Specialist · Carolina Beach, NC · Member since 2016 · 390 posts · 496 votes
We have a vacation rental property in Las Vegas, NV. Studio unit at the front of our home. It currently has a 35 inch HDTV with Directv. I'm contemplating taking the Directv received out of the unit and replacing it with a Roku/AppleTV/Google Chrome, etc. to offer streaming services, or maybe a DVD player with access to those streaming services.
I'm curious if anyone else has done anything like this. My chief concern is over complicating the TV for guests.
Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2016 · 533 posts · 433 votes
9y
I cut the cord about a year ago and it has made no difference to my guests. I get a few "how to" questions, but nothing too challenging. Similar to @Michael Perez, I do pay for premium TV channels and have a ROKU installed on all TV's with a shared Netflix account and a digital antenna installed for local stations. I did have to crank up my internet speed a bit, but it's still saving me about $100 a month per property.
Investor · Clovis, CA · Member since 2012 · 15 posts · 11 votes
9y
I run fire sticks throughout my house with Kodi (Free) installed and I also have PS Vue for streaming tv ($35 a month). One PS Vue account can be used on all my fire sticks in the house at the same time and if the renters know how to use Kodi than they know that they can watch any movie they want.
To make it less complicated you could make a youtube video on how to operate it and send the link or have it uploaded to a tablet in the home.
Buy & Hold Owner · Redlands, CA · Member since 2015 · 5k+ posts · 2k+ votes
9y
Remember that the V.H. is a service & convenience to the renter. Every amenity is a marketing issue to someone. TV, WiFi, Internet are as important as the Microwave.
Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2016 · 533 posts · 433 votes
9y
I cut the cord about a year ago and it has made no difference to my guests. I get a few "how to" questions, but nothing too challenging. Similar to @Michael Perez, I do pay for premium TV channels and have a ROKU installed on all TV's with a shared Netflix account and a digital antenna installed for local stations. I did have to crank up my internet speed a bit, but it's still saving me about $100 a month per property.
Rental Property Investor · Niceville, FL · Member since 2017 · 88 posts · 136 votes
9y
I cut cord In my home a year or so ago. It took a while for the wife to catch on. 7 year old had no problems. We love it now that we are used to it. I then then beefed up the WIFI network and transitioned it to my 30 unit apartment complex, with Firestick (KODI installed also) plus an amplified antenna for live local TV. I lease the apartments fully furnished including flat screen 32"-50" TV's with all utilities paid by me. I charge a premium and stay at or near 100% full. Firestick TV's work great for "tech" people. I had to revert back to cable for a few tenants that are older in age or non techie. Definitely a small pain. Worth it for me as I save about $1.5K per month in cable TV bills after I pay a hearty Internet bill and a few cable boxes. I worked up a general 1 page instruction on using it works pretty well depending again on how techie a person is. I also have a couple people that live there full time and work for me that help welcome tenants, get them situated and answer questions on Firestick. I am also there 3-4 days a week for a few hours generally. To answer your question, I would probably say no not to do it. Not worth the headache and people that may not want to deal with it and learn it for a short term stay. Some may love it, but you will get some that will hate it. Not worth saving $30-$50 or $75 per month IMO. One less phone call or aggravated tenant to deal with for you. Maybe in 5 years it will be different, but not quite main stream enough yet. Just my humble opinion. Hope that helps.
Investor · Chandler, AZ · Member since 2017 · 33 posts · 10 votes
9y
Use ROKU's or the likes. Get a Netflix account ($11 for 1 device, couple more bucks for each device, so your house is the $11 and the rental is like $4 or $5+ internet, which you'll have to have anyway). If people can't find what they want on one of the big streaming companies or a "local" channel on your ROKU or the likes they won't be happy for more than 5 min anyway so don't try to please everyone.
I was AirBnB in Norway with Netflix. Only problem was searching for things I wanted to watch and not the watchlist of the owner. Set up a seperate user for the rental, it won't cloud them with stuff you watch. Even a $35 ROKU is enough for a 35 inch tv with plenty of other stuff. Also you can jack in a USB drive and have a couple movies on there, eliminating the DVD player need.
BTW I called to cancel my DirectTV (member for almost 10 years) they gave me the "basic" with HD channels for about $29 a month including my Genie which is normally $10 it's self. Del is good for a year or two so I kept it.
Investor · Chandler, AZ · Member since 2017 · 33 posts · 10 votes
9y
on Netflix you can treat the rental account like a kids account, or delete it and make a new account. You can restrict all buying of things and rentals easy enough.
Also HBO, Showtime etc all have light subscriptions as well. I'm not sure how the Apple TV works as I've not had one in a while but The Firestick is also easy enough and can be very easily restricted.
Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2015 · 273 posts · 217 votes
9y
I've had the cord cut since 2012 actually, still using the same Rokus I bought then. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO sometimes. I also increased internet speed and got a local antennae. I have a simple step by step guide for using the TV and haven't had any complaints, Maybe once or twice in 5 years someone has complained because they wanted to watch a game on ESPN or something and I tell them somewhere in Vegas has it on! I have made it blatantly obvious on our listings now that we don't have cable.
I actually use my own account there and haven't had problems with people buying things I just say if they do I will take charge them for it.