It would seem that Marriott International is allowing properties not only to stop delivering newspapers to rooms, but to have no newspapers whatsoever in the lobby or lounge. At least limited-service properties. It seems full-service properties still have some newspapers in a lobby or other central point. Pathetic.

<pinches self to test awakeness>
<checks calendar>
<verifies it is indeed 2018>

Whew! Dude- for a second there I thought I was dreaming in a parallel universe sometime in the 50s60s70s80s90s 2000s!

Look. It costs the hotel nothing and it's a basic service that most expect from a quality hotel. Plus, they can certainly build the 50 cents or $1 into the room rate or charge guests for the service.

You might as well remove telephones since nobody uses them anymore. We've seen Marriott and some other brands also stupidly remove desks, chairs, dressers and closets because supposedly nobody uses them anymore. Then they backtracked and started putting desks and chairs back into new room designs.

Morrison House, Autograph Collection in Alexandria, Virginia (suburban Washington) has about a dozen copies each of USA Today and The Wall Street Journal in the lobby every morning.

USAT meets nobody's standard.

I'm sure several parakeets would disagree!

Yeah I miss the newspaper delivery. Online newspapers are great for selective reading, but if you want to flip through the whole newspaper, paper is a superior technology. I especially like it in a hotel where breakfast is likely in the club lounge, hotel restaurant, or Starbucks and an ideal place to peruse a newspaper and take a short break from technology too.

Apparently Marriott doesn't care what you (or me) think.

Meh. They've also removed shoe shine stands, cigar lounges, and carpeting from rooms over the decades because of market demand. They whiffed on the desk/chair thing; they fixed it. <shrugs>

Times change.

Attn parallel universes in 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 2,000's and dude Kenny; After Delta recently announced that Delta Sky Clubs would no longer be stocked with daily newspapers, Delta now tells customers that it's heard their complaints and is immediately reversing the decision. Newspapers back at your local Sky Club. Now back to the 2010's. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...ers-sc-14.html Maybe still some hope at Marriott?

First of all, Marriott hasn't officially pulled all newspapers out of all hotels, it's just stopped having the requirement to have them, and thus left it up to each hotel.

Second, I don't think airline lounges and hotels are comparable on this. Newspapers in airline lounges are often taken onto the plane, and read during take-off/climbing, when onboard WiFi is not available and thus there's no other way to read a newspaper other than a physical copy (unless you managed to get the whole newspaper downloaded onto your laptop or mobile device beforehand, not just one or two articles, but AFAIK that's not possible with most online). But hotels don't have the same issue that people can't access WiFi.

You can download an entire newspaper on your device, but only with a subscription.

If you've been reading the thread, you know that it's sounding like more and more Marriott properties are dropping print newspapers.
As to wifi, while it's true, as you mention, that one can carry a paper paper onto the plane for when there's no wifi, it's also true that one can read a paper paper in your hotel room, when you don't have a computer or smart phone. That's right; hard as it is to believe, some folks don't carry a laptop, smartphone, or tablet with them. Folks who don't read print newspapers, apparently don't want anybody else reading them either (or at least Marriott providing them to customers who want to read them). Who's ready to join the battle against breakfast and upgrades?

I think full-service hotels are still required to have newspapers, but only in public spaces like the lobby.

Regardless, hotels can easily recoup the cost of the newspapers by adding 50 cents or whatever the discounted rate for bulk sales happens to be to the rate guests pay. For example, this is one of the amenities that a resort fee at resorts should cover.

While newspapers are complimentary at many British hotels, regardless of brand or star rating, other hotels will order any newspaper you want the night before from the local distributor (Brits call them "news agents") and then charge you for it.

I've had other hotels, like in Lisbon, Portugal, send the bellman out and buy me a weekend edition of the Financial Times on a Saturday morning.