Best AV streaming solution for STR guests?

[Nathan Krish]

What is the best device to enable guests to watch their own streaming TV at an STR? We want our guests to be able to use their own streaming accounts and subscriptions, not ours. Is this what others do?

In terms of devices: Our property manager indicated that Chromcast is no good because many guests need a remote and don’t understand how to operate a TV without one. Does anyone have experience with Amazon Firesticks or other solutions for streaming AV? Thanks.

[Dominic A.]

Chromecast will be a problem for a number of reasons, especially if you have more than one group of guests or tenants on the wifi at once (which is sometimes the case for STR).

Roku hands down would be my pick for what you're asking about. It has a guest mode that will reset all the accounts when the guest checks out. You'll need to set up check-in and check-out dates for each guest if you want to make it truly dummy proof (otherwise you're relying on the guest/cleaner to remember to do so) but either way, it's worth the investment of money and time.

We use Firestick and love it, but only because we also include a few streaming services as part of the stay (which is what our research told us would be the preferred option for our market). Guests occasionally use their own accounts in that case, but it's very rare, and they almost always tell us.