What’s in YOUR hotel bedside table drawer?
First time here? Check out the site's "greatest hits" or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!
The Gideon Bible is getting harder and harder to find in luxury hotels. According to recent numbers, the onetime mainstay of the American bedside table is found in around 73% of luxury hotel rooms, down from near-ubiquity.
It’s not that the books are being “removed by Satan,” as one Georgia hotelier suggests may be happening. Rather, it’s a business decision, driven by perceived decline in customer demand.
Some hotels are instead offering a range of religious books (much as you might find the teachings of Buddha in a Thai hotel room), or a note pointing you toward their library of spiritual readings in the lobby.
Marriott hotels have long offered the Book of Mormon alongside the Bible. But some go beyond religion. Hiltons may feature the Conrad Hilton autobiography Be My Guest in there, too — hardly a “spiritual” text. (I failed to look for it when I stayed at a Hilton this past weekend.)
Some cheekier hotels are replacing tales of creation with tales of procreation: the Kama Sutra.
Others are making social or political statements, such as including Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Others are making a statement by simply leaving the drawers empty.
Bedside table drawers aren’t always filled with reading materials at all. A friend of mine, a former federal prosecutor, once flew to Cuba on official business. Before going, he was briefed that one drawer would likely be stuck in place. Why? That’s where the recording equipment was located. Sure enough, one drawer wouldn’t move.
But the question goes to you: What’s your take on hotel bibles, or other religious tracts? Should hotels include them, or should they be optional? Are they an offense to non-believers, or is their absence an offense to believers? Vote in the poll, and hit the comments.
(Viewing this in a feed reader, or getting an error when you vote? Go to the source and try again.)
(image)
RSS Feed / Subscribe
Subscribe to Posts by Email
March 10th, 2008 at 11:40 pm |
I’d always heard that the telephone number for recommended local prostitutes could be found at a certain chapter and version in the Gideon’s Bible. But I never really had the urge to look.
One time, back in the days before the Internet was invented, I did find myself in a hotel room without absolutely nothing to read and an absolute inability to sleep. There was nothing good on the TV, so I ended up reading the Gideon’s Bible for lack of any other entertainment. The plot is slightly better than the average phone book.
Staring at Strangers
March 11th, 2008 at 6:48 am |
How does it end?
March 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm |
There’s a lot of sex and violence in the Bible and people use words like damn, hell, and ass. I don’t think it’s suitable for kids.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:27 pm |
They all lived happily ever after.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:22 pm |
from a financial viewpoint, it makes zero sense for the hotel to include a bible.
first, there’s a huge cost (to procure it and replace it).
then, u risk alienating customers of different faith.
if those clients are such religious faithfuls that they need to read their holy text during trips, then by all means bring their own. we shouldn’t be obligated to provide a small convenience for a few by increasing the costs among all those who don’t care.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pm |
The Bibles are run-of-the-mill Bibles, not something special other than being stamped with the Gideon’s name and logo. Why do they have that stuff? Because the Bibles are given to the hotels by The Gideons International, “Dedicated to Bible distribution and evangelism.”
The hotels do not pay for them. Hotels can refuse them. If they already have some, they do not need to replace them. Replacing them is free. So unless you’re whining about the horribly gigantic cost of a few seconds time to put them in each drawer or the cost to throw them away, I don’t see your point about cost.
As for people being offended, if other religions had free books that they wanted to place in the hotels, I don’t know why hotels would not take them, especially if approached. The copies of the Book of Mormon mentioned in the post are free, for example. If no organizations exist to give away free books of other faiths (I don’t know any others), the hotels are being fair to you and not spending your money.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pm |
WHY? Why have bibles? Like even if you are religious - who would read it on holidays/business trip??? If you are that religious BYOB. Otherwise, if there is wi-fi and TV - what’s the point???