Washington – Don Wildmon, [pictured] chairman of the American Family Association, one of 47 pro-family groups lobbying Marriott International to make its properties porn-free, said the first face-to-face meeting with representatives of the hospitality giant on Wednesday was “productive.”

“I think we had a productive meeting,” Wildmon told Cybercast News Service, “a good first step. We came away with two things that are going to be looked into and we’ll meet again in six weeks.”

Wildmon said Marriott officials agreed to look into whether a change can be made in their contract with Lodgenet, the largest provider of in-room entertainment systems and content in the country, to make pornography inaccessible in rooms unless the guest requests it.

“That would take I’d say about 80 percent of their sales away,” Wildmon said, “because the vast majority of people would be too embarrassed to call the front desk and say I want the adult channel.”

The second consensus reached at the meeting was that Marriott, which has more than 90 percent of its properties individually owned through franchising, agreed to meet with owners to pass on the pro-family groups’ concern over the availability of pornographic films in Marriott rooms and their goal of porn-free Marriott properties.

“This is just the first step,” Wildmon said. “This does not in any way diminish our efforts to get rid of porn movies, period. We established relationships. We got to know each other. We’re going to begin working now to see what we can do, and then we’ll go from there.”

The meeting was arranged in response to a letter Wildmon sent on April 3 to Marriott Chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott Jr., which was signed by 47 pro-life organizations from around the country.

Four Marriott representatives attended the meeting in the nation’s capitol and, in addition to Wildmon, representatives from Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the Southern Baptist Ethics Religious Liberty Commission, and Citizens for Community Values participated.