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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 ... 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... Hi, this is Bill Marriott. As the CEO of a global lodging company with more than 2, 800 hotels around the world, I'm a big fan of removing barriers to global travel. I think having Americans visit other countries and having people visit the USA is our very best form of diplomacy. You just can't shake hands with an email or a fax. Tomorrow, January 23rd, the United States Government implements new passport requirements, part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or what we call WHTI. It means that everybody traveling by air between the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda must have a valid passport to enter or re-enter the United States. Hi, this is Bill Marriott. This week, I'm traveling to Los Angeles for a big hotel developers' conference. We're going to be talking about how the industry's going, and I'll review the plans for our new LA Live hotel - that's going to be a combination Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton Residences - right in downtown LA. Well let's not talk about that now. Let's talk about what our guests want. We know they want to be comfortable and have the best beds in the world, which I hope you've tried. We also know they want great technology and access in the room and lobby. But I know, like me, they're also looking for ... Hi, I'm Bill Marriott. Today we witnessed the cruel hand of terrorism once again. According to Pakistani authorities, our hotel in Islamabad was the target of a lone suicide bomber. The explosion occurred by the loading dock in the afternoon local time. No guests were hurt but a hotel maintenance worker was hospitalized and sadly, one of the hotel's security guards was killed as he tried to stop the suicide bomber from approaching the hotel. He is a great hero and he represents the true spirit to serve of our associates; to go above and beyond, which he certainly did. Hi, this is Bill Marriott. Everybody's asked me about that AstroTurf(r) story. This is one of the great stories of our company. My dad was a stickler for detail. He wanted everything perfect. He always wanted the guest to have the very best experience they could have. Back in about 1976 or 1977, he discovered AstroTurf, and he decided that this would be a great product to put on ... Thousands of you have been reading my blog, and hundreds of you have written to me with your ideas. I am really excited about this new communication tool. Thirty percent of our hits have come from readers outside of the United States, which shows the growing recognition of our global brands. But, like others in the travel industry, we're all worried about some of the barriers to global travel. The world travel market is really growing fast. In fact, in the last several years, since the Berlin wall went down, there have been three billion more people that have come into the world's economy - especially from China, India and Eastern Europe. I was just out in Los Angeles last week visiting our hotels. I got to about 15 of them, and I was thrilled to see that over nine or 10 of them had totally renewed their interiors in the last six months. Some of them are still underway, but they really look sharp, and I was very proud. Visiting these hotels is a great chance for me to connect with our associates and make sure they're all happy and smiling. You know, you just can't fake a smile. There's nothing I love more than a great Marriott cheeseburger and French fries. Boy, I just love French fries. I started cooking French fries back in 1950 when I worked in the Hot Shoppes in Salt Lake City. And all my boys joined the company when they were 15 and 16 and worked first cooking French fries in the Hot Shoppes. So I love French fries. We serve over 6 million pounds of French fries every year and people love them. Unfortunately, we've all learned that the oil we use to cook French fries with is a source of trans-fat, and today that's not good. We know it's been linked to obesity and heart disease. I'm blogging from the road today. I'm in San Antonio for a Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites General Managers' meeting. We had almost 850 people in our auditorium this morning and boy, are they enthusiastic about the future of the business and the way their properties are doing. I've always loved San Antonio. It's a city that's so rich in history and culture. It has a very heavy Hispanic influence and we have a lot of diversity in this city and in our company. And I want to see that diversity continue to be reflected.... We really received a lot of comments on the blog about Marriott's decision last year to take all our hotels in North America 100 percent smoke free. That includes Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, our Fairfield Inns, and even our TownePlace Suites. One of our very best customers who smokes blogged back to me and said, "I'll never come back to a Marriott." Well, that's a tough pill for us to swallow. But we made this decision because we knew it's what our customers wanted. And it certainly is what our associates deserved. I was really happy to hear the President talk about immigration reform in his State of the Union, and even happier to see the bipartisanship that seems to be coming together around this issue. I recently stayed at our Harbor Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I got a departure card from Ana Ruiz. Ana is a senior housekeeper who works on the upper floors of the hotel. She's been with our company for 35 years. She started out making beds, and she's still doing it, but she now supervises others. . . Reflecting back on Marriott's 80 years in the hospitality industry, one word summarizes our company's enduring success: opportunity. This weekend in San Francisco, I'm challenging our JW Marriott, Marriott and Renaissance General Managers from around the world to look for opportunities for their associates to grow and build careers within Marriott. When your employees see personal opportunity, the company thrives, and that has helped Marriott get to where it is today. At the recent Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites General Managers Conference in San Antonio, I shared with all the General Managers the following story about an opportunity my father was fortunate enough to receive. In 1921, my father returned from his mission for the Mormon Church. . . Hi, my name is Valerie McSwain, I am a concierge at the Washington Marriott, and here today, I am guest blogging for Mr. Marriott. Before I came to Marriott about 11 years ago, I was on welfare; and at that particular time, I knew that that wasn't enough to take care of my family. So, they had a program called the Pathways program, which was a program to help families get off welfare and to become employed. I truly thank God for the Pathways program because it truly led me to a life of freedom, job opportunities, better education like never before and it's truly been a blessing to my family. When I first started with Marriott, my first job here was at the front desk. But, at that time. . . I just returned from a General Managers' conference at the San Francisco Marriott. The associates at that hotel are serving as role models for our company's efforts to conserve natural resources and recycle waste. Becoming a better environmental steward is increasingly at the core of what we do. And I think it makes good business sense too. Our 1, 500 room San Francisco hotel launched a huge recycling effort just a few years ago. Today, it recycles about a million pounds of paper and cardboard every year. I was told that if all the paper and cardboard were stacked up, it would be ten times higher than the 39 story hotel. Our associates also recycle. . . I want to keep talking about the environment because it's very much on the minds of people here at Marriott and around the world. Global warming has been getting so much attention recently, especially with former Vice President Al Gore's documentary - An Inconvenient Truth - winning an Oscar. I'm a movie buff and I saw the film and thought it was very sobering. At Marriott, we've been working hard to conserve energy and water since the early 1980s. Now we know that also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. . . We hold a lot of company conferences here at Marriott - like the recent gathering of our 800 JW Marriott, Marriott and Renaissance general managers. That's because we want to make sure our associates are informed about all the innovative initiatives we're launching... Typically, people who attend a conference come home with suitcases full of paper. This time, we wanted to reduce the paper chase and come close to having a paperless conference. So everyone who attended received iPods. . . It's a girl! This is Bill Marriott. This morning at 10:40 my wonderful daughter-in-law Carrie and son David had a beautiful baby girl, seven pounds, one ounce. They have two boys and now they have a little girl. Her brother Jack, when informed about this wonderful event, said "She'll love me Daddy." Jack is... I've been talking and writing about opportunity a lot lately. It seemed to have a connection with some of you who wrote back. About two decades ago, I ignored our lawyers' advice and supported the Americans with Disabilities Act. They told me it would cost a lot of money... Well, I'm heading back to Texas, to San Antonio. That's where our General Managers for our Courtyard, SpringHill Suites and Fairfield Inn brands are meeting. There's a lot going on with each of these brands. Courtyard is rapidly expanding everywhere with a new prototype in Europe. We'll soon double the number there to about 100 hotels in the next 5 years. Fairfield Inn has been reinvigorated and the results have been terrific with higher guest satisfaction and better financial performance. A lot of you, I know, have stayed at Courtyard with its 700 hotels and Fairfield with their 500, but today I want to talk to you about SpringHill Suites and its guests. I'm often asked, "How can you have so many different brands? Isn't that a lot to manage, and doesn't it inspire a lot of confusion?" Well, not really, because every brand caters to a different kind of traveler. Now, the People often ask me, "What is your favorite hotel?" That's hard to say because we've got 3, 000 of them and some of them are absolutely spectacular. But, you know, it goes back to, "Where are your roots?" and "Where have you spent your happiest days?" and it always comes back to Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona. We've been going to Camelback as a family since 1948 -that's a long time. Camelback's got a great history. It was the first resort hotel built in the Scottsdale area of Arizona back in 1936. It had a dirt road in front of it . . . It's Environmental Awareness Month at Marriott, so I want to pick up our discussion on the environment. Judging from some of the comments you've sent, there's a lot of interest in global warming. Many of you challenged me on whether our company's efforts were strong enough and that's really great. That's why I started my blog -- because I want to hear from you. What you had to say mirrors consumer trends, especially in travel. People want to do business with companies that do the right thing. I think conserving natural resources and reducing Marriott's environmental footprint is the right thing to do. I told you about how . . . Over the past 80 years, our company has achieved many milestones and many firsts. We opened the first Marriott Motor Hotel in Washington, D. C. 50 years ago, we opened our first international hotel in Acapulco, Mexico back in 1969, and we opened our first European hotel in Amsterdam in 1975. Amsterdam was a very memorable opening as we had a professional diver dive off the roof into a barrel full of water. As soon as he hit the water, the barrel broke and water went all over the street, but he was OK. We sure wouldn't want to try a stunt like that today. This month, we're celebrating another first for Marriott - the opening of more than 100 hotels over the next 100 days. And we're on track to open our 3, 000th hotel by the end of the year. I remember when we opened hotel number 100 . . . About once a year, rumors start flying on the Internet about hotels storing personal information, like your credit card, on those plastic card keys with magnetic strips. It's like one of those urban myths. Let's set the record straight as far as Marriott is concerned. I remember when you checked in at a hotel they gave you a key to your room that looked a lot like the key for your front door at home. Our guests would . . . Almost 52 years ago, my wife and I honeymooned at Banff in Canada. We stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel, a beautiful, beautiful hotel, in that wonderful part of the world. And I took my wife up to Lake Louise and took her for a canoe ride. She was absolutely terrified because she was afraid I'd tip the canoe over. She forgot about all my canoeing experience when I was a camper at the age of 10 at Camp Idlewild in New Hampshire. We had a successful canoe ride - nothing happened and we got back to shore without getting wet. We didn't have a Marriott in Canada back then, so when we stayed at Banff Springs, I said . . . I've told you how my mother and father built a root beer stand into a chain of restaurants called the Hot Shoppes. I remember how my folks would often say, "Treat your employees well, and they'll treat the customers well, and they'll come back, again and again."One day, at my dad's restaurant, the cook didn't show up for work. The lady who was filling up the root beer mugs didn't show up either. My father had a real problem. At that point, he realized that job number one was to take care of his people. So, when they were sick, he . . . I know it's Mother's Day this week, and I thought I'd share some remembrances of my mother who passed away just a few years ago at the age of 92. My mother was one of the founders of Marriott International. She and my dad opened a nine-stool root beer stand back in 1927 here in Washington, D. C.When the weather got cold, people stopped drinking ice cold root beer, so they put on chili and tamales and hot dogs and hamburgers. But my mother cooked the chili and tamales in her apartment because there . . . This week in Washington, the U. S. Congress begins debate on a serious public policy issue. If you've been reading my blog, you know I have passionate views about reforming America's immigration laws. I know that immigration reform is a difficult and .... Over the past few months, I have blogged quite a bit about Marriott's Spirit To Serve Our Communities. I have talked about what we are doing to help protect our environment and conserve energy, and I have discussed how we create jobs and opportunities for people with disabilities and those in need. I feel it's our company's duty as a good corporate citizen. But we've also found that doing the right thing adds to the bottom line. This is a very special week for us here at Marriott. It's our Associate Appreciation Week when we thank our wonderful associates for all their hard work throughout the year. My favorite part of this week is what we call our Spirit To Serve Our Communities Day. Our associates . . . The author Jules Verne wrote the novel Around the World in 80 Days. You may have read it, but I'm sure you've seen the movie version with David Niven. I've seen it a couple of times, I thought it was terrific, and I'm a big film buff. The number 80 is a big one for our company this year as we're celebrating our 80th anniversary this week. My mother and father came East in a Model T Ford in 1927 from Utah to open a root beer stand. Since then, our company has gone around the world. . . Ghent: a beautiful medieval city in Belgium. It was founded in the 7th century at the confluence of two wonderful rivers, and during the Middle Ages, it was the busiest port in all of Europe. For over 300 years, Ghent was the biggest city in Europe next to Paris. And today, it's still a vibrant, beautifully preserved gem of a town filled with university students and a brand new Marriott hotel . . . I've just visited our newest Renaissance hotel - The Shelbourne in Dublin, Ireland. It's a spectacular restoration of one of Dublin's finest hotels. It overlooks St. Stephen's Green - 100% location, right in the heart of Dublin. This is where they drafted the constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922. I actually sat . . . Regular readers of my blog and listeners to the audio portion know how important my family is to me. I have four kids and 14 grandchildren. Nothing makes me happier than being with them. Family is so important and always comes first. Call this blogger "old-fashioned."That's why I'm so excited about our newest hotel venture. It's a global partnership with Nickelodeon and the international real estate investment and development company, Miller Global. Miller Global is planning on building 20 hotels called Nickelodeon by Marriott. . . This is a special week for us here at Marriott. At our headquarters here in Bethesda, Maryland, we're honoring ten of our most outstanding associates with the Marriott Award of Excellence. They come from all four corners of the world, so they're really excited to come to Washington and see where the company's based. And an extra special gala will be held in their honor when they are presented their awards. Each of the associates has a commitment to excellence, to teamwork, and to the "spirit to serve." And each one has a really unique story to tell. Let me tell you a little bit about . . . As Albert Einstein once said, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." As much as I love my job with Marriott, what gives me great pleasure is knowing what we can do for our communities around the world. Tonight, here in Washington, I'll be attending the annual fundraising gala for Bridges-from school to work. It's a program operated by the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. My brother Richard is the foundation's chairman. Bridges trains young people in the U. S. with physical and mental challenges to . . . It was my father who coined the phrase, "Take care of the associates, and they'll take good care of the guests, and the guests will come back." Most people might think that only means customer service, but it really is the mindset of how we do business. Let's talk about safety and security. We know that feeling safe and secure at hotels is a major priority for those of us who travel. We all take it very seriously. Marriott was recently recognized as having "world class status" when it comes to safety and security. That's because we . . . When you boil it down to the basics, the hotel business is about service. From the greeting you get as you walk in the front door, to the furniture and amenities in your guest room, to how quickly we deliver room service. I know that's how we're judged. If a problem comes up, you want us to fix it, and fast. If we don't meet your expectations, you can go to one of our competitors. If we meet or exceed your expectations, then hopefully we'll earn your loyalty and you'll come back. Just recently, the University of Michigan released . . . Happy 4th of July, everyone. This is really a very special time of year for all of us as we celebrate the founding of this great nation. I've spent the last 60 years on the 4th of July in the little town of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, which really embodies the spirit of the 4th. Up there . . . Not too long ago, I talked about the fact that we were planning on opening 100 hotels in 100 days. It's really exciting to open a new hotel. Well, the one that really, really got me going was the brand new Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow, which just opened this week. I visited Moscow for the first time in 1972, right at the height . . . I was recently interviewed on Nightline and had an opportunity to talk about my role as a Mormon bishop, which happened almost 40 years ago. I was in charge of a ward-which is really a parish-of around 800 members, and about 300-400 of them were Hispanic. I had an opportunity to work closely with these wonderful people who were struggling to make it in America and trying to keep their family together, feed their children, find a . . . Here is a quick thought on the recent failure of our Congress to act on immigration reform. I know a little bit about leading, and I've always found that leaders make tough decisions. That's why it's so disappointing that politics trumped policy. The issue of secure borders and creating a path to citizenship are not going away. Rather than trying to solve the problem, Congress will probably . . . Since we announced our hotel deal with Nickelodeon-where we're going to be developing Nick Hotels by Marriott, featuring all the Nickelodeon characters and many of the Nickelodeon festivities-people have asked me what it's like to be slimed. Well, I can tell you, it's a lot of fun. I was standing there on the stage at the exact place where I was supposed to be and a steel arm came over the top of the curtain behind me. All of the sudden . . . Today I want to give you an update on an issue I've blogged about. It's the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This past January, the United States government started implementing new passport regulations. U. S. citizens traveling by air to and from destinations in the western hemisphere, like Canada and Mexico, had to present a valid passport. For those who don't know, here's what happened when it went into effect . . . I'm very excited today to tell you of some breaking news from Marriott. The JD Power and Associates 2007 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study has just been released. The study measures overall guest hotel satisfaction across six hotel segments. The first segment is ... Twenty years ago, we purchased Residence Inn. That's the same year that President Reagan spoke at the Berlin wall and called on Soviet Premier Gorbachev to tear it down. It's just amazing how much the world has changed in the last twenty years. Residence Inn has now grown to more than 500 hotels in North America. We bought the Residence Inn brand from Jack DeBoer, who invented it. You know, it's interesting to hitch your wagon to a star . . .I hope you've all read about our new joint venture with Ian Schrager to develop boutique hotels around the world. We're really excited about this because Ian obviously invented the boutique hotel concept and is certainly one of the most creative forces in the hotel industry today. When we decided that we would have a press conference, we thought about what would be the greatest venue and we . . .There's been a lot of talk and coverage recently about a fellow CEO online who was posting some not-so-nice stuff about his competition. It seems that today, the business world is becoming much more transparent, thanks in large part to the Internet. All this got me thinking, "Why do I blog?" Well, I've been . . .We're approaching another U. S. presidential election and there's a lot of talk in the air about leadership. I've always been a student of leadership and been fascinated by what makes a good leader. You get as many different opinions on this as you will on what a good steak should taste like and how it should be cooked. To me, the most fascinating leader of our century, at least in the 20th century, was Dwight Eisenhower. Here was a guy who was . . .It's been two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the United States Gulf Coast. I've traveled to New Orleans twice since then and toured the city. I've visited with our associates and watched as they worked hard to reopen the hotels. I spent a lot of time with our people and witnessed their suffering. Many had no place to live so we moved their families into our hotels. We focused . . .We know guest room technology is very important to our guests. A couple of months ago, I blogged about some new technology we're installing in our full service hotels. It's an LCD television with a connectivity panel, so you can watch and listen to digital devices through the television. Judging from the reaction we're getting since the marketing and rollout began, it's going to be very popular. In response to that blog, a lot of you . . .From the time when I was a young boy, my father was always very concerned that I would learn how to work. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Our family had a little bit of money when I was growing up and I didn't need to work, but my father soon fixed that. So, I did chores around the house and mowed the lawn, swept the driveway, washed the cars and cleaned out the basement. And when it wasn't done right, I was sent back to do it again. I spent a lot of time in that basement trying to get it right. Grandchildren are coming along now and my children are . . .I don't drink coffee, but I love Starbucks. What a great company and what a great brand. Did you ever imagine that customers would become so passionate about the coffee "experience?"The proof certainly is in the numbers. Starbucks has . . .My father was born 107 years ago today on September 17, 1900 in Ogden, Utah. I think about him often. He was truly a great leader and a great motivator of people. There was an article in Reader's Digest in the 1940s which said, "Everybody likes to work for Bill Marriott" (that was my father because he was named Bill, too) . But I thought a lot about his leadership skills . . .There's been a lot of talk recently about the emerging economies in Asia, especially India and China. We have a lot of hotels under development in those markets and hopefully we'll have over 100 hotels in China and India in the next three or four years. Despite China's rapid economic expansion, however, Japan still remains a powerhouse . . .This is Bill Marriott, blogging from Beijing, China. This week, we designated our new JW Marriott at China Central Place our 3, 000th hotel in the Marriott portfolio. "Chi" is the Chinese word for energy and that describes what has happened in this country of 1.3 billion people since my last visit here in 2004. I was here in 1979 and then there were nothing on the streets but bicycles. Now, today . . .Give the Chinese a crack at capitalism and all heck breaks loose - that's my main take-away after seven days here in Asia. The consumer potential of this country is awesome. That's why Marriott is so bullish about our growth plans here. China's economy is growing at the rate of 10 percent a year. If you think that's impressive, wait 'til you get a load of Macau. It's growing at more than 20 percent a year. This tiny, little island is about one-sixth the size of Washington, D. C. and only . . .It's always important to remember those who serve. We all have trouble trying to figure out how much to tip someone. I remember at a luncheon I was at in New York back in the '50s and the president of the Roger Smith Hotel Company, which is no longer around, talked about how hard it was for him to determine how much he tipped when he left his hat at the coat check room when he went out to eat. Of course nobody wears hats anymore so you don't have to worry about that. But we have so many people who strive so hard . . .When I get away in the summer, I love to read. And since I was in the Navy for a short period of time, I always find myself reading the latest sea story. This past summer's sea story was called The Galloping Ghost: The Extraordinary Life of Submarine Legend Eugene Fluckey (rhymes with lucky) and was written by Carl LaVO. It's a very recent publication and in . . .Recently, Marriott won the World Savers award from Conde Nast Traveler for its culture of service and social responsibility. This was a great honor, and I've accepted some awards before, but World Savers is certainly the most impressive. It sounds like an award you'd give to Mother Teresa. But seriously, our Marriott associates do save the world in small ways every day. For example, through our Youth Career Initiative program, they train disadvantaged youths to . . .Since I was a kid, Saturday afternoons were always reserved for the matinees. I used to love to go to the movies on Saturday afternoon, and I particularly liked to catch the latest Western. As I've grown older, I still go to the movies on Saturday afternoon. I find that's about the only time I have free. I take my wife, Donna, and we go sit in the movies, hold hands, eat popcorn and watch the latest flick. It's great to see . . .