�Intimacy kits�? Suddenly, some luxury hotels are becoming grubbier. Their pristine and glorious exteriors don�t show the back-street, no-star heart within. Sex is a normal part of life, but in times of increasing sexual dysfunction, with  its inevitably off-the-wall lifestyle weirdness, why on earth have luxury hotels gone down the root of hedonism?

No doubt critics will have a fine time shouting the odds, and calling me all kinds of names for being so un-hip and un-cool� but at least I am balanced, with no hang-ups, and no sexually transmitted diseases!

My query to these hotels is, �How far are you willing to go?� The answer is already given by their grubby new offering. Why is it grubby? Because it panders to a seamy side of life. Hotels might say they are not there to be moralistic � but, equally, they are not there to lead the way on immorality and promiscuity� and they are being moralistic by insisting on their plan of action. If condoms, etc., are now made available in rooms by hotels, what does this imply? It means a willingness to make social dysfunction worse. The next logical step (already an under-the-counter �service� provided by unscrupulous front of house staff with an eye for extra dough) is to provide a list of local hookers. This isn�t business � it is societal manipulation.

Is it pandering? I have looked at a number of reports on this very odd phenomenon. One luxury hotel linked their new sex kit to going green. No, I�m not making it up and trying to enhance my existing heavy cynicism of Al Gore! A spokesman said that as they were �going green� and decluttering/minimising, they were getting rid of Gideon Bibles and telephone books. Hm. Sound convincing? Yeah, right.

But, their seemingly reasonable excuse is shot in the foot, when they then say they are replacing Bibles with sex kits! It might take up a similar unobtrusive space, but the sex won! Is this just hoteliers passing on their own sexual dysfunctions to customers, hoping they will like it (like those numerous TV programs that fill their films with foul language and blatant sex, whether or not viewers ask for it). Or are they truly giving what customers want?

I doubt if it is the latter. Why? Because people have sexual relations wherever they are anyway. They provide their own means. So luxury hotels are going beyond this by opening up possibilities of promiscuous or one-night sex with hookers, as an official �service�. If this isn�t grubby, then what is? Many hotels already offer a similar �service� in the form of porn TV channels, so giving sex kits is the next step in a very quick moral demise. After that must come provision of prostitutes, if hotels are willing to sacrifice normality and morality for something very hedonistic.

So, what is my problem? I have no problem � but hotels certainly do, because they are putting themselves into a corner they may not get out of. I just wouldn�t use an hotel that offers these facilities and I know many large religious groups are already complaining about it. As my mother might have said about the new room �service� - �You don�t know where they�ve been.�

The PR excuse for this headlong rush to be immoral is that there has been a drop of 18% in luxury hotels who stock a Bible. But, in less-than-five-star hotels there has been an increase in Bible stocks, from 79% to 95%. �The more you pay for a hotel the less likely you are to see a Bible.� (Luxist.com).

It is obvious: the implication is that people who can afford luxury are more immoral! If this is not the truth, then why are hotels becoming grubbier on the inside? All the time I read of luxury hotels outdoing other luxury hotels in their bid to offer more and more facilities. In itself, this is insane, because it is a line of reasoning that is never satiated. And that is why sex is the easiest way to go. But it is also an insult to all those people who donate to the Gideons, who give their Bibles freely� hotels are throwing them out and paying to give sex kits instead! Those same donation-givers are also customers.

Some hotels, in an effort to pretend to be moral, now put their Bibles in a library, along with other �holy� books. Some are even worse, and you have to go to the desk to ask for a Bible. But kits to exacerbate sexual dysfunction and immorality? Why, they are in your drawer, sir, freely available. 

It is fact that many people have contemplated suicide in hotel rooms, but were stopped by reading the Bible found in the drawer, Many in personal difficulties have found answers in the same Bibles. But, nobody has ever found answers or true solace in having immoral sex. Nor will unhappy people go to a desk to ask for a Bible. The very act legitimises such an arrogant hotel policy.

This is just a short article, questioning the motives of luxury hotels. Theirs is not about service. It is about becoming providers of anything-goes. In business, once you stray from a path giving a genuine service, solid and dependable, with well-defined boundaries, you lose the plot. Then, you must always hype everything up. When clients get fed up with your present �service� they will keep on demanding something else. But it just can�t be sustained! The further we go from normality and justifiable service the worse it becomes - and sex is the easiest of all desires to fulfil.

So, luxury hotels that offer sex kits are showing a distinct lack of foresight and professional judgment. Where do they go after sex kits? I have already suggested the route they will take, because they have put themselves on a path that is beyond the scope of what is genuine and socially-good.  Oh to get back to a better way of business!

Now, some will write nasty emails, all pretending to be �reasonable�. But, frankly, I don�t give a fig. That is the beauty of not being paid by big names whose only aim is to get rich no matter what. It was not so long ago that I questioned the dubious marketing ploys used by some hotels. This latest trend both proves my point and shows I was right.

Thankfully not all luxury groups are on the same path, because they know it would be detrimental in the long run to their business. I commend these hotels heartily. If they wish to kick out Bible, that is their prerogative. But to replace them with what is dubious and even grubby, is something else.
 

©Nov. 2007. Barry Napier 

Barry Napier 
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