Marriott Hotels Test Streaming Of Netflix, Pandora On Room TVs

You may be able to binge-watch the hit Netflix drama “House of Cards” on your hotel room’s TV set the next time you stay at a Marriott.

Bloomberg News reports the worldwide hotel chain is testing a program in eight of its American hotel locations that will allow guests to log in to their Netflix, Hulu and Pandora accounts and stream the content directly to their room television sets.

“We have invited leading technology companies and content providers to work with us to design the next wave in in-room entertainment focusing on on-demand programming,” said Marriott spokesman John Wolf. “We are currently offering guests in eight test hotels the opportunity to stream their content through our high-definition TVs whether it is Netflix, Hulu or Pandora.”

Marriott did not specify which eight hotels are offering the test service.

The hotel chain is considering various options to provide access to streaming content providers to its guests, including selling a premium Internet package that would include access to Netflix, even if the guest was not a Netflix subscriber. Such a deal would benefit providers such as Netflix, as well, exposing their services to a new audience.

One recent Marriott guest took to Twitter to praise the new offering. “Wow. I’m impressed. The Marriott TV system they have here allows you to log into Netflix, Hulu, etc for free with your own account,” tweeted Michael Wolf on Jan. 16.

Marriott is just one of several hotel chains considering such a move, reported Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source. But the news outlet did not name the other chains.

Hotel guests can, ostensibly, access content from streaming content providers on their own devices, as long as they are able to access a Wi-Fi connection in the hotel. But often such connections are slow and not designed to handle the large amount of bandwidth that streaming requires. Marriott was fined by the FCC in October for jamming the personal Wi-Fi hotspots of guests attending a conference at Marriott’s Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.