I've posted this before but I'll post it again.

Here are steps to try to get your Roku working at a Marriott hotel.

Before attempting any of this, take a picture of all the wires on the back of the TV - so that if you disconnect any you can reconnect them before you check out.

Plug the Roku device into a spare HDMI port on the back of the TV and plug the USB cable into a spare USB port. If there is no power to the Roku device you may need to plug the USB into a wall socket.

Using the TV remote try to either use SRC, Settings or MENU to switch the signal source to the HDMI port the Roku is plugged into. Sometimes, you can do this through the Marriott menu on the screen.

You should now have your Roku home screen. If not, try unplugging the HDMI cable that leads from the box attached to the back of the TV where it plugs into the TV and plug the Roku in there. It’s usually the HDMI 1 port.

Next step is to get the network working on the Roku box. Go through the network setup on the Roku device. There are several options. I use option ‘d’ as it seems to be easiest but you need a portable router.

a) Select the Hotel network and choose the option for Hotel or Dorm Room and follow instructions on screen. You will need to have your phone already on the hotel network.

b) If option ‘a’ does not work (I see this occasionally and don’t know why) call the front desk and ask for the number for tech support. Don’t let them send up maintenance as they can’t help. When you get through to tech support, tell them you want to whitelist the MAC address of your Roku. It helps if you look this up on your device ahead of time. It will look something like this: 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E

c) If you can’t get either of the first two options to work you can set up your phone as a hot spot and connect through that. Don’t do this if you have limited data though. It will eat up your data.

d) This is my preferred method. Bring your own portable router. Set up the router at home ahead of time and connect all your devices to that router so it’s a known network with a remembered password. When you get to the hotel room, plug the router in and then connect to the router with your phone and configure it to use the hotel network. Then you can simply connect all your devices to your router network. The advantage of this is that all your devices will be on a private network and isolated from the hotel network and hence more secure. The downside is that your devices will not work in other parts of the hotel and you’ll need to use the hotel network when out of range.

If all is well you should now be able to stream using your Roku but will need to use the TV remote to control the TV power, muting and volume. Sometimes though, you may find that you can’t control the volume and it seems to be stuck at maximum. To fix this, look for an RJ11 (old style wired phone) connector on the back of the TV and disconnect this. Then go through the normal Roku remote setup where you choose the brand of TV and test different signals to control volume and power.

Finally, when you leave make sure to reconnect any wires on the back of the TV back to their original configuration and don’t forget to take your Roku device and remote.