Sunday, April 4, 2010

MARRIOTT.COM RECOGNIZED AS ‘BEST OF THE WEB 2009

The site was awarded “Best of the Web: Gomez 2009 Web Performance Awards” for outstanding performance based on its rankings for response time, availability and consistency. More (gomez.com)

Read the Full Report

Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Hour to Save the Earth

Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain Participated in Global Earth Hour 2010.



"This is a great opportunity for Marriott hotels and business units to demonstrate our environmental commitment to associates, guests, owners, franchisees, and communities worldwide." – Bill Marriott.

Two different images of Twin-Tower building of Marriott Executive Apartments Manama Bahrain captured before and after switching off the exterior lights



Manama, Bahrain – As millions of people around the world showed their support to Earth Hour 2010, the Marriott Executive Apartments Manama in Bahrain participated in the event by turning off non-essential lightings on the evening of March 27th, for 1 hour.

Apart from switching off exterior lightings of its Twin-Tower building, the company also suggested to their residents and guests to turn off or dim non-essential interior lightings and other electrical devices within the premises for 60 minutes starting from 8.30pm. A series of communication tools have been put in place to ensure every guest is aware on the actions.

To mark the day, associates of the property were encouraged to do the same in their accommodation with their friends and families. They were enthusiastic to switch off unnecessary equipments and to reduce the consumption of water, electricity, fuels and gas.

This effort was part of the Marriott International policy where the goal was to have 500 Marriott properties around the world to participate in energy saving initiatives and hence raising awareness towards environmentally sustainable business operations.
General Manager Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain Hossein Garan said, "We were very excited to participate in this global call. Through this campaign, we would like to show our commitment to make the world a better place for us and our future generations, raise awareness of environmental issues, and involve our residents, guests and associates in green activities."
"This is a starting point to link it with the Earth Day on 22nd April 2010 as Marriott International recognizes April as a dedicated "Environmental Awareness Month" where we'll have various eco-friendly activities, such as beach clean up, energy saving competition, ecology poster competitions, planting and much more," added Hossein.

According to Chief Engineer Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain Saeed Qureshi, to support this effort, his team has started with ecological programs such as recycling used oil, creating green roof and replacing all normal lamps with energy saving lamps. "By using these energy saving lamps, now we can save more than a thousand Kilowatt a day. It's not a matter of how much dollars you can save, but it's a matter of what you can do to make the earth as a comfortable place to live for our next generation," explained Saeed Qureshi.

Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and business to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 and expanded worldwide in 2008. In 2009, the Marriott International participated in Earth Hour for the first time by asking business units around the world to take part. For more information about earth hour, please visit http://www.earthhour.org/

* * *

Marriott Executive Apartments, the upscale serviced apartment brand of Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) will nearly double in size in the next 36 months to respond to a growing need in many emerging markets for long-term stay lodging for executive expatriates needing spacious housing and hotel amenities. Including Bahrain, Marriott operates 17 Marriott Executive Apartments in 14 countries outside the U.S., and 14 more hotels are planned in countries such as Qatar, Thailand, Egypt, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) is a leading lodging company with more than 3,200 lodging properties in 71 countries and territories. Marriott International operates and franchises hotels under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bulgari brand names; develops and operates vacation ownership resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott brands as well as Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate housing through its Marriott ExecuStay division; and operates conference centers. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and had approximately 146,000 employees at 2008 year-end. It is recognized by BusinessWeek as one of the 100 best global brands, by FORTUNE® as one of the best companies to work for, and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Partner of the Year since 2004. In fiscal year 2008, Marriott International reported sales from continuing operations of nearly $13 billion. For more information or reservations, please visit our web site at http://www.marriott.com/. For an interactive online version of Marriott's 2008 Annual Report, which includes a short video message from Chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott, Jr., visit www.marriott.com/investor.

An Hour to Save the Earth