Gaylord Hotels Gives Guests Access to Netflix, Hulu and More

Gaylord Hotels Portfolio, part of Marriott International, now offers streaming entertainment and bluetooth capabilities in each of its 8,300 rooms across its five properties.

Gaylord is turning to in-room technology specialists Enseo for the service. Gaylord's guests will be able to stream their own entertainment via a set-top box, giving them access to Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Pandora, and other services on in-room TVs. The platform also allows guests to connect their own devices and listen to their own music on the televisions via Bluetooth.

“Enseo has shown they work hard to meet and exceed our guests’ needs and expectations,” says Mike Stengel, SVP, Gaylord Hotels Operations. “The feedback we have received from our hotel guests has been excellent, and our staff found the installation and operation of the system to be outstanding.”

The current state of in-room entertainment and accessibility is currently in flux as hotel chains rethink their Wi-Fi policies and deal with guests' seemingly insatiable demand for bring-your-own streaming entertainment. The changes have resulted in former heavyweights such as LodgeNet reorganizing as Sonifi and Hilton phasing out its in-room pornography.

Marriott first began testing in-room streaming at eight properties around the U.S. in January of this year, in order to test competing services. Starwood, which Marriott acquired in November, began its own test of in-room entertainment in October when I began a test of DirecTV services to domestic hotels.