Marriott on the Move

During the contest for the College Football National Championship in January, I met University of Florida coach, Urban Meyer. I was so proud of the great result he achieved when he coached my alma mater, the University of Utah. I was anxious to meet him and thank him for all his Utah victories.

He recently invited me to be his guest at the University of Florida's home opener game versus University of Tennessee in Gainesville, Florida. My son, David, and I attended the . . .

We're really excited that this Monday, September 28, CBS football broadcaster James Brown will be at one of our Courtyard hotels. He's spending the afternoon with us to shoot a video that you'll be able to see very soon.

But while he's there, he's also going to answer some questions from his fans via video segments that will be posted online throughout the fall. You can send in your questions for J.B. either by leaving me a comment on my blog, or through Twitter on our CourtyardHotels site.

We'll select a few questions for J.B. and he'll tape his answers, so be sure to check in with us often to see if your question gets answered! We'll also be . . .

They say you can't be in two places at once, but I learned today you can, thanks to technology!

Today we celebrated two big milestones with one big event. First, the Courtyard Portland City Center in Oregon, which opened just a few months ago, officially received its LEED-Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and there are only 20 hotels in the United States that have earned that label.

At the same time, the Courtyard Chevy Chase in Md., officially opened today after a $35 million renovation. This hotel also expects to be LEED-certified by the end of the year. It's among 50 Marriott hotels currently registered for LEED certification.

Even though I could only be in Chevy Chase today, I was able to join the Portland event too via our live webcast. The two events were linked . . .

A few months ago, I posted a blog about the decline in travel and tourism in Mexico as a result of the global recession and the concern about the H1N1 virus. In fact, for some of our properties, the decline in occupancy was so drastic management was faced with the possibility of having to lay off members of their staff.

One of those hotels was The Ritz-Carlton in Cancun. The summer months in North America are considered the slow season in Cancun and the hotel was hosting even fewer guests than in past years. The general manager, Hermann Elger, faced a difficult decision about laying off his staff. Hermann's concern for the well-being of his associates led him to an inventive idea that allowed many of his people to keep working and support themselves and their families.

Hermann knew that the slow season in Cancun was actually high season for many cruise lines so he reached out to Carnival Cruise Lines. He explained the situation . . .

In the United States, September is always a month of great expectations. Summer vacations end, children go back to school, the work week goes back into high gear, and the American football season begins. At Marriott, we're using our Global Safety and Security Preparedness Month this September to educate our associates on how to be ready for the next wave of the H1N1 flu pandemic.

All of our Marriott hotels have procedures addressing a variety of health and safety issues, but I thought I'd let you know that we recently updated our flu prevention and pandemic guidelines in direct response to the emergence of the H1N1 virus. These guidelines are based on guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization and have been shared with all our hotels worldwide.

These include common sense hygiene practices that are good to follow whether or not there's a lot of flu going around. Things like frequent and thorough hand washing, good coughing and sneezing etiquette, and avoiding contact with . . .

Bravo to the United States Senate for supporting a much-needed bill that will spur international travel, boost U.S. hotel stays and help accelerate the recovery of the U.S. economy. My thanks to Senators Harry Reid, Byron Dorgan and John Ensign for their tireless work. The Travel Promotion Act will now move over to the House of Representatives, where Congressmen Roy Blunt and Bill Delahunt are the champions.

The Travel Promotion Act is no cost to taxpayers and the Congressional Budget Offices estimates it will reduce the federal budget deficit by $425 million dollars.

We're really enthusiastic because this legislation would create a public-private partnership to promote the U.S. as a travel destination and educate international travelers on our policies . . .