Airbnb TV App for Android and Fire TV: Setup Guide for Hosts

Q: Is there an Airbnb TV app for Android?

Airbnb's Android app is for booking and managing stays and does not display anything on a television. There is no Airbnb TV app. What hosts install on an Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV Stick is digital signage software, which turns the TV into a welcome screen showing the guest's name, the wifi password, checkout time and local recommendations.

Q: How do I set up a welcome screen on a Fire TV Stick?

Plug the stick into the TV and into a wall outlet rather than the TV's USB port, connect it to wifi, install the signage player from the Amazon Appstore, and open it. The app shows a pairing code. Enter that code in your dashboard, build your welcome screen, and the TV displays it. The whole process takes about fifteen minutes.

Q: Should I power the streaming stick from the TV's USB port?

No. A stick powered from the TV's USB port shuts down whenever the TV is off, so it misses your updates and shows as offline between guests. Use a wall outlet so the stick stays connected overnight and is already current when the next guest turns the TV on.

Fire TV and Android TV are the right platforms for a guest welcome screen, because both allow signage apps to be installed and to launch on their own. This is the practical setup guide.

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What You Need

Item	Notes	Cost
The TV already in the rental	Any HDMI TV	$0
Fire TV Stick, Android TV or Google TV box	Fire TV Stick is the value pick	~$30
A USB power adapter and wall outlet	Important, see below	~$8 if not included
Signage software account	Ad-free from ~$10/screen/month	—

Total for one room, if you already have the TV: about $30 to $40 in hardware.

Step 1: Power It From the Wall, Not the TV

Do this first because it is the mistake that causes the most trouble later.

Most streaming sticks can draw power from the TV's USB port. It is tidy and it is wrong for a rental. On TV power the stick shuts down whenever the TV is off, which means:

It misses updates you make between guests
It shows as offline in your dashboard, so you cannot tell a sleeping stick from a broken one
The guest waits while it boots and reconnects when they turn the TV on

On a wall outlet it stays connected all night and is already showing the right guest's name before anyone walks in.

Step 2: Install the Player App

On Fire TV: From the home screen, search for the signage player by name and install it from the Amazon Appstore, the same as any other app.

On Android TV or Google TV: Install from Google Play.

Open the app once it is installed. It will show a pairing code on the screen, something like ABC-DEF-12.

Step 3: Pair It to Your Account

On your phone or laptop, sign in to your signage dashboard, choose to connect a screen, and enter the code from the TV.

Give the screen a name you will recognize later. If you manage several properties, name it for the room and the property, not "Screen 1". You will thank yourself at ten units.

That is the pairing done. The TV is now yours to control remotely.

Step 4: Build the Welcome Screen

Keep it to what a guest needs in the first five minutes:

Welcome, [guest name] — the highest-impact line on the screen
Wifi network and password in large, readable type
Checkout time
Three or four local recommendations you would actually send a friend to
How to reach you, once

Resist adding more. The screen exists to answer the questions the guest is about to text you about, not to be a brochure.

Step 5: Check the Exit Before a Guest Does

This is the step most hosts skip and the one that shows up in reviews.

Pick up the remote and leave the app the way a tired guest would at midnight:

On Fire TV: both the Home button and the Back button should get you out to the normal TV interface.
On Android TV and Google TV: use Home. Note that on the Android build the Back button is deliberately blocked, so Home is the reliable exit. Test it and, if you mention the screen in your check-in message, tell guests to press Home.

If anything you install prevents a guest reaching Netflix in a couple of seconds, remove it. "We couldn't work out the TV" is a genuinely costly sentence in a listing review.

Step 6: Update Between Guests

The whole point of doing this rather than printing a card is that the next change costs you ten seconds from your phone.

Between stays, change the guest name. When the router password changes, update it once. When a recommendation closes, replace it while you remember.

Multiple Properties

The setup above is per screen, but the management is not. Once several rooms are paired you can update from one dashboard, which is where this starts saving real time.

Two things worth doing at scale:

Turn off offline alerts on TVs that guests switch off. A rental TV that goes dark overnight is normal, not a fault. Alerting on it trains you to ignore the notifications that actually matter, so silence the screens that are supposed to go dark and keep alerts on the ones that should stay lit.

Standardize the hardware. Buying the same stick for every unit means one set of instructions for your cleaner and one troubleshooting path for you.

What This Costs Per Room

	One-off	Monthly
Fire TV Stick	~$30	—
Ad-free screen	—	$10, or $100/year

If you are open to approved local advertising on the screen, a partner screen is free and pays you 70% of cleared bookings. Most hosts choose ad-free for a guest living room; both options exist per screen.