Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain Celebrated Associate Appreciation Week 2010

Your loyalty, dedication and creativity in finding new and better ways to do more with less have been nothing short of inspiring. Thank you for all you do to support our vision to be the most successful lodging company in the world. I look forward to an even brighter future where our company’s success creates new opportunities for all of you. – with deep appreciation, Bill Marriott.
The Marriott Executive Apartments Manama Bahrain celebrated "Associate Appreciation Week 2010" (AAW 2010). More than 100 associates were involved in commemorating the annual event with various activities and happenings.
As part of the corporate commitment and "Spirit to Serve" culture, Marriott International dedicates a week to show appreciation to its associates and thank them for their dedication to serve each other, guests and communities. Starting from 17 to 22 May 2010, all Marriott properties around the world are celebrating the week by hosting various events and fun activities.

In Bahrain, the celebration started from 16 to 21 May 2010 where associates participated in exciting activities such as games, tournaments, sports competitions, entertainments, blood donation campaign, team-building gathering, and a party on the last day of the week.

A surprised greeting at associates housing was delivered by the property's Human Resources Manager Loay Mamdouh on the first day, marking the commencement of the appreciation week. The program continued with "Wall of Fame" where associates expressed their appreciation to each other by writing comments on the wall of fame cards, until the end of the week.

The second day was filled up with "Sport Day" where associates were cheering up their teams who competed in Volleyball and Badminton tournaments. The program was followed with Cinema Time where they enjoyed watching new released movies at the associates housing.

The third day theme was team building gathering, took place at the Bahrain Yacht Club where the associates were enjoying barbeque party on the beach, games, music and dance.
As part of Bahrain community, the fourth day highlighted "Spirit to Serve Our Communities" initiative. The property worked together with the Ministry of Health and Bahrain Blood Bank (BBB) to host Blood Donation Campaign. More than 50 associates, guests and residents got together to help local communities by volunteering in the Blood Drive.
On the last day (20/20), the ceremonial night of Associate Appreciation Week was hosted with an uplifting party. Associates celebrated the evening with full of fun, live entertainments, Karaoke & Dance competitions, giveaways, and award presentations such as Associates of the Month and winner of the sport tournaments took place during the week.

General Manager Hossein Garan said, "The Associate Appreciation Week is the Marriott gesture to express its commitment to the most valued assets whom have been working hard and do the best during the year to achieve company's mission."

Human Resources Manager Loay Mamdouh added, "We have great associates working in a great place for a great purpose. This week is an opportunity for us to build upon taking care of associates philosophy in which we are applying everyday in Marriott."

"To me, Marriott Executive Apartments Manama is truly blessed to have these great people and I am proud of them," concluded Loay.

* * *

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 3,100 lodging properties in the United States and 66 other 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, Horizons by Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Club and Grand Residences by Marriott brands; operates Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate housing through its Marriott ExecuStay division; and operates conference centers. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Md., and had approximately 151,000 employees at 2007 year-end. It is ranked as the lodging industry’s most admired company and one of the best companies to work for by FORTUNE®, and has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the 2007 Sustained Excellence Award and Partner of the Year since 2004. In fiscal year 2007, Marriott International reported sales from continuing operations of $13 billion. For more information or reservations, please visit our web site at
www.marriott.com.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Towards Responsible Hotel Operations

Marriott Executive Apartments Manama Bahrain, Practices Environmentally Responsible Business Operations.

The Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain announced its participation in the celebration of Marriott Environmental Awareness Month. A series of environmental activities have been scheduled during the month of April to commemorate the global campaign on reducing emission and climate change.

Marriott International recognizes April as "Environmental Awareness Month" to communicate and celebrate the company's commitment to environmentally responsible operations, raise awareness of environmental issues, and increase associates participation in ecological activities. More than 140 thousands associates from 3,200 lodging properties around the world are celebrating the month with various eco-friendly related events.


In Bahrain, all associates at the Marriott Executive Apartments Manama are celebrating the month by participating in Energy Saving Competition. The associates are encouraged to come up with ideas on how to save energy consumption and protect the environment. Three best ideas will be selected and implemented in the hotel operations to support the company's program on minimizing energy usage.

"The main purpose of this competition is to educate our associates on the significance of saving energy for our future. The best ideas that can be implemented will become best practices to be used by other Marriott properties," said Chief Engineer Saeed Qureshi who is also Deputy Chairman of Energy Saving and Safety Committee of the property.

On 25th April, the property conducted Community Clean-Up Day marking the celebration of Earth Day 2010. Associates participated in cleaning up main streets and beaches in Al Fateh, Juffair area. "We encourage our associates to build upon their commitment on serving and cleaning their community. We ensure every associate's participation in supporting the elimination of waste, help the growth of native plants and trees, and beautify communities," said General Manager Hosein Garan.

Apart from Saving Energy Competition and Community Clean-Up Day, the property also encourages its associates to practice what they call "Green Daily Basics". The Green Daily Basics is being read on a daily basis and each associate enlivens daily tips on how to create environmentally-friendly working atmosphere. According to Human Resource Manager Loay Mamdouh, it includes simple actions in everyday routine of human life, for instance on 30th April, the Green Daily Basic is; Recycle and use recycled products. You'll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle. "These tips are very useful to practice on a daily basis, and not only reading it, our associates also love to practice a new tip every day," said Loay.
Sustainable Business Operations

With the spirit of Environmental Awareness Month, the company pledges its commitment on implementing environmentally responsible business operations. All departments are working hand in hand to reduce energy consumption and formulize programs to decrease waste that affect energy usage and environmental sustainability.

According to Director of Sales Marwan Haddad, the commitment of implementing eco-friendly activities in a profit organization will actually help business operate continuously. It means, if a business organization wishes to survive in the current tough market competition, it must consider environmental solutions to grow the company. Giving an example, Marwan explained, "If we can reduce electricity consumption, it helps us reduce operation cost and cut the selling price, and hence make our products more competitive in the market," said Marwan.

Explaining further about the benefit of considering environmental solutions in business operations, General Manager Marriott Executive Apartments Manama, Bahrain Hossein Garan said, "Although the main reason of these initiatives and practices are to help our environment and the world of tomorrow, there are benefits on cost saving and financial impact. Can you imagine, if every associate strives to save one liter of water per day, what would be the impact on both environment as well as financial."

"On a final note, we are very excited to participate in this global call. Through this campaign, we would like to continually show our commitment to make the world a better place for us and our future generations, raise awareness of environmental issues, and involve our guests and associates in green activities," added Hossein.

* * *

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
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.

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

Sunday, March 21, 2010

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO ALL THOSE KEYCARDS?

USA Today received some funny and creative answers from travelers who stay at various hotel chains. And here’s a hint – they don’t often make it back to the front desk. More (content.usatoday.com)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

MARRIOTT NAMED AMONG ‘TOP 10’ FOR ADVANCING WOMEN’S CAREERS

In a short video, Stephanie Linnartz, Global Officer, Sales & Revenue Management, discusses the company’s recognition by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) and tells her personal story of career advancement. More information, click here.

See the Full List of NAFE Top 50 Companies (nafe.com)