Except for the pay-per-view porno on the TV ! (although it's been years since I checked).

Morals vs. profits, what wins?

Which explains why Marriott is one of the largest sellers of alcohol by the drink in the country?

Come on now, let's not try to sway the SPG loyalists with facts.

Oh good grief. Not the Mormon stuff again.

Marriott Corporation is interested in revenue. Not having papers in the rooms/by request allows it to save $$; aka, putting them in the lobby or exec lounge is more cost effective. Papers are (domestically) usually USA Today, Wall Street Journal and/or the local newspaper. Int'ly it's USA Today, WSJ, Int'l Financial Times, local papers or papers from nearby countries (such as a London or German newspaper in Amsterdam, in addition to the local Amsterdam newspaper).

As noted before (by Bill Marriott himself), he separates bizness from his personal beliefs & Marriott Corporation is one of the larger sellers of alcohol in the US.

Re: Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN. It varies by property. There's no specific edict from HQ on what's to be shown in the lobby/bar/exec lounge/health club TVs.

Cheers.

Mmmmm. I routinely get the Washington Post at my door when I stay in DC. Not exactly what I would call a conservative paper.

The WSJ is always in the lounge, as is USA Today.

Hence the (conservative to put it mildly) book of Mormon in most Marriott 'family' hotels

That is good to hear! My (limited) experience with Marriott has been McPaper/USA Today and sometimes WSJ in the USA, outside the USA much better selection.

Repressed Mormons need an outlet! But seriously, my sample is limited, but it's been shocking to see FOX News on in the lounge, lobby or restaurant at many Marriott hotels that I have sampled this year. I've seen USA Today and WSJ, but don't recall ever seeing the NY Times or LA Times.

Maybe it's just about money, and those are the rags they could get the best deal on system wide?

Did the lounge/lobby/restaurant refuse to change the channel when you asked them to? I've been in lounge/lobby/restaurants that have ESPN, Fox News on, & they've always changed the channel to something else when I've requested it.

Marriott doesn't have a tv channel policy for its franchisees (well, maybe other than no porn in public places ). I've been in multiple properties domestic & int'l over the years & what the TV is turned to truly varies.

FWIW - I don't consider Fox News on the public hotel tvs (regardless of chain) to be anymore "shocking" than if I see it on the public tvs at airports, airline lounges, etc, & don't extrapolate that the airports & airlines are conservative. Some would find it 'shocking' to see CNN on the tvs. Goes both ways. I normally watch CNN, but if a hotel is willing to switch from ESPN or Fox to CNN or, if they have multiple tvs, keep one on sports & another on news shows I'm good. Hotels cater to all types. While I'm not a ESPN watcher (except during playoffs), others might not be HGTV watchers.

I think the default newspaper wise for Marriott in the US is WSJ, USAT, & the local paper (NYTimes if in NYC, LATimes if in LA - or Orange County Register if in OC, Vegas paper in Vegas, etc). Int'l I see USAToday, WSJ, Int'l Financial Times, & a variety of local papers. Weekends, whether US or int'l, they'll have the local paper since some of the others are M-F publications.

Re: the Mormon bible in the room. Other hotel chains have the Gideon bible. If someone is interested in reading the bible (whichever version & whichever chain), it's there for them. If they're not, they can ignore it.

Cheers.

Most lounges I have been in have multiple TVs, and the remote is always around somewhere. Simply ask the folks around you, and change the channel.

When I checked into a Renaissance this evening, the front desk staff mentioned that they recently received a memo stating that Marriott is ending all complimentary newspaper availability in the near future. Has anyone else heard this?

​​​This particular property has always done very well with newspapers, delivering me both USA Today and WSJ during the week and the WSJ on Saturday, so this is a disappointing development, if true.

I just checked out a RI this morning and they had newspapers. I'll ask the question when I check in to a Marriott property next week.

I hope they do eliminate this. It's a complete waste of natural resources.

Not really. The paper is renewable and recyclable.

The best reason to eliminate them is the fake news in the newspaper.

In the UK they are encouraging guests to download newspapers (for free) to their device via the Press reader app. I tried it for the first time when doing a UK based holiday this year and was able to download my local newspaper when I was away each day.