Marriott Opens a New Line of Boutique Hotels called "Edition"

Edition was the brainchild of Ian Schrager. He's the guy who created the whole boutique hotel segment with exciting hotels like the Mondrian in West Hollywood, the Delano in Miami and my very favorite, the Gramercy Park in New York. Ian is a creative genius and that's one of the reasons why we partnered with him seven months ago.



When we first looked at the boutique hotel segment, we knew there was an opportunity for a unique concept on a global scale. We now have 18 lodging brands, but we were not a player in the boutique sector. We also recognized where our company's strengths were and where we could benefit from outside expertise, and that led us to Ian Schrager.

Bill Marriott Talks About Tipping

This is from an old story, back in the '30s, in the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less.

A 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" the little boy asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins he had. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now, more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing very impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry. As she wiped down the table, there placed neatly beside the empty dish were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae because he had to have enough money to leave her a tip.

Read the entire story and visit Bill Marriott's blog.

In The Words of Bill Marriott: All I Can say about Macau . . . is WOW!!!

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 an hour-long ferry ride from Hong Kong. About 100 million people are within a three hour car ride and 3 billion people are within a five hour flight.

No surprise that last year, Macau overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenue.

You should see the monstrous casinos at the brand new Venetian. It's the second largest building in the world after the Boeing plant in the state of Washington. They have an entertainment center under construction that will accommodate 15,000 people for major events like rock concerts and NBA exhibition games.

The lowest bet at the high roller tables is $3000. There are no slot machines - well there are just a few - some baccarat, a lot of roulette, blackjack and "sic bo," which means high-low in Chinese.

And talk about speed to market: the Venetian was a $2.4 billion project but only took 24 months to build.

Read the entire post in Mr. Marriott's blog, Marriott on the Move.