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Hotel Libraries / Literary Hotels / Taj Hotels / India Hotels / Hotel Bookshelves / Hotel Bibles / Hotel Korans / → All Tags

India's Taj Falaknuma Palace Might Just Be a Librarian's Double Rainbow

Where: Engine Bowli, Falaknuma, Hyderabad, India, 500 053

The newly opened Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, India, has a lot of cool features, like it is one of the country's last remaining grand palaces, and it's built entirely of Italian marble and in the shape of a scorpion. But the geeks that we are, we're digging its expansive library.

The hotel carries more than 5,900 books in its Imperial Library. You'll find tomes on literature, history and religion. Though the standout is a rare collection of the holy Quran.

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HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Bibles / OpenThread / → All Tags

Most Provocative OpenThread: Should Hotels Ditch Bibles Once and For All?

It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.

It's no secret that we at HotelChatter have very strong opinions about what we see in hotels but we like to think our minds can be changed (but not when it comes to free WiFi.) That's why we like to open up the conversation to our awesome readers, some of whom are traveling even more than us, not to mention working in hotels day-in and day-out.

Our OpenThread topics typically range from booking rooms to hotel services to room preferences but the one that seemed to provoke the most was the one about Hotel Bibles. Are they totally out of fashion or still necessary to keep in the nightstands? Here are some of the comments we received:

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OpenThread / Hotel Bibles / Hotel Religion / Hotel Bookshelves / → All Tags

Should Hotels Ditch Bibles Once and For All?

The yin and yang of top-drawer reading material at the Shangri-La Sydney.

When we first enter a hotel room, we like to poke around and open drawers, checking out every tiny detail. But we were shocked to see a bible—and The Teaching of Buddha—when we flung open the nightstand drawer at the Shangri-La Sydney recently.

We shouldn't have been, of course. Bibles have been a mainstay of hotel rooms for at least a century. But aside from this encounter, we haven't actually seen one in eons. As hotels increasingly focus on providing geeked-up rooms with fancy light settings, glossy flatscreen TVs, and (more, please) free WiFi, they seem to be leaving the good old Gideons behind. But is this a good thing or not? Are hotels losing their religion, and does anyway care?

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Hotel News Briefs / Gwen Stefani / Hotel Uniforms / Designer Hotel Uniforms / Project CityCenter / Hotel Bibles / Aqua Hotels Hawaii / → All Tags

Hotel News Briefs :: A Look at Gwen Stefani's Uniforms for W Hotel Bars

There's tons of hotel news flying around this week and we don't have time to give each and every story the love and attention it may deserve, so you will have to settle for some news briefs.

· L.A.M.B. Uniforms for W Hotels' Female Bar Staff: This is what they will look like. While not as boring as we first thought, those employees better have some great gams to wear such short dresses. [StyleList]

· Dial-up a Religious Text: Gone are the days of Gideon bibles in hotel nightstands. Spiritual menus are the newest religious amenity to hit hotels. [Canadian Press]

· Hilton Sells Pet Friendly Items: Not only is Hilton ok with you bringing your pets into their hotels, but they want you to buy Hilton-branded pet gear. [Hilton to Home]

· Aqua Hotels Says Aloha to Twitter: The Aqua Hotels group in Hawaii is now Twittering. [Twitter]

· CityCenter Slowing Down: So remember yesterday how the Aria Resort at CityCenter was topped off? Well, now there's a new report saying that corrective work being done on the Harmon Hotel is slowing down the overall construction. Yikes. [SF Chronicle]

Hotel Bibles / Hotel Religion / Scandic Hotels / → All Tags

Bibles No More in Scandic Hotels

A tipster let us know that Scandic Hotels will no longer be carrying bibles in their guestrooms. Per the aptly-named Scandic hotel bibles blog:

The whole sad process began with a complaint by a guest who had found a Bible in a drawer in his hotel room. He wrote to Mona Andersson, the head marketing executive at Scandic hotels. She wrote back [my translation]: "Thank you for your e-mail and your views. Yes, we have traditionally had the Bible/New testament available at our hotel rooms. But all religions are welcome at Scandic so as of today we encourage all our hotels to remove the Bible from their rooms. The Bible will be available at the reception as a service for our guests.

All 130 Scandic hotels in ten countries such as Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands and Norway will pull the bibles from their rooms.

We're guessing this ain't gonna happen at Marriott anytime soon. But never fear, your very own handheld bible trivia game is here!

Related Stories:
· Finding you religion in the nightstand [HotelChatter]
· Must ... remove ... all Bibles ... from all Scandic hotels [Scandic Hotel Bibles]