While booking a room for the weekend at a favored destination can be a welcome retreat, there are a few amenities you may be remiss to find your room and board doesn’t come with. The absence of a microwave or kitchenette can be a nuisance, as well as various toiletries, but then there’s the lack of available streaming media, too. Many hotels only offer basic cable for guests, leaving many of us without access to our treasured Netflix or Hulu subscription. Fortunately, if you’ve got your hands on a Google Chromecast or a Chromecast with Google TV, you can overcome this grievance pretty easily.
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What you’ll need
Depending on where you’re staying and what the accommodations are, you’ll probably need to take a few supplies with you, including the following:
- A Google Chromecast or Google Chromecast with TV, and the included USB cable and USB power adapter
- A smartphone or tablet running Android or iOS
- Your hotel’s Wi-Fi access point name and password
- Optionally: A portable Wi-Fi travel router
Step 1: Find the HDMI port on the hotel TV
This first step is critical. The TV in your hotel room has to have an open HDMI port that you can access (many of them don’t), otherwise it’s game over. Check the sides of the TV, or if you can access it, around the back. The inputs should be clearly labeled as HDMI 1, HDMI 2, etc. While you’re looking, take note to see if there’s already an HDMI cable plugged into the TV. If there is, you might need to unplug it in one of the next steps. Once a free port has been found, plug your Chromecast in.
Step 2: Find some power
Your Chromecast needs a power source, of course. The USB cable that came with it is designed to siphon power from an available USB port on a TV, but since not all TVs have one of these, you should definitely bring along the USB wall adapter as well. If there is no USB port on the TV, take a look around for an open USB port on the desk or a nearby power outlet. Since the TV needs power, an outlet shouldn’t be far, but accessibility may be an issue, so hopefully, there’s an alternative nearby in such a case.
Step 3: Switch inputs
It’s now time to turn on the TV and see if you can switch the source to the HDMI input you used for the Chromecast. The TV remote might have an input button or source button, but often the hotel will swap out the manufacturer’s remote with one of its own, which makes input switching impossible. If that’s the case, check the TV itself — most models will have an input selector button next to the power and volume buttons, usually on the TV’s back panel along the edge.
If you’re successful, you should see the default Chromecast setup screen. If you have trouble switching inputs (maybe because the TV simply won’t allow it), it’s time to try plan B. If you found a cable already plugged into an HDMI port in step 1, unplug it, and swap in your Chromecast. Of course, this means you’ll lose your hotel TV channels, but you can always swap it back once you’ve finished binging The Queen’s Gambit.
Keep in mind that many hotel chains will purchase HDTVs that are connected to the hotel’s own media servers. In many cases, this means that the HDMI ports on the TV may be locked. So even if there are one or two ports available to connect your Chromecast into, the inputs themselves may not work. If you run into this issue, there’s a quick workaround you can try.
Look at the back of the TV. If you see a cable that looks like an Ethernet wire connected to the TV, go ahead and disconnect it. This is the data stream wire (or RJ11 cable) that the hotel uses to deliver cable streams to each TV. Once this wire is disconnected, you should be able to use the TV’s HDMI inputs.
Step 4: Get connected
If you’ve gotten this far, this is (hopefully) the last step. Assuming for a moment that your hotel’s Wi-Fi is a standard setup, you’ll simply need to look for the corresponding network on your phone or tablet and use the provided credentials to connect. If you haven’t done so already, download the free Google Home app from Google Play or the App Store. Then, launch the app and follow the on-screen instructions for setting up your Chromecast on the same Wi-Fi network. Congrats, you’re ready to start casting!
Step 5: Wi-Fi woes
Alas, a lot of the time it won’t be that easy. Many hotels use a web-based interface for accessing Wi-Fi, and for the moment, Chromecast devices simply aren’t compatible with such a system. Still, workarounds do exist, and if you’re feeling your inner tech support guru, they’re worth a shot.
Create your own Wi-Fi hotspot
- If you have a Windows 10 laptop, you can share its Wi-Fi connection with both your smartphone and Chromecast.
- You can do the same thing on a MacOS laptop, but only if you can connect the laptop to an Ethernet connection in the hotel room, and these are becoming increasingly rare.
- If you’re using an iOS device that has a mobile 4G data connection, you can create a Wi-Fi hotspot, but this will use up your precious mobile data — it’s also pretty taxing on your phone’s battery. Moreover, you’ll need a third device with the Google Home app to use as your setup and casting machine.
- Some Android smartphones can be configured to share their Wi-Fi connection without needing mobile data. We’ve never tried it, but it’s worth a shot. Another option is to try an app like Netshare, which accomplishes the same thing on any device running Android 6 or later.
Use a travel router, preferably one with a WISP mode
A travel router offers the most reliable way to create a Wi-Fi access point you can then share with devices in your hotel room. There are plenty of these to be found on Amazon and elsewhere, and they usually cost less than $75. Some require access to an Ethernet jack, however, which as we mentioned above, can be hard to find. A model that can run in WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) mode (or bridge mode), will let you sign in to your hotel’s Wi-Fi, and then make that connection shareable as a regular Wi-Fi network, with a name and password of your choosing.
One more thing …
If none of these options work for you, or you simply don’t want to be bothered messing around with HDMI ports and Wi-Fi hot spots, you may not need to bring your Chromecast at all. More and more hotels are beginning to install Chromecast-compatible systems like RoomCast. If your hotel has this, all you need is your phone, tablet, or laptop, and you’re all set.
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