One of the most exciting parts of staying in a hotel is trying to figure out the weird pay-per view interface on the TV. A few button presses one way, then another way, then a third way, and you’re either about to rent some porn or get 30 minutes of Mario Kart 64. Then you realize that nobody pays-per view anymore, so you open up Netflix on your phone and then fall asleep curled up with Frank Underwood. Now, one hotel chain is ready to cut out the middleman and leap into the modern age by offering Netflix directly on its TVs.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has just signed a deal with Marriott Hotels that will—eventually—add Netflix capabilities to as many of its hotels as possible. The service is already available in six Marriott locations, with six more coming this summer, and Marriott hopes to have it in 300 by the end of 2016. Interestingly, the THR article doesn’t specify whether or not the hotel guests will have to use their own Netflix accounts or if Marriott will have some kind of master account with a completely disorganized queue and inconsistent star ratings. Giving everyone access to Netflix for free would be a cool advertisement for the service, but simply letting people access their own Netflix accounts on a hotel’s TV—which is what it looks like this will be—is a little boring.
Oh well, who wants to play 30 minutes of Mario Kart 64? There’s only controller, so we’ll have to trade off.