Hotel TVs Have Changed; Have Your Passwords Handy

These days, you might need to log in to watch the shows you like while traveling

an illustration of a man and woman trying to log into a tv in a hotel room

Remembering the passwords for your streaming services is key to successfully watching your favorite shows and movies on hotel TVs.

Zohar Lazar

Chris Morris,

AARP

Published November 25, 2025

Hotel room TVs used to be so easy: Turn on the set, flip through the channels, watch. But the rise of streaming services is making in-room entertainment more complicated. Now, you might have access to a few channels, but to watch what appeals to you, you may need to log in to your own streaming TV subscriptions.

This follows regular viewing trends. In June, the number of people watching a streaming service topped the number watching cable and broadcast television combined. Marriott International, which owns more than 30 hotel brands and has more than 10,000 locations, introduced streaming to TV sets in select hotels as far back as 2013. Within five years, Netflix and YouTube were among the most watched “channels,” says Scott Hansen, a hospitality operations executive who spent 22 years with Marriott, mostly focused on guest technology.

Watching a streaming service on a hotel TV isn’t difficult, but there are a few things to know.

First, not every hotel TV can accommodate every streaming service. For example, you may be able to log in to your Disney+ account at one chain but not another.

Remember your passwords. Viewers oftentimes forget their passwords for streaming services because they tend to be continuously logged in at home. Be sure to memorize or write down your passwords before you go on your trip.

Log in on the TV. The hotel TV may have apps for the streaming services it supports either built into the TV or through a set-top box. Using the remote control, select the service you want to watch, and log in. You may need to use your phone to scan a QR code that comes up on the screen, then verify your account and the connection to that TV. After that, you’ll be watching your programs.

Log out before checkout. For peace of mind, log out before you check out. But you really don’t need to. On checkout day the TV should reset, wiping clean all account information. “We’re contractually obligated to do that with the Netflixes of the world,” says Hansen.

If the hotel TV doesn’t support the streaming service you want to watch, there are a couple of other options:

Casting. Some hotel chains have sets that let you “cast” from your phone or tablet — wirelessly playing what’s on that small device on the larger screen. Richard Leonarz, director of product management for hospitality television at Samsung, says many hotels prefer this option, as it clears them of the responsibility of ensuring a user’s sign-in credentials are deleted when they check out. (Once you and your phone are out of range, casting ends, and no data is stored on the TV.) It’s also a preferred method for international travelers, who might have subscriptions to services that either aren’t available or aren’t widespread in the U.S.

But getting the cast to work can sometimes be frustrating, even with instructions from the hotel.

Connect your laptop to the TV. To make this work, you may need to bring an HDMI cord and hope that the hotel TV set has an easily accessible HDMI port. Use the cable to connect the computer to the TV, as you would connect it to a monitor, and then stream the show you want from the computer. You’ll probably need a little technical know-how, as you may need to change the input on the TV remote and also adjust your laptop’s display settings.

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Chris Morris is a personal tech writer whose work has also appeared in Fortune, Fast Company and other outlets.

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