Marriott on the Move

Since I began blogging about two and a half years ago, I've learned a lot about the brave new world of communications. Our company has also made many advances, embracing social media like Twitter and YouTube. We've developed a highly interactive website for one of our brands, gocourtyard.com; and I even filmed a video entry for my blog last year about Thanksgiving. We've been doing a lot of exciting things with video lately - one of my favorites was when dance sensation David Elsewhere showed off his best moves in one of our TownePlace Suites.

And just a few weeks ago, we released another really exciting video featuring members of Washington's pro soccer team, D.C. United. The four soccer players, dressed . . .

I'm blogging today from one of my favorite cities in the world - London. It's a busy few days for me over here. We just celebrated the 80th birthday of the famed Grosvenor House hotel located on Park Lane and overlooking beautiful Hyde Park. The weather has been glorious and springtime in London is truly terrific. The Grosvenor House is one of our newest additions to our luxury JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand and it is a beautiful, iconic property.

I remember staying at Grosvenor House with my wife Donna during our first trip to London in 1962 before we had any hotels anywhere outside the United States. We both thought it was such a magnificent hotel with so much history and in such a wonderful location. I'm thrilled that now, 47 years later, it's a flagship hotel for us.

I've also been to two hotel grand openings this week - a Courtyard with the brand's new look at Gatwick Airport, outside of London, and a Marriott hotel in Twickenham, the home of English rugby. There, I went on the rugby field, which is called a pitch, and received a jersey from . . .

Today marks an important milestone at Marriott and one I am very proud of - the 25th anniversary of Marriott Vacation Club International, our timeshare business. I'm also very proud to tell you the story of an outstanding MVCI associate, Abri Kruger, who is a sales executive at our MVCI Surf Watch Resort on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. He was giving a potential timeshare owner a tour of the property when he saw a 3 year-old girl fall into the pool. He rushed over to where she was and pulled her out of the water as fast as he could, saving her from drowning.

Abri later said he didn't usually take the route he was on when he gives tours, but for some reason, that day, he decided to switch things up and go a different way. He truly believes that fate put him in the right place at the right time to save that little girl. This type of care and service has been a standard for our MVCI division for the past 25 years.

We ventured into timeshare back in 1984 when we purchased a company called American Resorts. Our first timeshare, Marriott's Monarch Resort, was on . . .

Most of us have our morning routines. Mine usually starts with skimming through a couple of newspapers with my dog Murphy while we have breakfast together. It's one of the ways I stay informed about the latest world events and business trends. I also love to relax by reading a good book, sitting down in a comfortable chair and getting lost in the story.

But times are changing. My children and grandchildren check the news on their PDAs and read books on Kindles. While I can't imagine reading something from such a small screen, they love the portability and timeliness of getting their news and information on the go.

A lot of our guests are telling us the same thing. They'd rather get their news online, and they feel guilty about seeing the newspapers outside their hotel room which they don't have time to read. So this week we made a major decision: In our full-service hotels like Marriott and Renaissance, we are going to ask our guests if they want a paper delivered to their rooms, and if so, which one they prefer. In our . . .

I've blogged many times before about the wonderful service our Marriott associates provide to our guests. Today, I have yet another great service story to share, but it's a little different from those in the past.

It takes place at the Residence Inn in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. A guest of the hotel came to the front desk one morning holding a pair of black pants on a hanger with a very panicked look on his face. He explained that he had come into town for a meeting that morning and in his haste, had accidentally packed his wife's slacks instead of his own. He was hoping there might be an extra pair in the hotel's lost and found or that someone could direct him to a store to buy a new pair of pants as he had a meeting very soon.

There was nothing in the lost and found, and with only 10 minutes until his meeting, he was never going to make it to a store in time. However, one of the hotel's front desk associates, Krasi, noticed that he happened to be the same size . . .

It's the end of March, so that means I'm taking my annual trip to Scottsdale, Arizona. I've come out here for spring break to our JW Marriott Camelback Inn every year for 41 years to celebrate my birthday and spend time with my family. It's always great to have everybody together, particularly in one place - especially a place with such beautiful weather and scenery.

But, like I do on most of my trips, I will be visiting some of our Marriott properties while I'm in the area. I'll even be attending the grand opening ceremony for our newest Residence Inn in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. This is a very unique hotel as it actually sits on the campus of the Mayo Clinic hospital and caters to patients and their families, as well as researchers and other medical professionals who are visiting the hospital.

Our Residence Inn brand is perfect for many patients of the Mayo Clinic and their families as these hotels are designed . . .