New Cupertino hotel offers an Apple TV in every guest room

apple tv

If you look around your next hotel room, there’s a fair chance it will have an alarm clock with a 30-pin dock connector for your iPhone. It’s a popular amenity for hotels to list, since there are some 500+ million iOS devices out in the wild.

But one hotel in Cupertino, California is taking their iOS compatibility to the next level. Starwood Hotels’ Aloft Hotel has announced today that it now has an Apple TV, connected to a 42-inch LCD television, in all 123 of its guest rooms…

From Starwood Hotels’ press release (via CNET):

“Showcasing many of the brand’s newest technologies, Aloft Cupertino is the first Aloft hotel to feature Apple TV in all its guestrooms. Guests can choose among thousands of movies and TV shows from iTunes, connect to Netflix for films, Hulu for television shows, MLB.com for sports, and much more. Apple TV’s Airplay feature will also let guests play video, show off photos, and enjoy music from any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch – right on their 42-inch LCD in-room TV.”

In order to work with different users, iTunes and Netflix accounts, the boxes are wiped when guests check out. The hotel can also figure out which iTunes store to have ready to go (in case a guest is from another country), ahead of arrivals.

It’s also worth noting that the new Aloft Hotel is located on the same block as one of Apple’s external campus buildings, and just two blocks away from the company’s world-renown One Infinite Loop headquarter campus in northern Cupertino.

But the big news here is Apple’s set top box. It’s not hard to imagine that, if the amenity proved to be popular, that other hotels would start following suit. And if even just 1% of all hotels started buying them, we’re talking millions of additional units.

Apple still refers to its Apple TV as a ‘hobby,’ despite the fact that it’s selling relatively well in the space—more than 2 million units last quarter. It’s latest hardware update was around this time last year, but there’s been no word on a 2013 model.

What do you think, would you be inclined to stay at a hotel that offered Apple TVs in their guest rooms?