Creepy Amenities

Amenity creep has been the bane of the hotel industry particularly for franchisees in the mid to lower tier of the industry who seek a return on investment but are forced to part with a range of give aways ostensibly to keep market share. But how about creepy amenities like in-room strippers on demand? That is the focus of USA Today’s hotel hotsheet (and can someone suggest an alternative title to Ms. Yancey, the author of the blog? perhaps she is unaware that hotsheet hotels have a decidedly risque connotation). While porn movies served as “in-room entertainment” have long known to be revenue pullers for hotels, none so far have ventured in the direction of Gregory Clayman, president and CEO of Video Secrets, who operates the flirt4free.com website. Apparently, the site, which has more than visitors 100,000 daily, enables a free interaction with men and women who for a mere $6 on average will shed their inhibitions and clothes at the request of the hotels guest. Just what makes regular folk who stay at hotels shed their inhibitions and seek such fare away from their families is surely something neither psychologists nor society cares to seek answers for but hoteliers (with some exceptions) have no inhibitions in providing steamy programming. This, creepy amenity however, does represent a new low that assuredly many will stoop to. Live girls and boys in rooms, were it not for legal boundaries, would surely be next up.

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Vijay Dandapani

Co-founder and president of a New York based hotel company for 24 years. Grew the firm to five hotels in Manhattan and also developed a greenfield project at MacArthur airport, New York. Speaker at numerous prestigious forums including Economy Hotels World Asia, Lodging Conference, NYU, Columbia University Real Estate Roundtable, Baruch College's Zicklin School and ALIS. President and ceo of New York City Hotel Association since January 2017.

One thought on “Creepy Amenities”

  1. It’s true, to retain or obtain market share someone will eventually pander to such an extreme. Look at a place like Vegas where some hotels will happily hand you the number so that you can get an in room “massage” or whatever euphamism they choose to use. How long could it be before someone finds a way to take a cut of that on a larger scale?

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