Until now BetterSTR began with a question: which property management system do you use? If the answer was "none", or "what's a PMS?", that was the end of the road. We changed that for hotels and direct-booking hosts, and then watched people use it for things that aren't accommodation at all. A barber's waiting area. A gym reception. A church foyer. The TV in a boardroom that only ever showed a blue "No Signal" box.
So we're saying it out loud. If you have a TV on a wall and something worth putting on it, BetterSTR TV is for you. The app is free, every screen starts on a free trial with everything unlocked, and there is a free plan to stay on after that.
What you get on the screen
- A branded home screen. Your name and your photo, big and on-brand, the moment the TV wakes up. Not a wall of app icons.
- A photo-frame screensaver that markets for you. Upload your own images and the idle screen cycles through them: this week's specials, new arrivals, a menu, your prices, a sponsor's logo, the event schedule. Change them from your phone and every screen updates over the air.
- Wi-Fi that visitors can join with one scan. A QR code on the screen, no password read out across the counter. Add our Wi-Fi marketing sign-in and every visitor who joins becomes a contact you can reach again.
- Casting from a laptop or phone. Google Cast and Apple AirPlay are built in, so a meeting room screen is a presentation screen without a cable or a dongle.
- Messages across the screen. A ticker or a banner: "Sale ends Sunday", "Yoga is in Studio 2 today", "Keynote starts in 10 minutes". Set it from the dashboard, it appears on the TV within a minute.
- An info hub. The same guidebook holiday homes use for house rules works just as well for opening hours, a menu, directions, an event programme or a FAQ. On the TV, and on visitors' phones from a QR code.
- Live TV and your own content. Load an m3u8 link or a playlist of your own videos, and the screen plays it in the built-in player.
- A remote in everyone's pocket. The new phone remote means nobody in the meeting room has to hunt for the physical one.
All of it is managed from one dashboard, for one TV or fifty. Power a screen on and off, change what's showing, check it's alive, without walking over to it.
Where people are putting it
Shops and showrooms
Promotions and new stock on the screensaver, a loyalty sign-up QR, free Wi-Fi that captures a contact. Change the offer on Friday afternoon from the car park.
Meeting rooms
Add the booking and the screen greets the group by name with the Wi-Fi code and the day's agenda. Cast the slides from any laptop. Between meetings it shows your brand, not a blank panel.
Events and pop-ups
Sponsors' logos rotating on the stand, the session schedule as the info hub, a ticker for the next talk. Set the dates as a booking and it switches on for the day.
Cafes, waiting rooms and receptions
The menu and the specials on the idle screen, the Wi-Fi code where everyone can see it, a message when the wait is longer than usual.
Clubs, gyms and community halls
Class timetables, fixtures, membership offers, a welcome by name for a hire booking, a photo reel of last weekend's match.
Hotels and motels without a PMS we connect to
One place per room, each with its own screen and guide. Record the stay by hand and the guest is greeted by name, exactly as with a synced booking.
Bookings for anything, or no bookings at all
A shop screen never needs a booking. It shows your home screen and your screensaver, always. But a lot of screens do have a "who is here today", and that is what reservations are for. A meeting room hire, an event day, a hotel stay, a holiday let: go to Reservations, click Add Reservation, pick the place, type a name and choose the dates. The screen greets them by name for the duration and goes back to your branding when they leave. Made a typo or the dates moved? Edit it, status and all.
Setting it up takes ten minutes
- Add the place. Open Properties, click Add Property and choose Add a property manually. A name is all it needs. Start typing the address and we fill in the rest, including the map pin. Add a main photo and that becomes the home screen.
- Get the app on the TV. Any Android TV or Google TV works, whether it's a smart TV you already own or a plug-in stick from about US$25. Install BetterSTR TV free from the Play Store, or buy a device from us and it arrives ready to plug in.
- Link the two. Open Android TV in your dashboard, pick the TV, choose the place you just added, save. The screen updates within a minute or two.
Then upload your screensaver images, write your first message, and walk away. Everything is per screen, so a chain can give every shop its own offers, and every meeting room its own name. The step-by-step is in the help article.
What it costs
The app is a free download, and there is no contract and no card needed to start. Every screen you add begins on a free trial of 2 weeks with every feature unlocked, so you can try the whole thing: your own screensaver images, the message ticker, the info hub, Live TV. When the trial ends you choose. Nothing is charged automatically and we email you a week before.
- Stay on the Free plan. The branded home screen, the greeting by name, the Wi-Fi QR code and casting all stay free for as long as you like. The screensaver, tiles and music run on our defaults rather than your own.
- Or go Premium for US$3 per screen a month with a Premium Guidebook, or US$4 without, or pay US$72 up front for three years (US$2 a month). That unlocks your own screensaver images, on-screen messages, the info hub on the TV, Live TV and your own playlists, HDMI input control and the rest. It is per screen, so a shop can run one Premium screen in the window and a Free one in the back office.
The same plans that run thousands of holiday-home TVs run your shop or your boardroom, and the same dashboard manages all of them. If you already run holiday rentals on BetterSTR, your other screens simply sit alongside them in the same account. The full Free vs Premium comparison is in the help article.