The Real Reason Hotel Rooms Have Bibles
If you were to book a room at a one-star roadside motel, you wouldn’t expect the same amenities you’d find at a luxury five-star resort. But there is one commonality they’re likely to share: a Bible tucked away in the drawer of the bedside table.
Bibles have been a familiar presence in hotel rooms for more than a century, and though the tradition has been declining in recent years, the bedside Bible remains an iconic part of American travel. But how did the book become a hotel staple? The origins can be traced back to the turn of the 20th century, with the creation of an evangelical Christian organization known as the Gideons.
Who Are the Gideons?
The Gideons International was founded in 1899 with a simple mission: to share the word of God. It held its first official convention in 1900, and by 1901, its bylaws stated, “The object of the Gideons shall be to recognize the Christian traveling men of the world with cordial fellowship … scattering seeds all along the pathway for Christ.”
The first clue that distributing Bibles would be the perfect way to achieve this objective came in 1903, when a Chicago-based Gideon member named Fred Woodcock took a trip to Britain. He discovered that the Commercial Travellers’ Christian Association was distributing Bibles to hotels throughout England, and when he returned to the U.S., he suggested the Gideons follow suit. Due to financial limitations within the organization, there was no means of doing so at the time, but the Gideons procured enough funds by 1908 to make this goal a reality.
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The First Hotel To Order Bibles
The first hotel to bite was in Superior, Montana, thanks to a Gideon member named Archie Bailey. Bailey frequently patronized the Superior Hotel, and one day he asked hotel proprietor Edna Wilkinson if he could leave a Bible at the front desk to help spread the word of God to other guests. Wilkinson countered with an ambitious request of her own, asking if it’d be possible to put Bibles in each room. On November 9, 1908, Bailey contacted the Gideons and ordered 25 Bibles, which were later distributed throughout the hotel. Though it wasn’t known at the time, this event marked the start of a widespread trend.
2,300 Guests Per Book
Hotels were an appealing way for the Gideons to spread their message, as the frequent turnover in each room meant a plethora of potential converts. By the organization’s own estimates, each Bible would be seen by 2,300 guests during the book’s six-year lifespan. When a new hotel opened in the U.S., Gideon missionaries visited the general manager to donate copies of the Bible for free, and many hotels were happy to accept. Some hotel owners believed that the Scripture provided a sense of comfort; Bibles also provided something to read in those early days when in-room entertainment was limited.
By the 1920s, the Gideons were synonymous with hotel Bible distribution. At first, they primarily distributed copies of the American Standard Version of the Bible, though that was eventually superseded by the King James Version. In 1974, the New International Version was approved for use as well. Other groups such as the Mormons attempted to capitalize on this trend, distributing religious texts of their own, which is why some hotels display a Gideon Bible, others the Book of Mormon, and in rarer cases, both texts side by side.
The Gideons expanded their reach to other institutions as well. They began distributing Bibles to hospitals in 1916, public classrooms in 1937 (though states began to push back on this in the 1950s), and the U.S. military in 1941. They also expanded beyond the U.S., beginning with Canada in 1911, then Sweden in 1919, and the British Isles in 1949, as offshoots of the Gideons were formed.
Shifting Tides
From 1908 to 2022, the Gideons distributed a staggering 2.5 billion Bibles in hotels and other locales. The organization is now nearing the 3 billion milestone, as roughly 80 million Bibles are donated each year, according to the organization. The group has also distributed Bibles in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The Gideons largely fund these efforts through donations. In 2025, the organization received $167.9 million, $100.2 million of which was used to buy and place copies of the Bible worldwide.
That said, recent trends show you’re less likely to encounter a Bible in the average hotel room today than in the past — due in part to a societal shift in the United States. According to the hotel analytics firm STR, 95% of U.S.-based hotel rooms contained a Bible as recently as 20 years ago in 2006. That percentage dropped to 79% by 2016, and updated estimates from 2025 show a continued decline down to 69%. But even with the decline, that’s still tens of millions of hotel rooms where a Bible is waiting in the drawer — a simple amenity with a 125-year-old history.
