I've recently just come back from staying a night in a Travelodge and despite the fact it was one of the newly refurbished hotels and the TV was a decent size and modern, they still persisted with the old fashioned hotel TV service.
You know where you get a random selection of channels in dodgy quality, dodgy aspect ratios, with no information about what channel it actually is, no text service, no programme guide.
Does anyone know how these systems work and what technical or financial reasons there could be why they couldn't just have Freeview in every room?
The Premier Inn's I've been in have full Freeview, and some have nice big 40" wall mounted TVs, although the maximum volume has been fixed to a set point which is a bit of an annoyance if running air con / fans in the room.
I'm just back from a wedding and had the pleasure of staying at a Premier Inn. It did have the full range of Freeview, however it has never been updated as it still had the old channel line up (BBC News on Channel 80 and so on) and it didn't have STV Edinburgh either even though I was staying in Edinburgh.
The Travelodge system is particularly bad, and such an odd choice of channels.
Apart from them all the hotels I've stayed in during the last few years have had the full Freeview line up, even the smallest B&Bs in the sticks. Its just on a normal telly
The basic is not 4 channels any more, it does seen that the more a hotel tries the less it provides!
MA
Maaixuew
A few years ago I was in a hotel which, whilst could get all the Freeview channels, could only get two of the radio channels. The radio channels were notably written in this typeface:
The Premier Inn I stayed in recently had a custom splashscreen when it turned on with their logo on, but otherwise it was a normal Freevies experience.
Years ago I went to Center Parks, and I remember that as the channel changed the UI of the EPG changed also, from NTL to Sky if I remember correctly. How did that work?
When I stayed in an 'Express by Holiday Inn' in London just over 10 years ago, the TV was already on when you entered the room and had your name displayed in a welcome message on a teletext screen. Beat that.
Always worth Googling 'hotel mode' for a particular brand of TV if you want to scan for the latest channel line up or remove the volume limit. It's quick and easy and in most cases you can just switch off hotel mode for full functionality. It would be good manners to restore it to 'hotel mode' though before you check out
I'm just back from a wedding and had the pleasure of staying at a Premier Inn. It did have the full range of Freeview, however it has never been updated as it still had the old channel line up (BBC News on Channel 80 and so on) and it didn't have STV Edinburgh either even though I was staying in Edinburgh.
Indeed but members of the public don't always retune so you can't expect a hotel to do so. It was annoying when I stayed in one during the Olympics, they hadn't retuned so you could get many of the red button channels.
The 40 inch TVs in Premier Inn's are great though, some still have a tiny 14 inch ones though, sometimes even 4:3 with a full letterbox picture.
I recently stayed in a hotel near Warwick that had the full Freeview service, even including Big Centre TV on LCN 8 which I was surprised at. Stayed at a Travelodge in Hereford a few years ago (post DSO) we couldn't get Channel 4, but had 4 +1 clearly, and Russia Today as an extra channel.
When I stayed in an 'Express by Holiday Inn' in London just over 10 years ago, the TV was already on when you entered the room and had your name displayed in a welcome message on a teletext screen. Beat that.
Wasn't there a story about a similar system being hacked and displaying a threat instead of a welcome message?
