This is the question every operator asks before a pilot, and the honest answer is: it depends on three variables that have nothing to do with the TV itself: occupancy, dwell time, and geography, plus one variable that has everything to do with execution: how the ad load is managed. Below is what actually drives the number, based on how in-room ad monetization has performed across comparable hospitality inventory (hotel and vacation-rental in-room media, not general connected-TV advertising, which behaves very differently).
The three inputs that set the ceiling
Occupancy rate. A Smart TV earns nothing on a vacant night, obviously, but the compounding effect surprises most operators. A property running 85% annual occupancy generates roughly 40% more addressable TV-on time per year than one running 60%, because occupied nights aren't just more numerous, they also skew toward higher-dwell-time bookings (leisure stays average longer in-room hours than one-night business stays).
Dwell time. This is screen-on minutes per guest-night, and it varies enormously by property type. A city-center serviced apartment catering to short business trips might see 20-40 minutes of screen-on time per night. A leisure-market vacation rental (beach, ski, family destination) routinely sees 90-150 minutes, because guests are actively using the TV as entertainment rather than background noise during a quick overnight. Dwell time is the single biggest lever on ad revenue, more than unit count or star rating.
Geography and ad market depth. CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) for connected-TV inventory vary by a factor of 3-5x between mature ad markets (UK, US, Western Europe, UAE) and thinner ones. A property in Dubai or London sits on inventory that programmatic buyers will bid meaningfully for; a property in a market with limited local advertiser demand will see lower fill rates and lower CPMs regardless of how well the screen performs.
Why the number isn't a flat rate per room
Any platform that quotes you a flat "$X per room per month" before seeing your occupancy data, your market, and your guest mix is guessing, and the guess is usually optimistic because it's trying to close a deal. The honest model looks at unit-level data: how many nights per month is the unit actually occupied, what's the average dwell time for that specific property type, and what does the ad exchange actually bid for that specific geography and daypart. Two identical TVs in two units 5km apart can produce meaningfully different revenue if one serves long-stay corporate guests who barely touch the remote and the other serves leisure families who watch two hours of content every evening.
This is also why revenue-share models (a percentage of realized ad revenue) tend to align incentives better for operators than fixed licensing fees: the platform only earns when the screen earns, which means neither side benefits from over-promising a number that occupancy and dwell time can't support.
What operators actually get right, and wrong, going into a pilot
Operators who get the most value out of in-room advertising treat ad load as a dial, not a switch. Running unlimited ad breaks maximizes short-term impressions and tanks guest satisfaction scores within a month, which shows up as review damage that costs far more than the incremental ad revenue was worth. The properties that see the best long-run numbers cap ad frequency, keep ads clearly separated from actual content and essential guest information (checkout time, Wi-Fi password, house rules), and monitor guest feedback specifically for TV-related complaints during the pilot period.
The mistake we see most often is treating the pilot period too short to be meaningful. A 2-week pilot captures whatever booking mix happened to check in during those 14 days; if it's a slow week or an unusual guest segment, the numbers won't represent a typical month. A useful pilot runs at least 4-6 weeks, ideally spanning both a weekday-heavy and weekend-heavy stretch, so the occupancy and dwell-time inputs reflect something closer to the property's real annual pattern.
The upsell side often outperforms pure advertising
For many properties, in-room upsells (late checkout requests, room service ordering, local tour bookings, partner discounts) generate more attributable revenue per room than programmatic advertising alone, particularly in leisure markets where guests are actively looking for things to do. The advantage of running both revenue lines through the same screen is that the operator captures upsell revenue they were previously losing to third-party apps or simply not offering at all, on top of whatever the ad inventory earns. A property that treats the TV purely as an ad-serving device is leaving half the opportunity on the table.
What a realistic pilot should tell you
Before committing beyond a pilot, an operator should expect to see, at minimum: actual occupied-night counts against actual screen-on minutes for their specific units, a fill rate (the percentage of ad slots that actually sold, since unsold inventory earns zero), and a per-room revenue figure broken down by night type (weekday vs weekend, short-stay vs longer-stay). If a platform can't show you fill rate and dwell time separately, you can't tell whether a disappointing number is a demand problem (not enough advertisers bidding) or a supply problem (screens aren't being watched), and you need to know which one it is before deciding whether to expand or walk away.
To see how the pilot process itself works end to end, read more on how we structure a pilot with operators, or if you're ready to see numbers from your own units, you can request a pilot directly.