Using hotel TV with Airplay, Google Cast or similar

Thirith

On recent holidays, we usually had a TV in our hotel room that allowed for casting in one form or another: some would have Airplay functionality, others Google Cast. However, I wasn't able to cast to any of them from my iPhone or iPad. My hunch is that it's a problem with the network I was on: most of these functions seem to require that both the TV and the device from which you want to cast are on the same network. At the hotel, I'd usually be on some guest network, and I have no idea what network the TV was on.

Is there something I'm getting wrong here? Are hotel TVs generally set up so this should work? Does Bluetooth or some other functionality come into it? Or are these functions set up so they don't really play well with the setups you find at a hotel?

Mugsley

Are you trying to stream something like YT or do something like screen sharing?

It depends largely on the hotel and the age of the TVs installed. I typically bring a Roku along on trips so I don't have to remember to log out of streaming accounts.

If you're currently at a hotel, ask the front desk or poke around in options. It's highly likely the TV is "too old" or has the functions disabled.

Thirith

The hotel TVs where we were last week had Netflix, YouTube and in one case Disney+ installed, so with those we could just log in with our credentials - but there are other streaming services for which there weren't any installed apps, and with those it would've been great to cast to the TV, in whatever way that works. The function is often there in the menu, but it seems that it usually requires both devices (phone/tablet and TV) to be connected to the same network, and that's where it generally seems to break down.

Six

The hotel TVs will be on WiFi networks you won’t be able to access without going around their security controls. Bring an HDMI stick or just use their built in apps to log in on your own.