Mercure London Earls Court
The Smarter Fix: Mercure Earl's Court's In-Room Entertainment Upgrade
When the TVs Were Fine But the Experience Wasn't....
How do you deliver a modern, watch what you want, when you want, personalised TV experience—without ripping out and replacing (282) TVs that still work perfectly well?
The Brand
Accor is one of the world's leading hospitality groups, operating more than 5,600 properties across 110 countries. From economy to ultra-luxury, Accor's portfolio spans a broad spectrum of brands — each with its own distinct character and guest proposition.
With 1,000+ hotels and over 140,000 rooms, Mercure sits within the Accor family as its characterful mid-upscale brand. Where some hotel groups opt for uniformity, Mercure takes a different view: each property is designed to reflect the culture, personality and heritage of its location. The brand's philosophy is rooted in a sense of place — favouring authenticity and an exploration of each destination's character and history.
The Hotel
The Mercure London Earls Court occupies a distinctive position in the capital's accommodation landscape. Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea — one of London's most visited and recognisable postcodes — the hotel sits within easy reach of some of the city's most celebrated cultural institutions, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum..
With 282 guestrooms, the property operates at a scale that demands efficient, consistent technology management, while its brand positioning calls for a guest experience that feels considered rather than corporate. It is, in short, a hotel where the technology needs to work hard and stay out of the way at the same time.
The Technology
The Challenge
A few years before Airwave's involvement, the Mercure Earl's Court had invested in new hospitality TVs. Solid screens, modern, plenty of life left in them. The problem wasn't the hardware — it was what guests expected from it.
Today's hotel guest arrives already subscribed. Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV — their watchlist doesn't pause because they're away from home. They want to pick up where they left off, on their own account, on their own terms. In 2026 Chromecast functionality has become less nice-to-have, more must have.
The TVs the hotel had installed just a few years earlier couldn't deliver it. And replacing 282 perfectly serviceable televisions wasn't the answer.
The Solution
Airwave’s approach was not to start again, but to build intelligently on the existing hardware.
Rather than replacing the TV estate, Airwave deployed a Chromecast-enabled casting solution across all guestrooms—unlocking secure, device-to-screen streaming on the existing TVs. The result: guests can cast their own content as they would at home, but within a managed hospitality environment.
However, streaming alone doesn’t make a complete in-room experience. To address this, Airwave also implemented a centralised CMS-driven user interface, giving guests a clean, intuitive on-screen environment that brings everything together.
The interface provides:
Quick access to live TV channels
Hotel information pages (including restaurant & bar menus and local area guidance & recommendations)
Integrated access to Airtime, enabling a curated premium content VOD experience
A messaging service
The result is a cohesive, branded TV system, offering choice and a home-away-from-home viewing experience.
Behind the scenes, Airwave also delivered full TV reception and distribution infrastructure, ensuring signal reliability across the property. This included: high-gain terrestrial and satellite reception systems (antenna, dish, and LNB setup), a headend configuration with amplification and signal processing equipment, and structured distribution across the building.
Finally, the platform was integrated with the hotel’s PMS (Property Management System), enabling features such as guest-specific personalisation and streamlined operational control.
The Outcome
Airwave didn’t just add Chromecast. They extended the life of an existing investment, avoided unnecessary capital expenditure, and delivered a significantly improved guest experience in the process.
From the guest’s perspective, the change is big–an on-demand television system offering watch what you want, when you want content viewing.
From the hotel’s perspective, it’s a big win–a modernised in-room offering, delivered without the cost, disruption, or waste of replacing 282 television screens.
It would be very easy to focus on the cost-saving here, but we shouldn't forget about the sustainability element. We've prevented the early demise of over 280 TV screens. This is a fantastic achievement and something to be proud about.
Wayne Bowring, Key Accounts Director, Airwave
Get in touch
To find out how Airwave can improve the in-room guest experience at your property, get in touch at
connect@airwave.tv or +44 (0)1403 783 783
