Where to stay when you leave.
3/25/2008 at 4:54 PM
Tags: Celebrity Scoop, Hotel Tattoos, Hotel Religion
Little bro Jaunted tells us, Nikki Six of Motley Crue and Kat Von D, star of LA Ink are in love. In love with themselves, in love with each other and in love with the dapper dandy that is the Bowery Hotel's logo. We guess they believe in the religion of Ink.
In other religious but tattoo-free news:
· Forget the bible in the nightstand. Or the Torah or the Koran. The Hotel Preston in Tennessee is now offering a spiritual menu where you pick what you wanna read. [FoxNews]
· Obama's former preacher Reverend Wright hits up the Ritz-Carlton in Puerto Rico. [Page Six]
· Hotel QT is hosting the "Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture." If you stop by pick us up the pencil with double-sided erasers that says "Life Without Jesus is like this pencil; no point to it." [Page Six]
· Create your own field of dreams: Baseball fans can get hotel deals. Check-out our MLB Hotels map to see where to stay nearest the ballparks. [ABC News]
· If you want to go to jail but are too much of a wuss to violate the Ten Commandments, then stay in a Jail Hotel! [Urbanist]
by juliana
5/09/2007 at 2:34 PM
Tags: Hotel Religion, Green Hotels, Napa Valley Hotel Reviews
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]
by juliana
4/10/2007 at 4:59 PM
Tags: Hotel Bibles, Hotel Religion, 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]
by juliana
6/15/2006 at 4:12 PM
Tags: Hotel Religion
When was the last time you checked a hotel room nightstand to make sure the bible was there? Yeah, we don't remember either. Hotel guests today are much more obsessed with WiFi access, room views, and cool amenities than religion.
But the history of the bible in hotel rooms is interesting. A group fittingly named the International Bible Society started dropping bibles in hotel rooms in 1823. Later another Christian group, the Gideon Society, began their aggressive campaign for bibles in hotel rooms.
In the early days, most of the Gideons were traveling salesmen who wanted to be effecitve Christian witnesses while on the road. They decided to place a Bible at the reception desk in each hotel they frequented so patrons could borrow it. The Bible also served as a silent witness in these hotels after the Gideons had checked out.
Today, the society is responsible for placing 45 million bibles a year in hotel rooms, prisons, hospitals, and military bases.
However, not many hotels are keen on keeping up with the bible tradition. Since 1999, hotels have started to pull the bible from its rooms in recognition of other faiths. The Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City decided not to place bibles in the room when they opened three years ago. Marriott Hotels, whose owning family is Mormon, started to place the Book of Mormon next to the bible. Several other hotel chains are providing options for guests of various faiths like Buddhists texts, prayer mats and little signs for the direction of Mecca.
But perhaps there was another reason aside from religious tolerance for replacing bibles. One tipster tells us that guests at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills were stealing them.
If you have a story of redemption involving a hotel bible, or if you stole one, we'd love to hear your story of faith so spread the good word.
Image via goatopolis/Flickr
Related Stories:
· Gideon Society [Straight Dope]
· Casino Bans Bibles from Rooms [FoxNews]
by juliana
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