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Tabellara vs STR TV: guest TV for vacation rentals compared
The short version: pick STR TV if you want a produced, done-for-you guest channel with cinematic local video, Spanish, Spectrum live TV in the launcher, and a team that builds your house manual for you, and the $24.99 a property plus a $75 stick per screen fits your numbers. Pick Tabellara if you would rather run on the Google TV box or set you already own, pay $6 a property for up to three TVs, have every app signed out and wiped at checkout by the device itself, and script what the screen shows on each day of the stay from a dashboard you can preview.
| Tabellara | STR TV | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $6 per property per month for up to three TVs, or $54 a year (three months free); a fourth TV is $2 a month. Needs a published Tabellara guidebook at the property, its own $6 license | $24.99 per property per month, or $19.99 a month billed annually ($239.80 a year); unlimited TVs per property; volume discounts from 12% at six properties to 40% at 101 |
| Hardware | None sold. Runs on any onn or Google streaming box, or a television that runs Google TV (Hisense, TCL and others). An onn 4K box from Walmart is about $20 if you need one | Their own $75 Google TV stick, one per screen, required with every plan; ships pre-configured with remote and HDMI extender |
| One property, two TVs, first year | $108 on annual billing (guidebook $54 plus TV $54), with boxes you already own | $389.80 on annual billing ($239.80 plus two $75 sticks); $539.80 with the optional $150 onboarding |
| Trying it | First property free for 30 days, no card; cancel from the app | 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee; white-glove onboarding is a $150 add-on, a custom splash video another $150 |
| Welcome and arrival | Welcome by name with dates, weather, WiFi and guidebook QR codes, and the host's own arrival notes, from the guide's theme and photos; the TV wakes before check-in | A produced regional splash video with ambient music, greeting by name, live weather, WiFi QR, and a guided check-in that captures the guest's email; the TV wakes two hours before check-in |
| During the stay | Steps scheduled by day and time of the stay: notices, full-screen messages, cards and a checkout checklist, each targeted to a TV, with a simulator that previews every day of a stay before a guest sees it | Cinematic local channels for food, activities and real estate, a video and photo house manual, streaming apps plus Spectrum live TV in one launcher; triggers documented at check-in and checkout |
| Ratings and reviews | Five stars from the remote at the time you choose; 4 and 5 go to your Google review link, 1 to 3 become a private note the guest can speak into the remote, emailed to you at once | On checkout day the TV asks for a rating; five stars are sent to public review, anything less reaches your team privately, with instant rating alerts |
| Checkout reset | The app is the device's owner: every app signed out, viewing history cleared, any account the guest added removed, apps restored, then the between-stays screen | Login data cleared from selected streaming apps at checkout; the launcher is locked with Android's accessibility service |
| Upsells and commissions | Your Guest Store on the TV and in the guide, paid through your own Stripe account at a 2% fee; Viator tours as TV slides at 4% to you | Late checkout, extend-stay and rebooking offers on the checkout screen; bookable local experiences at an 8% share; vendor and realtor channels you can sell screen time on |
| Languages | English today | English and Spanish, switchable by the guest on the TV |
| The guide on the guest's phone | The same guidebook the TV shows, in six layouts with page-level analytics, reached from the TV's QR code, a link, a printed QR or PDF, with a Guest Store inside it | A video, photo and text house manual on the TV; no separate guidebook product |
| Reservation-aware links | Every booking gets its own stay link that knows the guest's dates and codes, sent automatically through Hospitable or dropped into your OwnerRez templates with one field | Reservations drive the TV's greeting and wake times; no per-stay guide links documented |
| Guest WiFi sign-in | A branded sign-in page on your UniFi guest network that captures every guest's name and email and lands them in the guide, $6 per network, part of the $15 bundle with the guide and three TVs | WiFi details and a QR code shown on the TV; no sign-in page or email capture from the network |
| Reservation sources | Hospitable (Airbnb and more), OwnerRez, or stays entered by hand | OwnerRez and Hospitable confirmed by those platforms; Hostaway, Guesty, Lodgify and Airbnb or Vrbo iCal claimed on their site |
| Ads on the screen | None. Only what you put there | No third-party advertising per the team; their model includes paid local-vendor and real-estate channels |
| Setup | Install the Tabellara App on a laptop on the same WiFi once per box, about ten minutes; everything after that is remote from the dashboard | Plug in the stick, join WiFi, pair the remote, turn on AutoWake, under ten minutes; new regions get produced content in about a week |
STR TV pricing, hardware and features from strtv.com's pricing, how-it-works and FAQ pages and from OwnerRez's and Hospitable's integration articles, as read on October 9, 2026; check strtv.com for current details. STR TV is a trademark of its owner; Tabellara is not affiliated with STR TV.
What it costs, with the hardware in
STR TV's list price is $24.99 a property a month, or $19.99 on annual billing, for unlimited TVs at that property, plus a required $75 stick for every screen. Tabellara TV is $6 a property a month, or $54 a year, for up to three TVs, with a fourth at $2, on boxes you already own; it also needs the property's $6 guidebook license, so count $12 a month for one property. For a two-TV house on annual billing the first year is about $390 on STR TV before onboarding, and $108 on Tabellara. The gap widens with every screen, because one side charges per stick and the other does not, and it closes a little if you already run a guidebook elsewhere and only want the TV, which Tabellara cannot sell on its own.
Arrival: a produced show or your own house
STR TV wakes the television two hours before check-in into a cinematic video of your area with music, greets the guest by name, and walks them through a guided check-in that captures their email. It is polished, and their team produces the regional content, which is why a new market takes about a week to go live. Tabellara wakes the TV before check-in too, but what appears is your property: the welcome by name and dates, the weather, the WiFi and guidebook codes, your arrival notes, in the guide's theme and with the guide's photos. It is quieter, and it is entirely yours to change from the dashboard in seconds, with a simulator that shows every day of a stay before a guest sees it.
The stay: channels, or a journey
This is the real fork. STR TV fills the stay with content: local channels for restaurants, activities and real estate with QR codes to book, a video house manual, streaming and Spectrum in one launcher, and vendor or realtor channels an operator can sell screen time on. Tabellara fills the stay with moments: steps scheduled from check-in or checkout, by day and time of day, as a strip across the screen, a full-screen message, a card, or the checkout checklist, each targeted to a particular TV. The rating ask runs when you choose, with four and five stars routed to your Google review link and one to three turned into a private note the guest can speak into the remote, emailed to you at once. No STR-tier product we know of documents scheduling by day of stay; it is the thing Tabellara does that the others do not.
Checkout: how clean is clean
Both products clear streaming logins at checkout, which is the feature hosts have asked for since the first guest left Netflix signed in. The mechanism differs. Tabellara's app is the device's owner, the only way Android allows one app to wipe another's data, so at checkout every app is signed out, what was watched is cleared, any Google account the guest added is removed, archived apps come back, and the box returns to the between-stays screen, on its own alarm with a server backstop. STR TV says it clears login data from selected streaming apps at checkout and locks its launcher with Android's accessibility service. If a guest leaving an account behind is your nightmare, ask any vendor to show you the reset on a real box.
Where STR TV wins
Production and service. A cinematic welcome for your region, a house manual built from whatever you hand them, Spanish on the guest side, Spectrum live TV inside the launcher, late-checkout and rebooking offers on the checkout screen, an 8% share on bookable experiences, and a team that onboards you for $150 if you want it. If you want a channel made for you rather than a tool you run, STR TV is that channel, and it comes with a phone number.
Where Tabellara wins
The bill, the box, and the control, and then the rest of the stay. $6 for the whole house on hardware you already own, no stick to buy per screen, a device-owner reset that leaves nothing behind, a journey scripted by day with a simulator, and spoken private feedback. Beyond the TV, STR TV stops at the screen; Tabellara does not. The same guide is on the guest's phone in six layouts with analytics, every booking gets its own stay link that knows the dates and codes and goes out automatically through Hospitable, and the Guest WiFi sign-in page captures every guest's email on the network itself. Guidebook, WiFi and three TVs at one property is the $15 bundle. No ads, no vendor channels, nothing on the screen you did not put there. For a host with a few properties and a Google TV in each living room, the math is hard to argue with.
The bottom line
If you want produced local video, Spanish, Spectrum and a team that builds it for you, and $24.99 a property plus $75 a screen is fine, choose STR TV. If you want your own guide on the TVs you already own, every app wiped at checkout, a stay you can script and preview, personal guide links for every booking, a WiFi sign-in page that captures emails, and $6 a property for three screens, choose Tabellara. Trying it costs nothing: the first property is free for 30 days, no card, and a box is set up in about ten minutes.
Common questions
Does Tabellara TV need special hardware?
No. It installs on any onn or Google streaming box and on televisions that run Google TV, including Hisense and TCL sets. If a TV has nothing, an onn 4K box from Walmart turns it into a Google TV for about $20. We sell no hardware and mark nothing up. Fire TV, Roku, Samsung and LG sets are not supported, because they do not run Google's system.
Why does Tabellara TV require a guidebook?
Because the TV is the guidebook on a bigger screen. The welcome, the codes, the house manual and the store all come from the guide, so a guide has to exist and be published. That guide is its own $6 license, which makes the real entry price $12 a month for one property, or $15 for the bundle with Guest WiFi.
How do the two handle a guest's Netflix login?
Both clear streaming logins at checkout. Tabellara does it as the device's owner, the only way Android allows an app to wipe another app's data: every app is signed out, what was watched is cleared, and any account the guest added is removed, on the box's own schedule with a server backstop. STR TV says it clears login data from selected streaming apps at checkout from its locked launcher.
Can I schedule what the TV shows on a given day?
On Tabellara, yes: steps are timed from check-in or checkout, placed as a strip, a full-screen message, a card or the checkout checklist, and previewed in the stay simulator for a one-night or a fourteen-night stay. STR TV documents triggers at check-in and at checkout, with content edited globally or per unit.
Does Tabellara produce videos for my area?
No. Tabellara shows your own photos, your guide's local picks on a map, and Viator tours as slides; it does not produce cinematic regional video. If a produced channel for your market is the point, that is STR TV's strength.
Build a guide guests actually open
Tabellara turns this advice into a working guidebook: app-style guides, area maps, and page-level analytics.
Create your guide