Quite often when I travel I find that the hotel room TV hasn't been retuned for a while. The channels aren't up-to-date, often with some well-known ones not even available. The electronic programme guide will also be mostly useless.

The problem though is that most of these TVs are locked into what's known as "Hospitality Mode" so you don't have access to the menus necessary to do a rescan/retune.

Samsung is a popular brand for hotels - for example those used in Premier Inn hotels in the UK - and there is a very simple way to fix this.

I can't guarantee this will work for the particular TV in your room, but it's worked on a lot of different ones for me.

Supplies

All you need is the remote control.

Step 1: Enter the Hospitality Mode Menu

First we need to enter the "secret" setup menu for the Hospitality Mode.

To do this, with the TV turned ON, press the following sequence of buttons on the remote control:

Mute, 1, 1, 9, Enter

The enter key is the one centrally placed between the arrow keys that looks like a square with an arrow going into it.

The TV will now mute and you'll get a long, complicated menu on the left of the screen.

Tip: I had a good rummage through this menu and found nothing much of any interest. It's honestly not worth the time. Also, if you do decide to have a look around, be careful or you might brick the TV and have a very boring night in your hotel room.

Step 2: Enter the Channel Setup Menu

Now, using the arrow buttons on the remote, press the down button until you highlight "Channel" in red. Press enter.

Make sure you now have "Channel Setup" highlighted (it should be already) and press enter again.

You will now be in the "normal" channel menu which has been unlocked.

Step 3: Retune the TV

Using the arrow keys and the enter button select "Broadcast", then "Auto Tuning" and then "Auto Tuning" again.

Now choose "Start". This will take you to the Auto Tuning menu.

Change "Channel Type" to "Digital" only. This is not absolutely necessary but will save a lot of time as, in the UK no analogue signals are broadcast anymore. Elsewhere in the world it might be wise to stick with "Analogue & Digital" unless you're sure.

Now move down to "Scan" and press enter.

The TV will now start scanning and retuning. It will take a few minutes.

Once it's finished make sure the regions are set correctly - you probably won't need to change them as they'll remember their last setting.

Navigate to the black "Close" button and hit enter.

Step 4: Exit Out of Setup and Return to Normal

Now it's just a question of getting back to normal operation.

Choose "Close" at the very bottom of the screen and hit enter.

Now you simply need to press the "Return" button on the remote control THREE times to get back to the main Hospitality Mode menu.

Now just turn the TV off using the power button on the remote. Wait a few seconds and turn it back on again.

The TV is now retuned.