Omni Hotels is turning off the turn-ons - the hotel chain has decided to pull adult video showings from all hotels except ten owned by franchisees.
Omni has started phasing out adult movies and plans to have the job done at its thirty Omni-owned locations by mid-June. Vivid Entertainment Group president Steve Hirsch, whose company is one of the major adult video producers, tells USA Today the decision surprised him.
''We live in a society where sexually oriented content appears everywhere, from music CDs to mainstream movies,'' Hirsch tells the paper. ''We will see how this affects occupancy rates.''
Omni chairman Bob Rowling, though, says the chain shouldn't be making money on porn. ''I'm a father of two boys,'' he tells USA Today. ''It wasn't the kind of thing we wanted offered at our hotels.'' Marketing vice president Peter Strebel tells the paper the guest reaction to the move is positive, with only a few complaints.
The move will cost Omni plenty, though, since adult programming covers about three-quarters of hotels' in-room movie sales, according to Cabil Corp., a support and billing service for cable television operators. Omni now will lose its undisclosed adult movie rental cuts and have to find around $4 million to replace televisions placed free by their previous cable provider, USA Today says.
Hotels dropping the porn will include the Mandalay in Dallas, the Shoreham in Washington, the Berkshire Place in New York, and the Parker House in Boston. Other large hotel chains (except those owned by Disney) are mostly staying with the adult video offerings. The Holiday Inn allows blocking if guests ask for it, as do the Marriott chain and many others, USA Today says.
But the paper says such a move doesn't come without cost for providers, such as Adelphia Communications, which tells the paper whenever it takes over from a prior cable operator and removes the porn, they "face a lot of wrath from customers. We have taken a hit," says Adelphia's Paul Heimel.
Heinel says Omni's "small town values" prompted the move. "They don't believe in chasing the almighty buck at the sacrifice of your personal values," he tells USA Today.
