Hyatt latest hotel company to ban porn movies in hotel rooms amid drop in demand

Hyatt Hotels will no longer offer on-demand pornographic movies in its rooms, the company said Wednesday.

“This content will not be introduced to any new Hyatt hotels, and it will be discontinued or phased out at all hotels,” the company said in a statement.

Hyatt is just the latest hotel company to ban on-demand adult entertainment from its rooms. Decreasing revenue from movie rentals in hotels has driven the trend, with movie rental revenue per available hotel room dropping from $339 a year to $107 a year between 2000 and 2014, according to a report from PKF Hospitality Research. Hotel guests are renting fewer in-room movies because they can watch them on smartphones or laptops instead.

Marriott hotels ended the practice of offering adult video on demand several years ago. The company’s chairman, Bill Marriott, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told The Associated Press in 2012 that not only was the church “very, very opposed to pornography,” but that demand for the movies had “gone way down” because “if they want that stuff, they can get on the computer.”

Hyatt, a U.S.-based company, owns 618 properties in 51 countries.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington applauded the change. “With this step, Hyatt is proving itself to be a leader among corporations that value a positive and safe environment for their consumers,” the organization’s president, Patrick Trueman, said in a statement.