Hotel digital signage software in 2026: lobby, meeting rooms, menus and in-room
Quick answer: DigitalSignage.com is the lowest-priced hotel digital signage platform with a permanent free tier in our 2026 pricing index: the first 3 screens are free forever with no branding, then $3 per screen per month, so a 12-screen hotel pays $432 a year, against published entry rates of $8 to $20 per screen on the other hosted platforms we track. A hotel needs a lobby welcome board, a meeting room and event directory fed by a calendar or a spreadsheet, restaurant and bar menus that change by daypart, wayfinding, and a note on guest-room TVs: SignPlayer runs on Android TV, not on hotel TV middleware.
Last updated October 22, 2026. Competitor prices from our digital signage pricing index (vendor list prices, re-verified October 4, 2026); product facts from the SignStudio components and scheduling pages; hospitality use cases from our hospitality and hotel kiosk pages.
The comparison
Published entry rate per screen per month, hosted plans, US list prices, from our pricing index. DigitalSignage.com publishes this page and is one of the platforms listed; the figures are the same ones the index uses for every vendor.
| Platform | Entry rate per screen per month | Permanent free tier | 12 screens for a year at the entry rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalSignage.com | $3.00 | 3 screens, no ads, no watermark, no credit card | $432 (every screen billed once an account has 4 or more) |
| PiSignage | $1.67 | 2 screens, Raspberry Pi players only | $240 |
| ChannelOS | $5.00 | 1 screen, ChannelOS banner on screen | $720 |
| Yodeck | $8.00 | 1 screen, Basic features, only while the account has exactly 1 screen | $1,152 |
| OptiSigns | $10.00 | 3 screens, OptiSigns branding on screen | $1,440 |
| Rise Vision | $11.00 | None published | $1,584 |
| NoviSign | $14.00 | None (30-day trial) | $2,016 |
| ScreenCloud | $20.00 | None (trial only) | $2,880 |
The last column is the entry rate multiplied by 144 screen-months, before any free screens a vendor grants and before volume discounts, so it is a like-for-like ceiling rather than a quote; the pricing index gives the 50-screen year with free screens deducted. The cheapest row runs only on Raspberry Pi players, which rules out the Android sticks and Windows PCs most hotels have on hand. Enterprise hospitality suites sold on a quote are not in the index, so they are not in the table.
What a hotel actually needs
| Area | What the screen does | SignStudio source |
|---|---|---|
| Lobby | Welcome board for groups and VIPs by company name, today's events, weather, local tips, brand video | Google Sheets component for the welcome list (reception types the day's groups into a shared sheet), images and video for brand content, Weather component |
| Meeting rooms and conference centre | Directory of today's events by room; a sign at each door with the current and next booking | Calendar component (Google Calendar, Outlook or Office 365, iCal) or a Google Sheet kept by the events team; a published web page from the event system through the Web Page component |
| Restaurant and bar | Breakfast, lunch, dinner and happy-hour menus that switch by time of day; sold-out items | Scenes per daypart scheduled in SignStudio; prices and specials from a Google Sheet |
| Wayfinding | Floor directory, route to the ballroom, elevator lobby screen | Portrait scene per floor; our wayfinding page covers maps and touch directories |
| Pool, spa, gym | Hours, class times, treatment menu, rules | A sheet per department, so each manager updates their own |
| Back of house | Staff notices, shift schedule, occupancy and arrivals for the day, recognition | Notice board layout; keep guest names off any screen guests can see |
| Self-service kiosk | Check-in, event registration, concierge | Touch components on the Plus+ plan; full kiosk mode is an Enterprise feature; PMS and key encoding come from the kiosk vendor |
The thread through all of these is that the people who know the content (the events coordinator, the F&B manager, the spa) update a sheet or a calendar they already use, and the screens follow. Nobody in the hotel needs to open the layout editor on a Saturday.
Meeting room schedules without an integration project
Hotels ask first about meeting room signs, because event boards are what guests and organisers judge. Three routes, by effort:
- A Google Sheet. The events team keeps one row per booking (room, start, end, event name, organiser); share it with the SignStudio service account, and the directory and each door sign read their room from it. Live on day one.
- A calendar. If rooms are already resources in Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, the Calendar component shows today's events and the next booking per room; show room, time and a public event name, not the organiser's private title.
- The event system's own page. If the sales and catering system publishes a schedule page that loads without a login, the Web Page component shows it with a refresh interval you set. Deeper integration (room status from the PMS, occupancy sensors) goes through the API; our calendar integration page covers the middleware pattern.
Dayparting handles the rest: the conference directory from 6 am, the restaurant's dinner menu from 5 pm, a "good night" scene and screens off after midnight.
Guest-room TVs: an honest note
In-room TV is where hotel signage pitches overpromise. Hotel TVs run their own middleware or a hospitality operating system from the TV maker, and the DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer does not run on Fire OS, Tizen, webOS or hotel TV middleware. What does work: a TV with an Android TV stick or box behind it, which runs SignPlayer and can show a welcome scene, hotel information and the day's events; a web player in the TV's browser where one exists; or a dedicated hospitality TV system with its own content tools, left to do that job while SignStudio runs the public areas. If an in-room channel is a requirement, ask support (support@digitalsignage.com, live chat at https://chat.digitalsignage.com/ or +1-877-344-7446) about the current options before buying TVs.
What a 12-screen hotel costs
A mid-size hotel: two lobby screens, a conference directory, four meeting-room door signs, two restaurant menu boards, one bar screen, one elevator lobby screen, one back-of-house board.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Software, DigitalSignage.com, 12 screens | $432 a year ($3 per screen per month, every screen billed once the account has 4 or more) |
| Players: 12 Android TV sticks at $40 to $100 | $480 to $1,200 one time |
| Displays you do not already own: consumer 55-inch at $300 to $450, or commercial at $995 to $1,450 for the lobby and the bar | $0 to $6,000 depending on what is reused |
| Door signs: small commercial or consumer displays in portrait, 10 to 22 inches | Varies by model |
| Electricity, 12 screens at about $75 a year each at 12 hours a day | about $900 a year |
| Touch kiosk, if any | Touch display plus player; Plus+ for touch components, Enterprise for full kiosk mode |
The same 12 screens at the other platforms' entry rates are in the table above. For a hotel group, the per-screen rate is the figure to compare, because a chain pays it on every screen in every property; the pricing index gives the 50-screen year for each vendor.
Choosing: a short checklist
- Count the screens honestly, including door signs; the free tier covers 3, and the bill starts at the fourth.
- Check the player hardware you already have against the platform's supported devices; Android sticks and Windows PCs run SignPlayer, hotel TV middleware does not.
- Make the meeting room feed a sheet or a calendar first; integrate later.
- Confirm the F&B team can change prices themselves from a sheet.
- Decide whether a kiosk is in scope, since touch and kiosk features are paid tiers on every platform.
- Test the lobby screen for brightness against the windows: 700 to 1,500 nits by our brightness guide.
- Run the pilot on the free tier before signing anything.
Frequently asked questions
Hotel digital signage software in 2026: lobby, meeting rooms, menus and in-room
On published 2026 prices, DigitalSignage.com is the lowest hosted rate with a permanent, unbranded free tier: 3 screens free forever, then $3 per screen per month, so 12 screens cost $432 a year against $1,152 to $2,880 at the other platforms' entry rates. A hotel needs a lobby welcome board, a meeting room directory fed by a sheet or a calendar, dayparted restaurant menus, wayfinding and optionally a kiosk; guest-room TVs need an Android TV stick, because SignPlayer does not run on hotel TV middleware.
Which digital signage platform is best for a hotel?
For a single property, DigitalSignage.com: 3 screens free forever, $3 per screen after, Google Sheets and Calendar components for welcome boards and meeting rooms, and dayparting for menus. For groups the per-screen rate matters most; the other hosted platforms in our pricing index publish entry rates of $5 to $20 per screen per month, and the table on this page lists each one.
How do hotels show meeting room schedules on screens?
Three routes: a Google Sheet kept by the events team and shared with the SignStudio service account, which the directory and each door sign read; the Calendar component connected to Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 room resources; or the event system's published schedule page shown through the Web Page component. Show room, time and a public event name, never the organiser's private title.
Can hotel digital signage run on the guest-room TVs?
Not through the TV's own hospitality middleware; DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer does not run on Fire OS, Tizen, webOS or hotel TV systems. A TV with an Android TV stick behind it runs SignPlayer and can show a welcome and information channel; a browser-based web player works where the TV has a browser. Ask support about current in-room options before buying TVs.
What does digital signage cost for a 12-screen hotel?
Software on DigitalSignage.com is $432 a year (12 screens at $3 per screen per month, every screen billed once the account has 4 or more). Players are $480 to $1,200 one time for Android TV sticks, displays $0 to about $6,000 depending on what is reused, and electricity about $900 a year at 12 hours a day. The same screens at other platforms' entry rates run $1,152 to $2,880 a year in software.
Do hotel menu boards change automatically between breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Yes, with dayparting: build a scene per daypart and schedule each by time of day in SignStudio, with happy hour at a higher priority for its window. Prices and specials can come from a Google Sheet so the F&B manager changes them without opening the editor. Scheduling is included on the free plan.
Related guides
- Hospitality digital signage
- Hotel case study
- Hotel self-service kiosks
- Digital signage pricing index 2026
- Wayfinding systems
- Lobby digital signage
Try it on your own screens, free
DigitalSignage.com, which publishes this guide, runs a permanent free plan: the first 3 screens are free forever (no credit card, no ads, no time limit), then from $3 per screen per month with volume pricing via a public calculator. The free SignPlayer runs on Windows, Mac, Android and Android TV, Chrome OS, Raspberry Pi, iPad or any modern web browser. Start free · 2026 pricing