Marriott on the Move

It's a very special day for our company, the 25th anniversary of Marriott Rewards, our guest loyalty program. With 30 million members, it's one of the largest hotel loyalty programs in the world. I know many of you are Marriott Rewards members and I thank you very much.

I remember when Marriott Rewards began as a grassroots effort by some of our hotels. They wanted to recognize their most loyal customers. When we first started the program, we had a lot of critics and non-believers, but we were onto something good.

Other hotel companies soon joined us. Back then, the industry loyalty programs were divided by brand. Guests could only redeem points for the same brand where they had been earned. In 1997, we became the first loyalty program to change that, so guests earning points at Courtyard or Fairfield Inn could redeem them for stays at full service Marriott hotels or any other brand in our system.

Now, one out of every two guests that stay with us is a Marriott Rewards member. They consider themselves . . .

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'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 . . .

A little while ago, I had a very memorable visitor come to my office. His name is Mark Raines and his company is called Raines Development Group. They own and operate our Courtyard and SpringHill Suites hotels in Florence, South Carolina. They are building their third Marriott property, a Residence Inn, in the same neighborhood.

Back in 2000, Mark became extremely ill. He slipped into a coma and the doctors told his wife Chrisie he had only a one percent chance of survival. Miraculously, however, he awoke after 50 days.

Mark's reason for telling this story was not to get into the details about his illness, but to make me aware of the actions of our Marriott associates. He attributes his survival to the support and care of many of these wonderful people. Mark says they . . .

As you all have seen on television, our upper Midwest region has been struck by a terrible natural disaster. Huge rains have fallen in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin. The rivers have been overflowing their banks and the levees are breaking. There's been massive flooding and thousands of people in the region have been evacuated from their homes.

Marriott has a lot of properties in these areas but, fortunately, none were damaged. It was a near miss for our Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, right near Iowa City, but the actions of the associates . . .

We're all aware that there was a terrible earthquake in China on the 12th of May. My heart goes out to the victims and the families. But I'm so proud of how our hotels responded. True to our Spirit To Serve, our associates, owners and franchisees rushed to action to help the community and their peers affected by the quake.

Forty-eight Marriott associates were directly affected. They either lost their homes or they were damaged, or their family members were injured. They have been given paid leave days, transportation to temporary shelters and medical subsidies for those who had been injured. Many of our hotels and regional offices have also held . . .