Short Stay

Short Stay: a welcome screen for guests

Works with: Any Apple TVAbout 15 minutes to set up

For a holiday let or a guest room. The TV greets guests by name, shows the Wi-Fi, door code, parking and check-out time, and your house guide.

What this is

Short Stay turns the television into a welcome screen for whoever is staying. It shows their name and dates (read from your booking calendar), the local weather and what is on nearby, and gives them the answers you are asked twice a week: the Wi-Fi (with a code they can scan), the door code, parking, bin day, check-out time, and a house guide of your own notes. A PIN keeps them out of your settings.

Short Stay is a separate one-time purchase, sold apart from Theatrium Pro.

The guest dashboard.
The guest dashboard.

What guests see

Welcome. Their name, the dates of their stay, how many nights are left, and the weather.
Welcome. Their name, the dates of their stay, how many nights are left, and the weather.
House Info. Wi-Fi with a scannable code, door code, parking, bin day and check-out time.
House Info. Wi-Fi with a scannable code, door code, parking, bin day and check-out time.
How Things Work. Your house guide: the shower, the heating, where the spare blankets are.
How Things Work. Your house guide: the shower, the heating, where the spare blankets are.
Local Guide. Places you recommend nearby.
Local Guide. Places you recommend nearby.

Setting it up

Most of the filling-in is quicker on a phone. The free Theatrium app for iPhone and iPad fills the same fields; see The Theatrium app for iPhone. Everything can also be done on the TV.

  1. Open Settings › Short Stay. If you have not bought it yet, this screen explains it and has the Unlock button.
    Settings › Short Stay.
    Settings › Short Stay.
  2. Booking Calendar: paste your property's booking export. On Airbnb: Calendar, pick the listing, Availability, then under Connect calendars choose Connect to another website and copy the link. Vrbo, Booking.com and a plain calendar of your own work the same way. This drives the dates on the guest screen.
  3. Optional: a second calendar of local events for guests, markets, festivals, whatever is on while they are here. Usually a calendar you already keep and share.
  4. Property: who the place belongs to and its address. The address sets the map, weather, travel times and sunrise on the guest screen.
  5. House Info: the Wi-Fi network name and password (the guest screen turns them into a code to scan), door code, parking, bin day, check-out time and house rules. Leave anything blank and its tile is hidden.
  6. Guest Access PIN: set a PIN of four to six digits. It keeps guests out of Settings, other dashboards and the card editor while they are on the guest screen.
  7. Guest Screen Background: your own photo of the property, or one of five quiet color washes.
  8. Optional: Simplify My Settings hides the settings a host does not need (your own music, light sync, visualizations, home alerts). Show All Settings at the foot of the list brings them back.

Before each guest arrives

  1. Open Settings › Short Stay › Guest Dashboard and choose Preview to check the screen. Preview looks and comes straight back.
  2. Choose Start Guest Mode. The TV stays on the guest screen, even through a restart, until the PIN is entered.
  3. To come back to your own dashboard, press Back on the guest screen and enter the PIN.