In a hotel, B&B or holiday park, a lot of information ends up at reception that really belongs on a screen. Breakfast times, the weather, today's activities, the restaurant menu. With Narrow.TV you put that information on screens in the lobby, by the lifts or in the restaurant, and manage everything from one dashboard in your browser.

What digital signage does for hospitality

  • A calmer reception. The five questions every guest asks are already on screen. Your receptionist has more time for check-in and genuine service.
  • More revenue from your own facilities. A guest who sees the restaurant, bar, sauna or bike hire is more likely to use them than a guest who can only read about them in the welcome folder.
  • Up-to-date information without printing. An activity moved because of rain or a breakfast room opening later: you change it in the dashboard and it is on screen within about a minute.
  • International guests better served. Slides in several languages, clocks with other time zones and clear pictograms help guests who do not speak English.

Content ideas for hotels, B&Bs and holiday parks

In the lobby and at reception

  • A welcome slide with the name of your hotel and, for groups or conferences, the name of the party.
  • The ready-made weather template: town, date, current temperature and the six-day forecast. You only set the location.
  • A world clock with time zones, for example London, Paris, New York and Tokyo, for business guests.
  • Breakfast times, check-out time and Wi-Fi information in large, clear text.
  • Local tips: museums, walking routes, a bike hire shop, with a photo and a short description.

By the restaurant and bar

  • The dinner menu or bar menu as a price table, on a screen next to the restaurant entrance.
  • The dish of the day with a photo, to tempt guests who are torn between your restaurant and somewhere in town.
  • Packages such as dinner, bed and breakfast, for guests who want to come back.

At a holiday park

  • Today's and tomorrow's activity programme: kids' club, sports activities, bingo or live music.
  • Opening hours of the swimming pool, shop, snack bar and reception.
  • A ticker with short notices, such as "Pool open from 1pm today".
  • A video of the surrounding area or of the park itself, on the screen at reception.

Multilingual information without the hassle

A hotel with international guests cannot avoid using several languages. In Narrow.TV you do this with your own slides: you create the same slide in English, French and German and put them one after another in the playlist. An alternative is one slide with two languages one below the other, with a smaller font for the second language.

Limit the number of languages per screen to two or three. With six languages in a playlist of ten slides, it takes too long before a guest sees their own language. For staff, it is handy that the dashboard itself is available in Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish and Turkish.

Example: a city hotel with four screens

A hotel with sixty rooms, a restaurant and a small meeting room could work like this:

  1. 2 landscape screens side by side behind reception, used as one image with the Combined view add-on. Every hour a video of the hotel plays in sync across both screens; the rest of the time they show the welcome, weather, world clock and practical information.
  2. 1 digital menu board at the restaurant entrance, portrait, with the dinner menu and wines by the glass.
  3. 1 digital signage screen by the lifts with facilities, packages and tips for the city.

In subscriptions: 3 digital signage screens and 1 digital menu board, plus the paid Combined view add-on for the video wall. You buy the screens and Android players yourself. The current prices are in the pricing section. How the video wall works is explained in video wall with Combined view.

A B&B with five rooms needs no more than one screen by the breakfast table or in the hall, with the weather, breakfast times and tips for the day.

Management across several buildings or locations

At a holiday park or in a hotel group, screens are spread across several buildings. Every screen in Narrow.TV has a location field, so you can record that "Reception" hangs in the main building and "Pool" at the entrance to the indoor pool. You can find screens by name or location.

The dashboard has two roles: the owner manages the screens and the subscription, editors create slides and manage templates and media. That way the entertainment team member can update the activity programme without access to the subscription and payments. Narrow.TV adds extra users on request. If you have data in your own system, such as an activity calendar on your website that is available as a JSON or XML/RSS feed, Narrow.TV can connect it for you; see your own data on your screens.

Getting started

For a lobby, a screen that can stay on for long days is the sensible choice. It needs Android TV or Google TV, or you connect an Android TV box or stick. Install the Narrow.TV Player, pair the screen with the code from the dashboard and prepare your first slides. More about the software itself can be found at digital signage software. Start with the lobby using the free 30-day trial, or request a demo if you want to equip several locations.

Frequently asked questions

What should you show on a screen in a hotel lobby?

Popular choices are a welcome message, the weather forecast, breakfast and restaurant times, facilities such as the gym or sauna, excursions and local tips. With Narrow.TV you build that with text, photos, video, a clock, weather and a ticker.

Can I show information in several languages?

Yes, by putting slides in different languages in the same playlist, or by placing two languages one below the other on a single slide. You write the content of your slides yourself. The dashboard itself is available in Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish and Turkish.

Can I manage screens across a whole holiday park centrally?

Yes. All screens are in one dashboard in your browser. Each screen has a location field so you can keep track of which screen hangs where, and changes reach the screen within about a minute.

Can I use the screens in the hotel rooms?

The Narrow.TV Player runs on Android TV, Android tablets and Android TV boxes or sticks. Narrow.TV is made for screens showing continuous information, not as an interactive in-room TV system.