You’ve been waiting for months to go on vacation, and paid vacation has finally arrived. You’ll likely travel with many TSA-approved gadgets, one of which may be a streaming stick. This means you’re probably planning to connect said streamer to the hotel room TVs you encounter during your trip, which begs the question: what’s the best streaming device to use in a hotel room? Honestly, if you asked three different people, you’d probably get three different answers.
If you ask your friends at BGR, our vote goes to almost any Roku streaming device you can fit in your luggage. Why, you may ask? Because all Roku streamers have a built-in feature called Hotel & Dorm Room Connect. Some stations require a browser-based connection (also called a captive portal) before you can start using Wi-Fi, and Roku makes this part of network setup relatively simple and painless. Personally, I use Roku devices when I travel, and you couldn’t get me to switch to another streaming gadget if you paid me.
With Hotel & Dorm Room Connect on Roku OS, you will first need to connect your device to the hotel room TV. If you can, you’ll also need to select the HDMI input your Roku device is connected to using the hotel’s TV remote (unfortunately, many hotels will prevent guests from connecting HDMI and USB devices). For the next step, you will need access to a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Roku makes it easy to connect to hotel Wi-Fi networks
As part of Roku’s Hotel & Dorm Room Connect feature, you’ll need to choose whether you’re in a hotel or dorm. When you select a hotel, you will be prompted to go to your phone’s Wi-Fi settings. You should see a crazy network name with “Roku” buried somewhere in the text: This is your Roku device’s temporary hotspot. Connect your phone to this network and follow the on-screen instructions to complete integrating your Roku device with the hotel’s Wi-Fi network.
As a side note, but an important one, you should remember that public, or even semi-private (like in a hotel), networks are rife with threats to your online privacy. For added security, it’s always a good idea to bring a travel router. Many models come with built-in VPN services to protect you from the many dangers and annoyances of public Wi-Fi. Some devices even let you bypass tethered portals by setting up your gadgets through the travel router.
This setup can make you feel a little more secure when using your Roku on the road or using any other streaming stick while you travel. We’re not here to dissuade you from using an Amazon Fire TV Stick or Google TV Streamer when traveling. Fire OS and Google TV (both based on Android) are intuitive platforms that can also be connected to hotel Wi-Fi, but for plug-and-play connectivity and ease of use, Roku is in a class of its own.
