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Room with a view

By Ding Qingfen (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-16 14:57

There is probably no better a word than "exciting" to sum up how Bill Marriott felt about his most recent visit to China late last September.

The 76-year-old chairman and CEO of Marriott International (Marriott), a global lodging company with a history as long as 81 years, is also the son of J. Willard Marriott, the company's founder.

Marriot visited China especially to celebrate the completion of Marriott's 3,000th hotel, the 588-room JW Marriott Hotel Beijing in the capital's newest luxury property complex - China Central Place - which opened last November.

"I have been very impressed with the city's drive, energy and focus as it prepares for the Olympic Games. We are thrilled to be part of these exciting times for China and Beijing, and look forward to doing our part to help host a historic and memorable experience for all of our guests," said Marriott during his speech in the ceremony.

There is little doubt that nearly 20 years ago, when Marriott made its first foray into the nation, the group's chairman would never have expected that firstly such a remarkable event would happen in China and secondly that China would and will continue to have such a significant role in the company's corporate development strategy.

Back in 1927, J. Willard Marriott and his partner Hugh Colton opened their A&W root beer stand in Washington. In 1957 the business expanded into a lodging portfolio when the motor hotel - Twin Bridges - opened in Virginia, signaling the beginning of the group's hotel business.

For many years, "the corporate focus was on North America, due to the opportunities for growth in the United States," says Geoff Garside, executive vice-president of Marriott Asia-Pacific, who joined Marriott in 1977 and is now in charge of business in Asia and Australia.

"It was not until the 1980s that we began to look at internationally."

And the first destination abroad was China. In 1989, Marriott opened its first Chinese hotel, the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, which was also its first hotel in Asia.

Garside was then transferred from general manager (GM) of JW Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles to GM of the first China hotel, and his career has since been closely connected to the world's most populous nation and fastest growing economy.

What attracted Marriott to HK at that time was "the cheap labor costs", but the reason Marriott did not choose Chinese mainland to invest in which has a lower labor cost than Hong Kong lied in the immaturity of the local hospitality market.

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