LONDON — In a move that some are calling “family-friendly” and others consider to be the equivalent of treating adults as though they were children, British hotel chain Travelodge has decided to remove all pay-per-view adult entertainment from its list of in-room entertainment options.Flat-screen, digital TVs will replace the current, traditional style televisions found in the 20,000 budget conscious Travelodge rooms. The new breed of technology will broadcast 18 channels of programming presumably deemed by the hotel chain to be safe for viewing by children. Although CBeebies and Film Four were listed by The Telegraph, whether the line-up will include mainstream news, sports, or religious programming is unknown.
Guy Parsons, chief operating officer for Travelodge explained to The Sun that the chain has “an ever-increasing number of families staying with us, and it’s appropriate that we more adult TV.”
In fact, the number of families staying in Travelodge hotels has doubled since 2003, and leisure breaks making up 70-percent of room rentals. The rest of market activity came from business customers, who were more likely to indulge in saucy in-room viewing.
Although UK hotel customers annually invest hundreds of millions of pounds in adult viewing, a mere 10-percent of the money made goes into the pockets of hotel operators, making them less than fiscally urgent money sources. The majority of profit is divided between the two production companies making content for British hotels.
Additionally, Parsons stated that the lodging chain’s customers have provided feedback indicating that they would prefer that adult materials not be made available to guests. Although the move is expected to lose the company millions of pounds in revenue, Travelodge hopes that combined with a recent smoking ban, the more sanitized setting will boost business.
