Digital Signage for Short-Term Rentals: Turn Your Lobby Into a Local Guide
How STR property managers use digital signage to delight guests, reduce front-desk questions, and earn passive revenue from local businesses.
Short-term rental guests arrive in an unfamiliar city with a lot of questions.
Where should we eat tonight? Is there a good coffee shop nearby? What time does check-out work? Is parking included? Can we get a late checkout?
If your property has any kind of communal space — a lobby, a lounge, a courtyard, a rooftop — your guests are cycling through it multiple times a day with these questions on their minds. Right now, most STR properties answer them with a printed binder in the unit, a text message thread, or a harried property manager fielding the same questions over and over.
A screen in your lobby changes all of that. And if your property hosts dozens of travelers per week, it also becomes a surprisingly valuable piece of real estate for local businesses that want to reach them.
Who This Is For
This post is specifically useful for:
- Multi-unit STR buildings — Investors or managers running 4-20+ short-term rental units in a single building with a shared lobby or common area
- Boutique vacation rental complexes — Curated collections of units around a shared pool, courtyard, or lounge
- Serviced apartment properties — Properties that blend hotel-style amenities with apartment-style stays
- Co-living spaces with STR inventory — Buildings that host a mix of long- and short-term residents with shared communal areas
If your property has a space where guests pass through or linger — even briefly — you have a screen opportunity.
Why Short-Term Rental Guests Are a Valuable Screen Audience
STR guests are a uniquely high-value audience for local businesses, for a few reasons that traditional venue audiences don't share.
They're new to the area. A regular gym member already knows every restaurant in the neighborhood. Your guests don't. They're actively searching for recommendations and have no brand loyalty yet. A well-placed ad from a local restaurant or tour operator reaches them at exactly the right moment: before they've decided where to spend their money.
They have travel budgets. People staying in short-term rentals have already self-selected as travelers who are comfortable spending. They're eating out for most meals, booking activities, renting bikes, buying gifts. The total spend per guest stay — across restaurants, entertainment, transportation, and shopping — often runs $200-600 or more over the course of a visit.
They're in a receptive mindset. Arriving at a new place puts people in discovery mode. They're curious, they're open to suggestions, and they're not in their usual routine. An ad that would scroll past a local commuter registers differently for someone who just landed in town for a long weekend.
Dwell time is real. Guests pass through your lobby on arrival, at check-out, and every time they come and go from their unit. If you have a lounge or pool area, dwell time climbs significantly. You're not working with five-second glances — you're working with minutes.
5 Ways STR Properties Use Digital Signage
1. Local Recommendations and Guest Guides
Replace the printed binder with a dynamic screen.
Instead of a photocopied sheet of restaurant recommendations that's three years out of date, your lobby screen can display:
- Curated neighborhood restaurant picks by cuisine and vibe
- Top-rated coffee shops, brunch spots, and happy hour destinations
- Grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience options within walking distance
- Transit tips: nearest Metro stop, parking info, bike share stations
- Outdoor and recreation highlights: trails, parks, waterfront access
This isn't just helpful — it's a genuine hospitality upgrade. Guests who feel like the property "got them" with local knowledge leave better reviews and come back. A lobby screen that functions as a knowledgeable local friend does that automatically, 24 hours a day.
2. Property Information and Self-Service FAQs
Your front-desk staff (or your phone, if you manage remotely) handles a predictable set of questions. Most of them can be answered on a screen.
Display:
- Check-in and check-out times, plus early/late options and how to request them
- Parking instructions and any permit details
- Building WiFi network and password (a separate slide with large text)
- Trash and recycling locations and schedule
- Package delivery and mail pickup instructions
- Quiet hours, pool or gym hours, and building rules
- Emergency contacts and maintenance request process
Guests who can find this information at a glance without texting the host are happier guests. And you save yourself dozens of repetitive messages per month.
3. Upcoming Local Events and Activities
One of the best things you can do for a traveler is tell them what's happening while they're in town.
Use your screen to surface:
- Weekend farmers markets, festivals, and street fairs
- Concerts and live music happening nearby
- Restaurant weeks, pop-ups, or seasonal events
- Sports games, outdoor movies, community events
This content can come from your own curation or from local event advertisers who pay to promote their events to your guests. Either way, your property becomes more than a place to sleep — it becomes a concierge that actually delivers.
4. Property Upgrades and Upsells
If your property offers any paid add-ons, your lobby screen is your best upsell channel.
- Early check-in or late check-out packages
- Grocery stocking or in-unit snack packages
- Local experience partnerships: bike rentals, kayak tours, cooking classes
- Partner transportation: airport shuttle, car service, scooter rental
Most guests don't upsell themselves. They don't know what's available, and they don't think to ask. A single slide promoting your airport shuttle or your weekend bike rental partnership puts the idea in front of them at the right time — when they're just arriving and figuring out how they'll spend their stay.
5. Local Advertiser Revenue
This is the piece most STR operators haven't thought about, and it's genuinely significant.
If your property hosts 30-80 guests per week — common for a 6-12 unit building — your lobby screen is reaching a highly targeted, high-value audience every single day. Local businesses that want to reach travelers would pay for that access.
Think about which businesses benefit most from reaching your guests:
- Restaurants and bars — Travelers eat out constantly. A nearby restaurant that appears on your screen becomes the default suggestion when guests ask "where should we go tonight?"
- Tour and activity operators — Bike tours, kayak rentals, escape rooms, wine tastings, cooking classes — these businesses spend heavily to reach visitors; your screen is a direct channel.
- Car rental and transportation services — Guests who didn't bring a car often need one. A car rental ad on arrival day is highly relevant.
- Retail and gift shops — Travelers buy souvenirs and gifts. Local boutiques and specialty shops are a natural fit.
- Spas and wellness services — Vacation mode makes people receptive to massage, facial, or relaxation services they'd skip at home.
- Sports and recreation rentals — Paddleboards, golf rounds, climbing gyms, tennis courts.
With PiAds, these businesses find your property in the local marketplace and book screen time directly. You approve every ad before it runs — so nothing goes up that doesn't fit your property's feel — and you keep 75% of every dollar spent, the highest venue revenue share in the industry.
A property hosting 40-60 guests per week can realistically earn $100-300/month in passive ad revenue from a single lobby screen. That's income your property generates while you sleep.
Where to Place Screens
| Location | Best Content | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Main lobby / entrance | Check-in info, local recommendations, ads | Every guest passes through at least twice per stay |
| Elevator lobby or hallway | Quick tips, events, upsell offers | Short glances, high frequency |
| Pool or courtyard lounge | Neighborhood guide, events, ads | Extended leisure time; guests are relaxed and receptive |
| Fitness room or rooftop | Local activities, wellness ads | Guests already in a health-conscious mindset |
| Co-working or business lounge | Local restaurants, transit, quiet hours | A functional, low-distraction placement |
Most properties can make a strong impact with just one or two screens. Start with the main lobby — it's where arrival energy is highest and where every single guest spends time.
What You Need to Get Started
Setup is simpler than most property managers expect.
Per screen:
- Any existing TV, or a new 43-55" display ($150-400)
- A media player: Fire TV Stick ($30-50) or Raspberry Pi ($60-80)
- Your existing building WiFi
- A free PiAds account to manage content from one dashboard
Content to prepare:
- A neighborhood recommendations slide or two
- A property FAQ slide (check-in/out, WiFi, parking, rules)
- 2-3 upsell or partnership promotion slides
- A welcome slide with your property's name and branding
First-time setup typically takes an afternoon, and updating content takes minutes once it's running.
Revenue Potential for STR Properties
| Property Size | Weekly Guests | Screens | Est. Monthly Ad Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small building (4-8 units) | ~25-40/week | 1 | $60-150 |
| Mid-size building (8-15 units) | ~50-80/week | 1-2 | $120-300 |
| Large complex (15+ units) | 100+/week | 2-3 | $250-600 |
These numbers grow as your property builds a reputation in the PiAds marketplace and more local advertisers book your screens.
The Hospitality Angle
The short-term rental market has gotten more competitive every year. Guests have more options, their expectations are higher, and the difference between a 4.7-star and a 5-star property often comes down to small details that made the stay feel effortless.
A lobby screen that functions as a knowledgeable local concierge — answering questions before they're asked, surfacing relevant recommendations, keeping guests informed — is exactly that kind of small detail. It doesn't cost much to implement. It doesn't require staff time to maintain. And it signals to your guests that this property thought carefully about their experience.
That signal is worth more than the passive ad revenue. The revenue is just the bonus.
Ready to put your property's common areas to work? List your venue on PiAds — it's free to get started, and local businesses looking to reach travelers in your area can start booking your screens right away. You keep 75% of every ad dollar, and you approve every advertiser before anything goes live.