How did a Bible get into every hotel room in America?

[Winston]

Does anyone know how the Gideons, whoever they are, got the funds and approval from every hotel and motel in America to put a Bible in every room?

[gmm567]

The gideoans sold the idea to the proprietors. Persistance did it. Relentless organization and will. They wanted to offer the bible to everyone.

And they bought some publishing equipment so it was cheap to publish the word.

Honestly Winston, you're a very sharp guy, but you're naive about business.

Take care.

[Winston]

But how did they get every hotel and motel in America to agree to it? Including those independent motels that are not part of any franchise?

[Raja]

Does anyone know how the Gideons, whoever they are, got the funds and approval from every hotel and motel in America to put a Bible in every room?

Like any other ministry it is funded by the contributions of believers. Its workforce is made up mainly of traveling businessmen who leave a copy. Most Americans still consider themselves Christians such people are not likely to destroy Bibles because the boss said so. While a company may be able to survive destroying the text of a minority faith, they also can't do that because doing so will make them look like the Taliban.

Many hotels offer holy books of other faiths and in places where missionaries of different faiths all drop their book will collect them all including the Bibles and hold them at the front desk if any guest request them. However they run the risk of offending more people by collections being made public then by having a Bible in a desk drawer with the local phone book.

With the Bible the normative Christian does not object to different translations or people taking them, writting in them etc. Other faiths demand that only their followers are to touch "the book" or its only really "the book" if written in a specific language for example.

I know a Mormon is way up, founder or maybe majority stock in the Marriot Hotel chain. The Book of Mormon can be found with the Bible that the Gideons and other smaller evangelic groups leave.