AirPlay is Coming to More Hotel Rooms — Thanks to Samsung
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Every so often, Apple announces some exciting new features for its hardware and software that aren’t entirely in its hands. It’s a thrill to hear about the magical ways our iPhones will be able to interact with the world, but sometimes, the rest of the world isn’t ready.
Perhaps the most disappointing example of this is Digital IDs in Apple Wallet. When it was announced for iOS 15 three years ago, eight states eagerly signed on, but here we are on the cusp of iOS 18, and Digital IDs are available in only four US states. We’ll likely see the feature in Japan before it arrives anywhere else in the US.
However, not far behind those are Apple’s hotel initiatives. Alongside Digital IDs came Hotel Keys. These rolled out a bit faster since they moved at the speed of business rather than the speed of government, but they’re still only available in a handful of Hyatt hotels.
Apple’s second hotel feature, AirPlay in Hotels, has followed a similarly slow road to fulfillment. Announced as part of iOS 17 last June, it only went live in a few hotels two months ago. So far, it’s only been available on LG smart hotel TVs, which could be part of the reason for the delay.
Fortunately for iPhone travellers, that could soon change as there’s a new player at the table. Today, Samsung announced that its “hospitality TVs” will “offer seamless and secure streaming from iPhone and iPad.”
Samsung Electronics today announced Samsung Hospitality TV compatibility with AirPlay, allowing hotel guests to connect their iOS and iPadOS devices to the TVs in their rooms easily and securely.
Although the announcement makes it clear that Samsung is embracing Apple’s AirPlay in Hotels feature, it’s pretty vague about any other details. The feature will come to its HBU8000 model first and be “sequentially supported on other existing models,” but there’s no word on where any of those models will be used.
It’s probably a bit telling that the HBU8000 is billed as a “Luxury 4K UHD Smart Hospitality TV.” As with Hotel Key and the LG AirPlay rollout, these features tend to come to the higher-end properties first before eventually trickling down to smaller, budget hotels.
For instance, the Hotel Key rollout began with such illustrious locations as the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort and the Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa. AirPlay in Hotels was a bit more balanced. However, spots like the InterContinental New York Times Square location were still first on the list, along with California resort hotels in Monterey, Chino Hills, and Port Hueneme. Smaller hotels were likely included only because they were already due for TV replacements or upgrades.
What’s Special about AirPlay in Hotels?
Apple’s AirPlay in hotels feature is more or less the same AirPlay technology we’ve been using at home for years, but what makes it unique is how easy it is to get securely connected. Plus, while a hotel room could theoretically offer AirPlay support on a traditional TV, most hospitality-grade sets don’t provide AirPlay support in the first place.
However, hotel Wi-Fi networks can be a complicated affair behind the scenes, so even if you have access to the free hotel Wi-Fi, that doesn’t mean you can get at the TV in your room. More importantly, without the proper protections in place, having all the TVs and all the iPhones on the same open Wi-Fi network would be a security and privacy nightmare.
AirPlay in Hotels solves this by automatically pairing up your iPhone and the TV in your room using a QR code and a secure protocol that ensures you’re the only one who can display something in your room, and nobody else can intercept your connection.
Guests will be able to enjoy the convenience of watching their favorite shows and movies from popular streaming services, listening to personal playlists on various music platforms, viewing photos, practicing presentations, playing games and more on the TV in their room. By simply scanning a unique, on-screen QR code, guests can privately and securely connect their iPhone or iPad to the Samsung Hospitality TV.Samsung
After you check out, your device pairing is removed, and the unique QR codes are regenerated, so there’s no risk of a previous guest being able to stream content to the TV in your room. As per Apple’s policy for the feature, no information about your devices is stored.
Right now, AirPlay in Hotels is available in an assortment of North American IHG properties, and while we’ve heard no word on where it may show up next, we can assume that at least some hotel chains that use Samsung TVs will be implementing it soon.
