I don’t tend to watch much TV; I’ll have it on in the background, but more to have it as background noise rather than focusing on the shows. Despite that, we always plug our Amazon Fire TV Stick in to the TVs at hotels we stay at. In addition to expanding our channel options, it also means we don’t have to log back in to Netflix on hotel Smart TVs, as well as having access to other apps like Spotify, Peacock, etc.
At most hotels you can just put the Fire TV Stick (or Roku or whatever other device you use) into an HDMI slot and go from there. However, that rarely works at Marriott’s brands as their TVs seem to have a different setup. In case you’ve encountered this issue in the past, here’s how to use TV streaming devices at Marriott properties.
The Problem
As I mentioned earlier, with most TVs you can plug your streaming device into any available HDMI slot. We’re currently staying at a TownePlace Suites and here’s what the back and side of the TV look like. There’s a cable in the HDMI 1 slot, but HDMI 2 at the back and HDMI 3 on the side are both available.
I plugged our Fire TV Stick into HDMI 2…
…but when pressing the Input button on the TV remote, the only option that could be selected was the standard Live TV option – none of the HDMI slots could be chosen.
In the past I’d tried unplugging the cable that was in HDMI 1 which is where the Live TV is pulled from. That partially worked, in that the Fire TV Stick showed up on the TV. However, it came with a huge problem that couldn’t be resolved – the volume on the TV was automatically turned up to the maximum with no way to turn the volume down.
The Solution
I mentioned above that the Live TV is broadcast via the cable that’s in the HDMI 1 slot. This comes via a modem module attached to the back of the TV.
What I realized recently is that on the top of that module there are a couple of HDMI slots, as well as a couple of USB ports.
I plugged our Fire TV Stick into the HDMI 1 slot on that module – not the one on the TV itself – and powered it using one of the USB slots.
Now when using the Input function on the TV remote there was an option to select ‘HDMI 1’.
Sure enough, choosing HDMI 1 switched over to the Fire TV Stick home screen.
So if this has been something frustrating you when staying at Marriott properties, hopefully this helps fix the issue.
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Thank you for this! First time I’ve been stumped on getting Fire Stick to work. The black box was hidden underneath the TV Stand but just like you explained once I noticed it.
Great, I’m glad this was useful 🙂
I’m staying at a Townplace Suites today and the way you described to connect is a bit different at this hotel. I had to plug my Roku into HDMI 2 on top of the modem and then from the Marriott home menu, choose the Stream option. Scroll down the menu and select “HDMI Direct Connect”. This eliminates messing with the volume and you can use the TV’s remote to control the volume. This makes me happy as now I can watch my Braves tonight! I hope this helps some folks as this has been a frustrating ordeal.
Your a genius!! Thank you. Been trying to figure this out for years
going tomorrow, just copied the url and emailed to myself so make sure I don’t get stuck.. thanks. I actually have roku. should work the same I think. thank you
Thanks Stephen this just came in handy staying at a marriott property tonight.
Awesome, glad it’s been useful. Have a nice stay 🙂
Hope this solution works at Hyatt properties also, thanks!
this is awesome… never noticed that the boxes have hdmis.. I usually unplug the boxes cables from the TV and then use the TV buttons to get to the hdmi.. will try your method next time… thank you
This is an accurate description of how the system works at Marriott brands that use the box system. However, there are hotels – mostly the Marriott branded ones – that use TVs without the box and with a simple remote that doesn’t include an input option even though all of the HDMI ports are open on the TV. One button on the remote will actually get you to the setup menu but, as if to taunt you, none of the remaining buttons let you cycle through the options to get to and select the input. I’ve thought about traveling with a universal remote programmed to control LG TVs (so far as I’ve seen, the only brand Marriotts have) to work around the issue.
older marriotts have lgs but some newer ones have samsung…. traveling with those two remotes would solve the issue… they can be purchased cheep online.
glad I read the comments, just in case, I am gonna bring my samung in case. I had been thinking while reading the article that most in room tv remotes only have the basics on them . I wish me luck.. haha thanks
Marriott Hotels almost all have piss poor channel selection on their in-house systems. You can go to Chicago and not be able to watch WGN-9 at several of their hotels (which is absurd). Not to mention that cable channels are limited to the most basic channels – and about 56 sports channels. So, I’d think that an article such as this provides an important service to anyone who will stay at a Marriott property and who cares to actually use that TV.
I have never run into a TV in a hotel where the input buttons on the TV itself would not change the input.
The problem has always been captive web portals. This is solved by bringing a travel router. Set up all of your devices on the travel router before leaving home, get to hotel, connect travel router to captive portal at hotel, boom. Everything else is connected by setting up one connection, including devices that cannot work with a captive portal like streaming sticks.
More and more the TV will say something to the effect of, plug in for an experience of some sort. And the thing is, you have to plug in to the HDMI 2 slot on the set top box, not the TV. Cool. But many of their TVs and TV menus don’t have this option yet.
So. If you plug-in to the TV directly in HDMI 1 you often have a very bad problem. The set top box volume and the TV’s volume are not the same thing! So your fire stick volume is 99! Yikes!
But… When you first turn on the TV and it hasn’t made the switch to the set top box yet, you can adjust the volume down for 1 to 2 seconds. After 3 or 4 cycles you get it down to 10 to 17 or so and then you can use the fire stick in the TV’s HDMI slot without mad crazy volume.
Just be sure to set it back to 99 before you leave so the next guest can use the STB to handle their volume correctly.
You might need to use your fire remote to set the TV’s volume and it will only let you do this for a second or two when restarting the TV.
Good idea just to bring a Fire Stick. I’ve had to do screencast or log in to the smart TV which takes up time.
I couldn’t get at the box at one location so I unplugged the small RJ11 cable from the TV and that returned control to the TV volume. Also, always have a 3′ HDMI extension as some of those TV’s are mounted very close to the wall. My Firestick is side-loaded with the Chrome browser (helpful for login to the Marriott portal) and Nordvpn.
Thank you so much for this! I had the same issue when plugging into the TV’s HDMI and didn’t even think to try the modem module. I’ll be trying that next week with my Mariott stay 🙂
if the hotel requires a web based login in order to access the internet and you have a windows laptop (running Win 10 or later) you can login to the hotels wifi through your laptops web browser, and then have the laptop broadcast a hotspot (SSID name and PW you can choose and setup before you leave home) which you can use to login with your chromecast/firestick.
What I have done is just bring my Samsung tablet with an adapter to plug it into hdmi. Then I can login to web browser if hotel requires plus a lot more flexible then firestick or a chrome cast setup
This is really terrible advice and you should consider editing this post. Your advice, if followed, exposes your readers to privacy invasion and low quality video. Those modem modules log what what is being watched and report the data to the property owners and to Marriott. The modem boxes also downsample video so the passed through video will be degraded and at a low quality.
Your advice should be this:
This will all you to use your device naively on the TV without intrusive spying. The TV remote will work on the LG TVs but not on Samsung however the Samsung TVs can be controlled by buttons on the bottom of the housing below the Samsung logo.