UK- Budget hotel chain Travelodge is expected to announce the removal of all pornographic pay-per-view TV channels from its 20,000 bedrooms, in an effort to become more family-friendly.

UK hotel guests are said to spend hundreds of millions of pounds every year on adult television services in their rooms

The plans – likely to cost Travelodge millions of pounds per year in lost revenues – were revealed by a senior management source last night.

Travelodge’s pay-per-view televisions will be replaced by a £10m roll-out of new flat-screen, digital TVs with 18 free, family-friendly channels such as CBeebies and Film Four.

Travelodge has doubled the number of families staying in its hotels since 2003. Leisure breaks account for 70 per cent of sales with the rest generated by business customers – thought to form the main market for television pornography in hotel rooms.

A hotel industry source said UK hotel guests spend hundreds of millions of pounds every year on adult television services in their rooms. Hotel operators are only entitled to 10 per cent of the total, with the rest going to only two media companies in the UK that produce such TV content for British hotels.
advertisement

The company is expected to claim that the loss of income from removing the porn channel will be compensated for by the attraction of more customers in the long term.

The move echoes Travelodge’s recent pledge to introduce a smoking ban in all rooms, even though this is not a legal necessity under the new smoking ban legislation that came into force on July 1 this year.

The company billed the move as part of its attempts to attract more families with children