When I first began writing about the hotel industry, it took me a while to understand the hotel lingo. But there was one thing I’ve always been good at writing about: the people. People’s stories are an aspect of the hotel industry I’ve always found fascinating.
Bill Marriott is someone who I have always thought embodies the hospitality spirit. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing Bill Marriott speak (he’s been making the rounds recently, speaking at the 37th annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference and the Canadian Hotel Investment Conference during the last two months), you can tell that his “human” side far outweighs his business side.
And Marriott International’s business side all started from humble beginnings when J. Willard Marriott and his wife Alice moved in 1927 from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Washington, D.C., where the couple opened a root-beer stand. Eventually, the duo realized nobody wanted cold root beer in the winter, so they decided to add hot dogs to the stand. Enter Hot Shoppes restaurant chain. After running the restaurant chain all through the 1930s and ‘40s, the Marriott family in 1957 opened its first hotel: the Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Since then, Marriott has grown to include more than 3,900 properties across 18 brands in 72 countries and counting. The company expects to have a million rooms open or under development by the end of this year. The key to all its success? The people, Bill Marriott said.
I had the pleasure of seeing Bill Marriott speak onstage during an interview with his daughter Deborah Marriott Harrison at the Canadian Hotel Investment Conference in Toronto last month. During that time, he shared three life lessons:
1. “Take good care of your people.”
Bill Marriott’s father J. Willard Marriott knew he had to take care of his people, so he did. And that was a guiding principle for the company that would become Marriott International—from root-beer stand to hotel giant.
“(My father) established the basic philosophy of the company, which is take good care of your people and they'll take care of the customer and they'll come back. That's been our guiding principle for almost 88 years now,” said Bill Marriott.
“Take good care of your people and listen to them and encourage them to talk and include them,” he said.
The company has implemented several employee programs and business councils to help promote its culture. For example, Marriott’s ‘Heart of the House’ is a website where people working at Marriott’s managed and franchised hotels share stories of exceptional guest service and community service. Anyone can submit a story, including Marriott associates, the employees of franchisees and guests.
And what’s more: At Marriott, the company’s GMs stay on average 25 years, according to Deborah Marriott Harrison. That’s because culture is at the core of what Marriott does.
2. “Surround yourself with very smart people.”
“I've always been able to find people a lot smarter than I am. It's been great to have these great people around me to listen to them and get their ideas,” Bill Marriott said.
When Mr. Marriott came home for Christmas leave one year (he was an officer in the United States Navy Supply Corps), he went to the family’s farm in Virginia. It was there that he found out his father had invited President Eisenhower to do “a little bird hunting,” Bill Marriott said.
“It was bitter cold when he arrived, and he came inside and we sat around the fire and somebody asked a question 'Do you want to go back outside Mr. President and shoot quail? Or stay inside by the fire?' I was back in the corner shivering because here I was the lowest form of animal life in the United States' service, and he turned around and looked at me and said, 'What do you think we should do, Bill?' and I said to him, 'It's cold out there, let's stay in by the fire.' He agreed, and we did. But I always look back on that and think this is why he was such a successful leader in the Second World War,” he said.
The question “What do you think?” has been a staple of his leadership since. And when you surround yourself with smart people, that question goes a long way, Bill Marriott said.
3. “Leave your ego at the door.”
“I think ego is the great destroyer in any business and any walk of life,” Bill Marriott said.
He then went on to explain how he was in Ronald Reagan’s office while he was president and saw a sign on his desk that said, “You can get anything you want done, as long as you don’t take the credit.”
Then he shared this illustration of that idea: While in Southeast Asia for business, Bill Marriott heard there was a new hotel in the city he was visiting, which was operated by one of Marriott’s competitors. He also got word that the hotel’s employee cafeteria was something to be talked about. He wanted to see for himself. What Bill Marriott found at the hotel was a great example of “serving yourself instead of your people,” he said.
“I went to the hotel and the general manager was too busy to show me around, so the assistant manager did. I said, ‘Let me see the new employee cafeteria,’ and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, right this way.’ We walked and we walked. We turned left and right and he could not find the cafeteria, and later I figured out why. We went through the dining room and there was the entire executive team having a fine cooked meal.”
To this day, Bill Marriott visits lots of Marriott hotels around the world, getting to know managers, and most of all, line-level employees. And he still checks his ego at the door.
Email Samantha Worgull or find her on Twitter.
The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.