When a tweet accused Marriott Hotels of "working with the feds and keeping [an] eye on any women who are traveling alone," training staff to "spot an escort," and "not allowing some women [to] drink at the bar alone," Marriott's official account proudly confirmed the observation: "You are correct. Marriott employees all over the world are being trained to help spot sex trafficking at our hotels."
The brief Twitter exchange, which occurred in January, revealed some of the hidden presumptions behind Marriott's efforts to stop sexual exploitation. Not only did it suggest that the company conflates all sex work with forced or underage prostitution, but it also hinted the world's largest hotel chain considers all unaccompanied women to be worth monitoring-or, at the very least, that there's confusion about this among staff.
After many on Twitter responded that they didn't believe the policy would be non-discriminatory or effective at stopping sex trafficking, Marriott deleted the tweet without explanation.
A spokesperson for the company later told Reason that the tweet was "inaccurate" and that "there is nothing in the training that advises hotel workers to look for young women traveling alone," while crediting the company's training program for removing young people from "dangerous situations." Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.)
tweeted that his office would be looking into the incident.
Comment: Meeks is a wise politician. But do enough politicians see what he does and care enough to prevent what appears to be happening? Quite probably not.