Tobias Bird bore witness to a rare ceremony last spring at the opening of the new Holiday Inn Express on Secor Road.

A few days before the opening of the 92-room hotel where Mr. Bird was sales manager, five staffers from Gideons International arrived bearing gifts: several boxes of Bibles.

“We all formed a circle and held hands while they said a prayer to bless all the Bibles,” he said. “Then, the managers and the Gideons went and put them in all the rooms.”

Travelers who stay in most of the Toledo area hotels likely will find a Bible in the room’s nightstand or dresser. For example, the Park Inn by Radisson downtown has had Bibles as long as anyone there can remember.

“We do keep them in the rooms in the nightstand between the beds. The Gideons supply them,” said Brandon Wilson, front office manager at the Park Inn.

But over the last 10 years nationally, the number of hotels that place the Bible or other religious materials in the rooms seems to have decreased. 

The country has more than 50,000 hotels. In Toledo, 11 hotels have opened in the last few years or will open in the next couple of years.

According to trend data from STR, 95 percent of hotels had religious materials in their rooms a decade ago. This year that has fallen to 79 percent.

The reasons, industry experts say, can range from hotels not wanting to offend foreign travelers who are Muslim or Buddhist to trying to appeal to younger American travelers who are considered generally to be less devout than their parents. 

Also, Bibles traditionally were put in the top drawer of a nightstand, but now many hotels have only shelves and no nightstand, making it less discreet for religious materials in a room.

“In an era of not offending anyone, I think hotels have a conundrum,” Carl Winston, director of San Diego State University’s hospitality school, told the Los Angeles Times.

And Linchi Kwok, an assistant professor at the Collins College of Hospitality in California, told the Times, “A lot of international hotels are trying to reach a very diverse group of travelers, and religion now has become a really sensitive topic.”

Some hotel chains, such as Marriott International, have made a conscious decision to keep the Bible and other religious texts, like the Book of Mormon, out of two of its hotel brands — Moxy and Edition hotels. Marriott, founded by a devout Mormon, did not respond to a request for information on the decision.

“With the Moxy, they were very clear that those materials don’t fit with their brand personality,” said Jan Freitag, a senior vice president at Smith Travel Research.

A spokesman for Gideons International, Jeff Pack, said the religious organization that has been distributing free Bibles to hotels for more than 100 years does not see much change in attitudes of hotel chains regarding use of the Bibles. In fact, the STR survey found slightly more hotels had Bibles in the rooms last year than the year before, though STR shows a decadelong decline.

Craig Warner, executive director of Gideon’s International, said in a statement: “We count it a privilege to partner with hotels and motels in providing Bibles at no charge. We regularly receive notes from guests thanking us for making God’s word available. ... Along with our supportive members and churches, we are in the business of hope — we don’t see that declining.”

Also, the bedside Bible may be facing the same foe that independent brick-and-mortar bookstores have been facing — digital technology.

“I don’t think hoteliers are actively sending a message saying we have an actual perspective on this, that we’re anti-Bible,” Mr. Freitag said. “They are trying to make life easier for their customers and acknowledging that we have other ways now to access those [religious] materials.”

A quick search of the Google App website pulls up 250 online Bible apps that offer the religious text in its various versions and in multiple languages.

“My sense of it is that the rise of digital resources to allow someone to read religious texts online has certainly been a factor” in the downward trend of Bibles in hotel rooms, said Sam Schwartz, the project coordinator of the renovation of the Renaissance Toledo Downtown hotel, which will open in May.

Mr. Schwartz said a decision has not been made by First Hospitality Group, owners of the hotel on Summit Street, on whether Bibles will be added to its 241 rooms. 

The Renaissance brand is owned by Marriott.

Steve Groppe, the general manager of the Renaissance Toledo, said, “I’ve had [Bibles] in every other hotel I’ve been at, and I’ve managed 18 hotels in 32 years.”

He said it’s “more than likely” he will make a call to the Gideons — who in 1908 first put Bibles in a hotel in Superior, Mont. — asking if they will supply the Renaissance Toledo with free Bibles, unless he finds that Renaissance’s policy says no.

As a practical matter, having Bibles in rooms is one more item housekeeping staffers have to check on each time they ready a room. 

“I don’t like to have any more collateral in a room than I need to,” Mr. Groppe said.

At the new Best Western Toledo South hotel in Maumee that opened on Dec. 1, manager Amanda Knight said the hotel’s rooms do not have Bibles or other religious texts for fear they might be defaced or damaged. 

But the hotel has Wi-Fi available so that a guest who wants religious materials to read could get them online.

When the Gideons visited the Holiday Inn Express on Secor Road, they left about 20 extra Bibles in case any in the rooms should be damaged or defaced, said Steve Williams, the hotel’s manager.

Jon Roumaya, president of Key Hotel & Property Management, which has built four area hotels in the last three years, including the Holiday Inn Express on Secor and is on the verge of building more, said the company has a good relationship with the Gideons and chooses to put Bibles in the rooms even when it’s not required.

“You do get some people that will complain every once in awhile but most of the people that don’t want them don’t look at them. And some people will complain if there’s not one there,” Mr. Roumaya said. “So usually we buy them.”

But he understands that things might be changing ever so slightly.

“The Moxy is urban and higher-end hotel. They are going after a different client,” Mr. Roumaya said.

Some hotels have a variety of religious materials at the front desk, available to guests who request it.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published December 11, 2016, 5:00 a.m.