Hilton and Netflix partner on in-room streaming, controlled through Hilton’s own app
While many hotel chains offer Netflix on their TVs as a courtesy for their guests, Hilton and Netflix this morning announced a first-of-a-kind partnership that will give Hilton’s guests the ability to log into Netflix and control their streaming experience directly from Hilton’s own Hilton Honors mobile app. This will initially be offered in Hilton’s “Connected Rooms” – a new concept for high-tech guest rooms introduced in December, where guests can control the room’s lighting, temperature, and personalize their TV channels through the Hilton app.
As a part of this Connected Room experience, Hilton also recently did a similar deal with Showtime to offer guests free access to Showtime’s content – again, through a Hilton Honors app integration.
In Netflix’s case, Hilton customers will be able to download the Hilton Honors app, add Netflix along with other streaming services and TV channels to their favorites list, then tap on Netflix to log into their own account and choose what to stream on the hotel room’s TV.
The app logins them into their own Netflix account – not some customized version for hotel goers – so they can access their saved list of shows and movies, pick up where they left off on their latest binge, or browse their personalized recommendations.
Those without a Netflix account will be able to sign up directly from within the Hilton Honors app, as well. For guests who don’t want to use an app, the TV remote’s Netflix button will take them to a login screen instead.
While the “Connected Rooms” concept is a fairly new initiative at Hilton, the hotel chain today has over 1,800 tech-enabled rooms like this available today, and says it’s on track to roll out the technology to “tens of thousands” of rooms across hundreds of its U.S. hotels this year, as well as to its first non-U.S. locations.
“We know our guests want to feel connected while traveling, just as they do at home, so we’re giving them seamless access to their favorite Netflix shows, films and specials while on the road,” said Noelle Eder, executive vice president and chief information and digital officer for Hilton, in a statement about the hotel chain’s partnership with Netflix.
As for Netflix, a partnership like the one gives it a way to reach customers, even when they’re away from home, to maintain that relationship and re-engage them with their content, as well as potentially attract new sign-ups.
Source: TechCrunch
