HotelChatter

Hotel Religion

Gaia Hotel Owner Says Missing Bibles Was an 'Oversight'

May 9, 2007 at 2:34 PM | 0 Comments

The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel made waves last week for putting copies of Al Gore's book An Inconvenient Truth in its guestrooms and removing the bible from the nightstands. However, the owner Wen-I Chang has said that the hotel's "replacement" of the bible has been overexaggerated.

Chang, 62, said in a telephone interview that Gaia had not "replaced" the Bible with Gore's book, as has been claimed by some media outlets.

Instead, he said, the hotel staff overlooked providing Bibles in their haste to prepare for the official grand opening March 30 and did not intentionally leave them out of the rooms.

"I apologize to Christians" who may have been offended, Chang said. "We made an oversight."

Chang, a Taiwanese immigrant and a Buddhist, said that as soon as the issue came to his attention this week he instructed his staff to put Bibles in the hotel's nightstands. Copies of Buddhist scripture also will go in the drawers within the month.

And Al Gore's book will remain in the guestrooms as well. But let's just hope Chang doesn't get caught up in the race of trying to please everyone here. There's just not enough room in the nightstand for that.

Related Stories:
· Bible not inconvenient, says hotel owner [Medill Reports]
· Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' Replaces Bibles in Green Hotel [HotelChatter]