Marriott on the Move

I'm blogging today from the brand new Courtyard by Marriott at the Newport News Airport in southeastern Virginia. Today we're celebrating Courtyard's 25th anniversary. We opened the first one in 1983 and there are a lot of alums here today who were at the first opening and who continued on with our company to today.

Since the very beginning, Courtyard has been a leader in the lodging industry, known for being innovative and specifically catering to the needs of business travelers. Twenty five years later, we're still leading the pack. We're continuing to grow, reinvent and innovate. We're in more than 30 different countries now and we'll have our 800th hotel open in 2009.

But this is really a different and exciting hotel. When you walk . . .

Today kicks off a very special week for Marriott and our customers. Every October, we celebrate Global Customer Appreciation Week. We do this to thank our customers around the world for the business and their loyalty.

This year, the theme is "The Spirit to Preserve." Marriott has done a lot to be a greener company over the past years. We want to make sure our customers know what we're doing to be sensitive to our carbon footprint.

We're offering our group customers the opportunity to host green meetings in our hotels, which includes a carbon offset program where we'll donate a contribution on their behalf to protect the endangered rainforest in the Amazon. Forests are the lungs of the planet, inhaling carbon dioxide, and through our Spirit to Preserve the Rainforest, Marriott and . . .

I'm Arne Sorenson, the CFO of Marriott International and co-chair of the company's green council. Bill Marriott asked me to be a guest blogger to tell you how Marriott's on the move in the Amazon rainforest. As a matter of fact, I'm standing in the middle of the rainforest right now in a small 17 home community called Boa Frente, where I landed a few hours ago by seaplane.

The scenery is breathtaking. It's very peaceful. All you can hear are the sounds of the river rushing by, the leaves rustling and birds singing. That and what looked like dozens of children. I've been meeting and visiting with the people that live here and learning about their culture. They are very warm and friendly and are incredibly proud of this place and want to preserve it.

I'm thrilled with President Bush's announcement on Friday that seven new countries will be added to the U.S. government's Visa Waiver Program. The Visa Waiver Program allows travelers from certain qualifying countries, like the UK, Japan and Australia, to visit our country without having to get a visitor visa. The U.S government plans to add South Korea, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. It's a great first step to attract more international travelers to visit the United States, which is a key part of stimulating our economy.

In 2007, the U.S. welcomed two million fewer visitors than it did in 2000, despite the weak dollar and the millions more people that are . . .

I've blogged many times about how much I love to hear stories about exceptional customer service. Both guests and associates constantly send me wonderful stories. Let me share a few of my recent favorites.

The first was from a book by Joseph A. Michelli called The New Gold Standard, which examines how our Ritz-Carlton creates legendary experiences for their guests and those in their local communities. One of the examples used in the book is the story of Natalie Salazar, who at age 13 was diagnosed with terminal cancer. One of Natalie's biggest concerns was she was never going to be able to attend her high school prom.

When Laura Gutierrez, the Director of Human Resources at The Ritz-Carlton, Dearborn, Michigan, heard about Natalie's situation, she and the rest of her team rushed . . .

Since I spent my boyhood years growing up during the Second World War, I've always been fascinated with its history. I was living in Washington, D.C., at the time, and I was exposed to a lot of the military people coming and going, and to a lot of wonderful parades of returning war heroes.

My search for history has led me to George Arrington's bookstore in Ogunquit, Maine. I've found some fascinating old books, many written in first person by the men who fought in World War II. This past summer, I plowed through the war memories of Field Marshall Erich Von Manstein, who was labeled Germany's most brilliant general. Since I've come to believe that military leadership can offer many lessons to help anyone who is trying to lead a group of people in business, politics or any other organization, I found these memories very instructive.

Von Manstein spent 18 months commanding a large army group on the Russian front . . .