Colorado- If Colorado Springs-based media ministry Focus on the Family gets its way, guests of Marriott hotels won’t be able to tune into adult movies in their rooms.
Tom Minnery, a senior vice president for Focus on the Family, and other conservative Christian leaders Wednesday urged Marriott International executives to stop offering in-room pornographic movies.
“Dark-Haired Sluts” and “Next Door Panties,” Minnery said, are two of the tamer titles available to hotel guests.
After the meeting in Washington, Minnery said in a telephone interview that he did not win a pledge from Marriott to end the porn. He said the talk was an encouraging first step.
Marriott executives did not return calls for comment.
“This is not a comfortable topic for hotel people,” Minnery said. “We were very glad they were willing to sit down with us.”
In the meeting, Marriott executives said the issue is complicated by contracts with hotel owners within the franchise, who make the decisions on guest amenities, according to Minnery.
Individual hotel owners, rather than Marriott, receive the revenue from the movies and other in-room media purveyed by Lodgenet Interactive Corp.
“We understand this,” Minnery said, “but where there is a will, there is a way.”
Omni Hotel & Resorts and other chains have negotiated contracts with Lodgenet that provide entertainment options excluding pornography, according to CleanHotels.com, a website listing hotels that do not offer pornographic movies.
Lodgenet’s Denver officials declined to comment, and corporate officials in Sioux Falls, S.D., could not be reached for comment.
Focus on the Family, along with almost 50 other conservative Christian and self-described pro-family groups, targeted Marriott because it is among the largest U.S. chains, with 3,000 hotels — and most suites are wired for porn