Marriott on the Move

Hi, this is Bill Marriott, and I'm talking to you from my office at Marriott International Headquarters in Maryland. You know, I've had a lot of great comments on that first blog. Thank you for participating and for letting me know how you feel.

We have a great anniversary this week. It's our 50th year in the lodging business. It was 50 years ago on about January 18th that we opened the first Marriott Motor Hotel at the 14th Street Bridge in Washington. It was just a big motel - 365 rooms. We had an outside check-in so we could see who was in the car. We got $8 a night for those rooms, and if there was an extra person in the car, we got $1 for every extra person. So when we were busy, we got as much as $12 for a room.

Every room had...

I'm venturing into uncharted territory as I launch this blog. A year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was -- until my Communications team began telling me about all the blog traffic on travel and tourism. Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly -- and hear back from them. Soon we'll add an audio version of the blog. That's how I'm most comfortable: telling stories and listening.

I've checked out Jonathan Schwartz's blog at Sun Microsystems and "Randy's Journal" at Boeing. I've listened to Senator Barack Obama's blog podcasts. I know blogs will be a hot communications tool in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Truth be told I am ...