from www.travel.usatoday.com – Marriott International, one of the nation’s leading hotel groups, tells Hotel Check-In that it’s pulling access to adult movies from the new hotel rooms it will be opening the next several years.

Marriott says that its decision coincides with a pending shift to new, in-room entertainment technology.

Marriott’s decision also comes after years of discussing whether the availability of adult entertainment in guest rooms – for years, a money maker for hotels – is appropriate and whether secure safeguards exist to keep it away from children. It also comes as business travelers, especially, check into hotels carrying their own entertainment, whether Netflix DVDs, an iPod Touch or a laptop.

Marriott’s statement (below) came in response to Hotel Check-In’s question this morning asking if Marriott was the unidentified hotel chain referenced in news reports yesterday about media provider LodgeNet. The reports said that one of LodgeNet’s large hotel-chain customers in 2013 would begin to phase out “mature content.” LodgeNet’s two largest customers are Marriott and Hilton.

LodgeNet’s revenue from all of its guest-entertainment programs – including Hollywood blockbusters, games, music and porn – had fallen during the recession mainly due to lower hotel occupancy levels, but also because travelers changed their viewing habits to save money.

Here is the rest of Marriott’s statement to Hotel Check-In:

“It is our practice to keep adult content out of the reach of children and unavailable to any adult who chooses not to view it. We have strong controls in place that allow guests to block these materials. Changing technology and how guests access entertainment has reduced the revenue hotels and their owners derive from in-room movies, including adult content. We are working with in-room entertainment providers and technology vendors to transition to the next generation of in-room entertainment. This new platform of Internet-based video-on-demand will facilitate our exit from the traditional hotel video systems that included adult content in the menu selection, and will also provide guests greater choice and control over what they watch across our system.

As we transition to this new platform, adult content will be off the menu for virtually all of our newly built hotels. Over the next few years, this will be the policy across our system.”