hotel TVs that works with both iPhones and Android devices, so Apple has a lot of catching up to do on this front, but AirPlay support is certainly a useful addition for iPhone users.

Article Link: iPhone's New AirPlay Feature for Hotel Room TVs Begins Rolling Out
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/18/ios-17-airplay-hotel-feature-now-available/
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MegaBlue

MegaBlue

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Sep 19, 2022
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Great to see, but like Car Key/Hotel Keys or Siri on third party devices, I have a feeling this will be something adopted by few.

When Hilton, Marriott, Choice and such start rolling these out to their thousands of hotels is when I’ll truly be excited, but it’s nice to know the feature is actually rolling out in some capacity finally.
 
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CWallace

CWallace

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mike... said:
Hopefully this ends up everywhere. Every hotel I've ever stayed at supports Chromecast or whatever, but that's no good for my MacBook Pro or iPhone.
Click to expand...

I have successfully used my iPhone to connect to the Chromecast at Hyatt properties that have it. But I agree with you that I hope this becomes widespread (at least within the US).


nburwell said:
I’m hoping more hotel brands (ie. Hilton, Marriott) support this in the future. I currently bring a Roku Stick with me whenever we travel so we’re able to stream from hotel TV (which is great for the kids).
Click to expand...

Yes I have an Amazon FireStick 4K because it is so much smaller and easier to carry compared to an AppleTV.
 
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Robert.Walter

Robert.Walter

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Jul 10, 2012
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Question is will the hotels charge for the wifi connection?

My fam is at a new homewood suites by Hilton after a flood and they have terrible unusably slow wifi.
 
Iconoclysm

Iconoclysm

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oofio2461 said:
Finally coming out, but it took over 10 months to finally release this feature...
Click to expand...
Being released and being adopted are two different things. This is not just Apple's "feature" to release, a hotel chain needs to actually develop, test, and deploy the capability. How is 10 months a "long time" for that to happen?
 
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Iconoclysm

Iconoclysm

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Robert.Walter said:
Question is will the hotels charge for the wifi connection?

My fam is at a new homewood suites by Hilton after a flood and they have terrible unusably slow wifi.
Click to expand...

This could go the other way if demand is great enough - customers constantly complaining they can't use the feature on their TV that the hotel has already invested in because of their crappy WiFi might just lead to them upgrading the WiFi.
 
Suicidy

Suicidy

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Oct 20, 2015
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MegaBlue said:
Great to see, but like Car Key/Hotel Keys or Siri on third party devices, I have a feeling this will be something adopted by few.

When Hilton, Marriott, Choice and such start rolling these out to their thousands of hotels is when I’ll truly be excited, but it’s nice to know the feature is actually rolling out in some capacity finally.
Click to expand...
It will be adopted…… with a $10/day access fee.
 
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xpxp2002

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2016
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I really wish this did not "automatically" connect the device to the hotel's Wi-Fi. I never use public Wi-Fi. And while I can accept a peer-to-peer AirPlay link between the hotel's Apple TV and my iPad/iPhone, I would not want it also joining the hotel Wi-Fi under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, due to this implementation detail, I don't think I'd ever use this feature.
 
M

MacKey76

macrumors member
Aug 8, 2011
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xpxp2002 said:
I really wish this did not "automatically" connect the device to the hotel's Wi-Fi. I never use public Wi-Fi. And while I can accept a peer-to-peer AirPlay link between the hotel's Apple TV and my iPad/iPhone, I would not want it also joining the hotel Wi-Fi under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, due to this implementation detail, I don't think I'd ever use this feature.
Click to expand...

100% agree with you. I work in cyber security and would never dream of connecting any device to public WiFi in any setting. I love the idea of this, but if it's dependent on you connecting to the WiFi then it's a "no" from me.

Apple could make this work direct connection to the TV and be very secure, so not sure why they didn't go down that route.
 
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O

omenatarhuri

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2010
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Awesome. Quite a few TVs in hotels already have casting but I’ll choose AirPlay over it when given the choice.
 
G

G5isAlive

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Aug 28, 2003
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MacKey76 said:
100% agree with you. I work in cyber security and would never dream of connecting any device to public WiFi in any setting. I love the idea of this, but if it's dependent on you connecting to the WiFi then it's a "no" from me.

Apple could make this work direct connection to the TV and be very secure, so not sure why they didn't go down that route.
Click to expand...

I fully understand your concern about public wifi.

I am interested in learning more. Trying to understand what you mean by direct connection to the tv, as in a HDMI cable? That already works, assuming you can get access to a TV's HDMI ports. If you mean a direct wifi connection to the TV, doesn't that require the TV to support WIFI (not all due, most have direct wired connections). And if it did have WIFI, doesn't that require it too cooperate in making a direct connection, which is hard to imagine.

The other point is, Apple requires WIFI for DRM, to establish you 'own' a movie on your phone that you are trying to view. This has alway been the case. I dont know if they can also validate ownership via a phone's native signal, but that wouldn't work for iPads without a phone plan. Could you elaborate on how this might work?
 
G

G5isAlive

Contributor
Aug 28, 2003
2,608
4,518
Suicidy said:
It will be adopted…… with a $10/day access fee.
Click to expand...

A lot of hotels already support chromecast at no access fee. Or are you suggesting Apple will charge a fee for use of Airplay? They haven't done so for any other use.
 
J

johnny_ringo

macrumors newbie
Apr 18, 2024
2
0
Beautiful way to further track iphone users. Chef's kiss. Meanwhile, a 3rd party standard (like Matter) would require none of this nonsense, would be available to everyone AND hotels would have to hire additional tech support and usage fees.

I'm going to enjoy the comments defending this muppet move.
 
R

Rhhk

macrumors newbie
Sep 11, 2023
6
-1
I don’t understand how this is new? I’ve used Airplay with newer TVs and hotel systems many times in the past, scanning a QR code and streaming straight from my phone or iPad…
 
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