Watching what you want to watch on a hotel TV can be frustrating, especially now that much of TV is dominated by streaming services. Customers rejoiced when Apple announced the iOS 17 feature at WWDC last summer that hotels would soon support AirPlay securely on their hotel TVs, but the feature took a while to come to fru ition. be actually deployed.
Starting today, anyone with iOS 17.3 or later can use AirPlay in up to 60 select IHG hotels across North America. You can see the full list here, and more will be added over time.
How it works is simple: the TV’s home screen will display a QR code that you scan with your iPhone or iPad, and your device will establish a private connection with the TV. You can even pair multiple devices.
Then, simply use AirPlay as you normally would, streaming music or videos in any AirPlay-supported app directly to your hotel TV.
60 hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico is a small number, but IHG is a huge hotel group with many brands (Holiday Inn, Kimpton, InterContinental, avid, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, etc.) . Over the next few years, the list will grow and perhaps Apple will begin to include other partners. So there’s a good chance that your hotel entertainment experience over the next few years will be entirely driven by your iPhone.