Winston Aldworth: Hotel chains withdraw from dealing in porn

Time.com reports that the average time a porn movie is watched in a hotel room is 12 minutes. Photo / iStock

Shane Jones will be - ahem - relieved.

The former Labour MP was embarrassed when his hotel room porn-watching habits were revealed in 2010 - particularly as he unwisely paid for it with his taxpayer-funded credit card.

On several occasions - perhaps when faced with a particularly dull set of ministerial briefing papers - the former Building and Construction Minister clocked two movies a night.

But times are changing - major hotel chains are getting out of the porn business.

Hyatt Hotels announced a couple of weeks back that they will no longer offer on-demand pornographic movies in hotel rooms.

Marriott Hotels switched off the porn channels a couple of years ago and others will follow. The company's chairman Bill Marriott - a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - put a moral spin on it, noting that the church was "very, very opposed to pornography".

But make no mistake: it's a business decision.

In-room wi-fi and the ubiquity of personal electronic devices have guided guests away from paying for porn. US hotel chains made about $339 a year per room between 2000 and 2014 on movie rentals. That dropped to $107 last year, as wi-fi became commonplace.

So porn is still playing. Time.com reports that the average time a porn movie is watched in a hotel room is 12 minutes - which puts a heroic gloss on Jones' double-feature efforts.

(Incidentally - hot tip - when you're at work researching "hotel room porn stats" via Google, be careful which links you click on.)