Hotel Wi-Fi is the first thing to solve

Most hotel networks put you through a captive portal — the page that asks for your room number and surname before it lets you online. Phones and laptops handle this automatically. Streaming devices frequently do not, because many have no general-purpose web browser to display the portal page in.

There are three practical workarounds, in order of reliability:

1. Use a travel router. The router authenticates to the hotel network once, then broadcasts its own private network that your device joins directly. This is the only approach that works consistently, and it also means your device keeps the same network name in every hotel, so it reconnects without reconfiguration.
2. Use your phone as a hotspot. Simple and works anywhere with signal, but be careful with data — an hour of 4K can consume several gigabytes.
3. Install a browser on the device. The V1 Plus runs standard Android 14 with the full Google Play Store, so this is usually the fastest fix — install a browser once, and every future hotel portal is just a page you tap through, the same as on your phone.

Here's why getting online matters beyond checking email: it's the difference between whatever the hotel decided to put on its free tier, and your own 3,500+ channels loading the moment you're connected.

The HDMI port may not be reachable

Hotel televisions are frequently wall-mounted flush, with the HDMI ports facing a wall two centimetres away. Sometimes the ports are covered by a plate, or the TV is locked to a hotel information system that ignores external inputs entirely.

An HDMI extension cable solves the physical clearance problem and is worth packing regardless — the V1 Plus ships with one in the box, so it's not a separate thing to remember to buy.

A locked TV is not solvable from your side. Some hotels disable external inputs deliberately, usually to keep you on their paid system. Nothing you bring will change that, so it is worth having a backup plan — a tablet, or accepting that this particular room is not going to work.

Power is not guaranteed

If your device draws power from the TV's USB port, that port may be disabled on hotel sets. Pack the wall adapter rather than relying on the television — the V1 Plus comes with its own, so this is one less thing to troubleshoot at 11pm.

This is also worth knowing at home: TV USB ports often supply less current than a streaming device needs under load, which shows up as the device restarting during playback rather than at idle. A wall adapter fixes it in both places.

Geography changes what you can watch

Streaming rights are regional. Content that plays at home may be unavailable or replaced by a different catalogue abroad, and live sport in particular is often blacked out or licensed to a different broadcaster in each country.

This is a licensing arrangement between services and rights holders, not a device fault, and no hardware changes it — ours included. If a specific event matters, check the service's own terms for the country you are travelling to before you rely on it.

Take the remote seriously

A Bluetooth remote that goes missing mid-trip leaves you with a device you cannot operate, since hotel TVs will not control it. Pack it somewhere you will not lose it, bring spare batteries, and know the re-pairing key combination for your device before you leave rather than searching for it on hotel Wi-Fi you cannot get onto.