Marriott on the Move

We're nearing the end of 2008 and I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to all of my readers and wish them a happy holiday and all the best for 2009. I'll be spending my Christmas in Washington, D.C. Every Christmas Eve, we have all our children and grandchildren over for Christmas Eve dinner. This year there will be 27 of us.

Then on Christmas Day, we go around with our presents and visit each one of our four children and their families. We start out at about 9 o'clock on Christmas morning and we get home at about 6 o'clock on Christmas evening. It's a wonderful day with family and presents and toys for the kids and plenty of good food, so it's a great opportunity for us.

There's no doubt that the . . .

Today is a very special day for me and for my family. My dad, John Willard Marriott, Sr., is being inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame at the U.S. Department of Labor here in Washington, D.C.

As many of you know, my father, with the great help of my mother, Alice, founded this company, which started off as a nine-seat A&W root beer stand, in 1927. Dad was a hard worker and our employees emulated that same work ethic. He also believed the key to a successful business was to, first and foremost, take care of your employees because he always said, "If you take care of them, they'll take care of your customers and the customers will keep coming back again and again."

My father always made sure to take time to listen to his employees and let them know . . .

It's no secret that I'm known as a stickler for detail. I try very hard to visit almost 300 hotels a year and give them my own version of the "white glove test" to look and see how things are going, to make sure they're as good for our guests as we can make them and that our guests have the best possible experience when they stay with us.

I guess one of the reasons I began paying such attention to detail was due to an experience I had when I was in college, working at one of my father's Hot Shoppes that he had opened out in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was working back in the kitchen on an afternoon after school and was assigned the task of cleaning out the deep fat fryers. I accidentally poured . . .

I enjoy working out with Pilates. It's a good form of exercise and I'm trying to do it at least twice a week. I've also been devoted to my treadmill since I had some heart attacks early on in life. I've been a devotee of using my treadmill at least 5 days a week. I usually do it at night, around 9:30.

A couple of nights ago, I was on the phone with my daughter-in-law Carrie. It was about 9:30 and I was about to get on the treadmill. I turned around and there came my golden retriever Murphy walking into my library, holding the towel from the treadmill in his mouth. He was letting me know that it was . . .

As many of you may know I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family's membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business.

I am personally motivated to speak now because Marriott was built on the basic principles of respect and inclusion. My father, who . . .