Hotels hear you loud and clear--you want to stream in their bed
But you better get a handle on your passwords
I’ve traveled 15 weeks so far in 2025 (with two more weeks slated in December) and have stayed in 30 hotel rooms, mostly Best Western (our Photowalks sponsor) but I’ve also spent the night in boutique hotels in Galveston, New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago, a Sheraton in San Diego, Hyatt in New York and KOAs in Glacier National Park and Cranbrook, British Columbia.
All had something in common: bigger than before TVs, and a way different viewing experience on the menu.
The days of turning on the set and getting a live channel menu sending me to hundreds of mostly cable channels is going the way of the dodo. Hoteliers tell me visitors no longer have any interest in broadcast or cable TV and their linear shows. They just want to binge on their favorite streaming network in the room, like they do at home.
So when you check into your room and turn on the TV, don’t be surprised to see a reimagined menu screen, bringing up icons for Netflix, Amazon Prime and other favorite streamers.
This all sounds great, but there’s a problem that makes their TVs pretty unusable. The visitor is expected to have a paid subscription already with the likes of Netflix, and to know their passwords to be able to start watching. First they’ll need to sign in with their credentials.
This is an issue that’s not going away: hotels want to serve their guests, and they know that just like everywhere else, with linear TV viewing dying a slow death, guests want to see the high profile, big budget shows, and those are on Neflix, Amazon Prime and elsewhere.
Do you know your streaming passwords?
(I thought so….)
So before here’s my travel tips for you:
—Analog Passwords: The easiest, cheapest and most effective way to handle this is s to write down your streamers sign-on and password on a piece of paper, or little book, and put it in your suitcase, or wallet/purse.
—Buy a Streaming Stick. This won’t work everywhere—some hotels are weird about you inserting things into their TVs. But an Amazon Fire TV Stick is only $20. Why not buy one, program it at home, and take it along with you? Once inserted, the Stick already knows your passwords, so there’s no pesky setup in the hotel room. (The Stick comes with a remote control and a puny USB cable that needs to be plugged into a power outlet. I recommend buying a longer USB cable and a power brick, which Amazon doesn’t supply. Cable link: Power brick link.
—Subscribe to a Password Manager. Full-service software programs like Dashlane ($59.99 yearly) and 1Password ($36 yearly) are great at remembering, storing and helping you create passwords and work on multiple devices. So if you have your passwords stored in Dashlane, for instance, and you’re in the hotel room, you can call it up on your phone, tablet or computer and input it into the hotel remote control. (Don’t forget to log out when you check out!)
Now the only problem is typing it in via the very slow TV remote. The password managers like to create hard to crack but impossible to remember passwords like 4%#8Dash)-Ha5l##. That’s a lot of hunting and pecking. Luckily, many streamers now offer the ability to log in by sending you to your phone to type it there, where hopefully you can use your password manager to input it automatically.
(Apple has a free manager, but I prefer the consistency of Dashlane. For more on Apple’s manager, check out Petapixel’s take:
Still, I’m going to talk out of both sides of my mouth here. I try to use passwords for streaming services that I can actually type instead of the 6&haGx9)$andon ones, because they’re a bear on both phone and TV remote keyboards.
Do you have a favorite family saying? My son once wrote on a postcard “Thos What I Did” when he was young, and I always thought it was funny. That’s good password (no, I’ve never used it, but you get the idea)—”Th0sWh0tIDid$” or something like that.
That said, please don’t be password stupid. Did you hear about the recent huge jewel heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris? How’d it happen? Some idiot used the easiest password in the world—and I kid you not—”Louvre,” to break into the system.
So please kids, no 123password, password, yourname, your address, etc. Unless you want your jewels stolen, of course.
In other news this week
—Do you use Google Maps to navigate your way through the world? The company said this week it will become chattier, and start responding to spoken requests. Google claims (I’m skeptical) that you could say such things as “Is there a budget-friendly restaurant with vegan options along my route, something within a couple miles? … What’s parking like there?” followed by, “OK, let’s go there.,” and actually get spoken and visual directions, via Google’s AI tool Gemini.
Google says the update will “roll out” to users of the app in the “coming weeks” which probably means by Christmas.
—And speaking of Google, I stumbled onto a great fix with my Gmail and autofill e-mail addressed this week. Most people I write to, I just have to type the first letters of their name, and their address populates. But several of my contacts, people I write to every day or so, never got the same treatment, and I’d have to look up their address. Over and over again. The solution: go to http://Contacts.Google.com and make a listing for them. Once you do that, you’ll never have to look up their addresses again.
—Fun ones: Will Shanklin writes in Engadget about the camera gear he enlisted to photograph Paul McCartney at a recent New Mexico concert. And Petapixel writes about photos Matt Draper got by holding his breath underwater!
—Finally, how to approach photographing something you’ve taken a thousand times? (I’m looking at you Jeff, with the Manhattan Beach Pier, or the rest of us descending upon the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben.) Marco Secchi has a great take on this on his Substack and Scott Kelby offers an online class on this very subject, direct from Paris at Kelbyone.com
This week on Photowalks on Scripps
We’re all over the nation’s number two most visited national park, Zion, which despite the government shutdown is still open, and free, albeit with limited services. The show can be seen Sundays at 10 a.m. ET. on Scripps News, available wherever you get your streaming.
Meanwhile, if you missed it, the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge episode is still available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube, and if you’re into bingeing, we’re got all our San Francisco episodes lined up, from the Greatest Hits to the Cable Car tour, visits to Alcatraz and Angel Island, North Beach, Chinatown and the Mission and more. Playlist here:
Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen!
Jeff
option #2: read a book 🤣🤣🤣
I agree with Amie!