Why is there a Bible in your hotel room?

(NEXSTAR) — What do you do when you first get to a hotel room? Do you immediately turn on the comfort TV shows that always seem to be on in hotels? Maybe you prepare to go check out the pool or stash a shoe in the room safe.

At some point, you may even find yourself turning to the drawers in the room to see if there’s anything good hiding in them. In your perusal, you’ll often come across a specific version of the Bible.

You have a pair of Wisconsin businessmen and a hotel in Montana to thank for the Bible you find in the drawer of your bedside table, regardless of the version you have.

It all started in 1898. As the story goes, John H. Nicholson, of Janesville, checked into the bustling Central Hotel in Boscobel, roughly 70 miles west of Madison. Because the hotel was nearly full, Nicholson found himself rooming with Beloit’s Samuel E. Hill. Despite being strangers, the pair quickly found themselves called “to begin developing an Association.”

The next year, Nicholson and Hill met in Beaver Dam and agreed their association would bring “Christian commercial travelers together for mutual recognition, personal evangelism, and united service for the Lord.” They would later become the Gideons. 

As traveling men, the Gideons focused on being “effective witnesses in hotels.” It wasn’t until late 1908, however, that they fulfilled their first order for Bibles in a hotel.

It was started by Archie Bailey, an accountant for a railroad contractor. According to The Gideons International, Bailey was at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. There, he asked if he could leave a Gideon Bible at the desk clerk’s station.

Instead, Bailey was asked if he could supply 25 Bibles, one for each room, in an inaugural move for the Gideons. The hotel no longer exists (it burned down in 1940, but a plaque has been placed at the spot, now a laundromat), but the Gideons have continued the practice. 

The association claims more than 1 million of their Bibles are placed in hotels across the world, for free, annually. The Gideons International even addresses the topic on their FAQ page, saying each hotel room Bible “has the potential to reach up to 2,300 people in its estimated six-year life span.”

That is, as long as it makes its way into the hotel room. 

In recent years, multiple hotel chains have opted against putting Bibles in their guest rooms. 

Some hotel chains — Best Western, Choice, Hilton, and IHG Hotels, for example — let the owners and operators of each property decide whether prayer books and religious materials are provided in rooms.

While some may skip the Bibles, others may double up. That includes many hotels under Marriott International, which requires both the Bible and The Book of Mormon to appear in guest rooms. It’s a tradition the company has been following for more than five decades, a spokesperson told The Washington Post in 2020.

Moxy and Edition, newer brands to the company’s portfolio, are exempt, as they’re geared toward a younger — and seemingly less religious — audience. Generator and Freehand brand hotels have also opted not to provide Bibles in their rooms, telling The Post it’s to make their properties “feel inclusive of all varying beliefs and spiritual traditions.”

Others, like the boutique hotel company Provenance Hotels and Trump Hotels, have been known to offer “menus” of religious texts guests can ask for. 

A Wisconsin-based group seemingly prefers that option instead of a Bible immediately available in your room.

In recent years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has called on various hotels to put the religious texts at the front desk, available on request, instead of directly in the room (the group claims their complaints were successful with multiple hotels). They even offer “Bible warning label stickers” and “Gideon exposes stickers” that are “perfect for hotel rooms,” as well as a bundle of both “for the cover of the bibles you encounter in your travels.”

It’s still possible that you’ll find a prayer book — whether it is a Gideon Bible, The Book of Mormon, or books of other faiths — in your hotel room. If you don’t, and you’d like to have one, some hotels offer them at their front desk. You can also find free websites or apps for various religious books using the free WiFi many hotels now offer to guests.