An Oasis for Travelers in the Dynamic City of Miami
;)
I'm blogging today from the Miami Airport Marriott in Miami, Florida. We built this hotel in 1972. I remember back when we opened it, Garo Yepremian was the place kicker for the Miami Dolphins. We asked him to kick a football over the ribbon to open the hotel, and it was my finger that held the ball. Good thing he was such a great kicker! I still have five fingers left on my hand.
The Marriott has now been completely redone and it looks great. We have three hotels on this campus including a brand new Residence Inn and newly refurbished Courtyard. These hotels create a real oasis for our guests traveling in and out of this dynamic city, and we're so close to the airport, just a couple of minutes away.
This was a great event today. We had a lot of Latin music and a lot of Latin employees to welcome us to the hotel. I used to visit Miami a lot back in the 1960s and 1970s when we used to do airline catering. Our two biggest customers were Pan American and Eastern Airlines. They're no longer here, but we did a lot of business with them and I visited Miami a lot, but I had a hard time finding a good hotel at the airport. I pledged that we would build a Marriott hotel at the airport when we had enough money. We finally found a little bit of money, but we couldn't afford the plans, so we used the Saddle Brook, New Jersey, plans from a hotel we'd built about ten years earlier.
We had 13 hotels when we opened this hotel in 1972, and I don't think we could have gotten a better location. Being a gateway of international travel and a great destination, we also decided to make Miami the home of the first ever JW Marriott Marquis hotel. This is a fabulous new hotel that's going to open in downtown Miami sometime in the middle of 2010.
These are terrific properties. I hope you'll check them out if you're ever in the Miami area.
I'm Bill Marriott and thanks for helping me keep Marriott on the move.
Images
|
Attachments
Comments | Add Comment
Posted By: Ruben (10/12/2009)
Comment: Wish you the very best and hope u have big plans for India too.
Posted By: Liz Peterson (10/11/2009)
Comment: Wow, the Marriott Marquis sounds wonderful. If I'm ever in Miami next year I will have to try it out!
Posted By: Sam Kreitzberg (10/11/2009)
Comment: Mr. Marriott I would very much like to talk to you about a boyscout requirement that we would love you to participate in! So if you could please e-mail me at coolboy@verizon.net I would love to talk to you
Posted By: Margo Yee (10/9/2009)
Comment: Have you thought about a weekend promotion which allows customers to combine stays at different Mariotts over the same weekend to get the special weekend rate?
Posted By: Paul Newmark (10/7/2009)
Comment: Happy to have you in Colombia, Mr. Marriot, I hope you have a wonderful stay.
Warm regards
Posted By: Ross Almazan (10/6/2009)
Comment: Was recently at the Miami Airport Marriott in June. The campus wasn't completely finished yet, but I could see that the airport "campus" is a great idea...lots of synergy. One question though...why not promote the Fairfield Inn as part of the campus as well? I noticed it was right next door.
Posted By: Hank Mancini (10/5/2009)
Comment: Have stayed at the full service Marriott at Miami airport a number of times and once at the Courtyard. Service has been excellent each stay. Look forward to seeing the newly refurbished hotels!
