Courtyard Seoul Times Square – Who Could Ask For More?

Situated in the heart of downtown, I would like to introduce to you Courtyard’s first property in South Korea – Courtyard Seoul Times Square.

Located in the middle of the city’s newest multi-complex entertainment landmark, this new hotel’s location offers great shopping with more than 60 fashion stores, amazing dining outlets featuring 55 food outlets, superb entertainment highlighted by the world’s largest screen theater as well as a 15,000 square meter rooftop garden. Subway access within the complex allows for easy access to all the city’s major venues and attractions.
What better hub could you ask for when visiting this vibrant city?

Offering 283 rooms, our newest Courtyard is only five minutes from the financial district and 20 minutes from Gimpo International Airport. A special introductory rate of KRW 99,000 plus tax per night for deluxe accommodations or KRW 119,000 for accommodations with breakfast for two is valid until October 31, 2009.

Our famous MoMo Café serves up a mouth-watering menu and our attentive staff create the perfect dining experience. Relax and unwind after a hectic day at the MoMo Lounge and Bar that offers refreshing cocktails and custom juices along with an outdoor seating patio where you can enjoy the city view.

Come visit us in Seoul. We’re ready for you!

Thanks for helping us keep Courtyard on the go.

Simon Bell
General Manager, Courtyard Seoul Times Square

First Courtyard Opens in Ecuador

I am pleased to announce the opening of Courtyard’s first property in Ecuador, the Courtyard Guayaquil. Located in Ecuador’s largest city, the hotel is located on Avenida Francisco de Orellana, five minutes from the airport. The hotel has 124 standard rooms, 10 superior rooms with 75% more space than regular rooms and 5 suites. All guest rooms are fully equipped with complimentary high speed Internet access, comfortable beds and large work desks while superior rooms and suites have sofabeds as well. The hotel offers six spacious meeting rooms which makes it ideal for small business meetings or social events.

Whether visiting for business or pleasure, our hotel is designed to help you get the most out of your visit. We invite you to experience our full service Vitro Restaurant that offers Mediterranean and national cuisines for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In your free time, explore Malecon Simon Bolivar’s waterfront pier for shopping, or Parque Historico de Guayaquil and Barrio Las Peñas all within close distance to the hotel.

If you’ve always wanted to visit Ecuador, now is the time. Our special promotion “From Independence to Independence” offers accommodations for only $79 plus taxes per night. This promotion is available until October 11, 2009.

While staying with us, explore the magnificent Galapagos Islands, experience Ecuador’s warm hospitality and Courtyard’s modern comfort. I look forward to hosting you at the new Courtyard Guayaquil.

Thank you for helping us keep Courtyard on the go.

Gabriel Garcia
General Manager, Courtyard Guayaquil

Courtyard by Marriott Opens its 800th Hotel in Shanghai, China

I’m blogging today from Shanghai, China, where we are celebrating the opening of our 800th Courtyard hotel. This is an absolutely beautiful hotel with 364 guest rooms on 23 floors, a large state-of-the-art fitness center and our MoMo café, a full service restaurant featuring local cuisine. Courtyard prides itself on recognizing and adapting to the needs of business travelers from different regions around the world and this particular hotel truly caters to the high expectations of Asian travelers.

Today’s celebration was really spectacular. It was attended by many VIPs from all over China and featured a traditional music and costumed dancers. The celebration ended with the lighting of festive firecrackers that officially marked the opening of the hotel.

And back at our headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, the associates there are joining the celebration, too. A traditional Chinese lion dance will be performed right outside of the cafeteria and traditional Chinese food will be served for lunch. A video of the ceremony that took place in China will also be played so associates in the U.S. can commemorate the occasion as well.

We chose to celebrate this milestone in Shanghai to reflect the brand’s global growth and reach. Currently, we have Courtyard hotels in 28 countries around the world. This is the seventh Courtyard to open in China and we plan to open another one there later this year. The brand is also growing rapidly in other parts of Asia as we plan to open five new Courtyards in India in 2009 and eight new Courtyards in the Middle East by the end of 2011.

It is remarkable how far the brand has come from its first hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, that opened in 1983.

Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go…at 800 strong, and counting!

Brian

Brian's Blog: A Very Special First Guest at the New Courytard Beijing Northeast

The Courtyard brand continues to grow and expand internationally. We just celebrated the grand opening of the Courtyard by Marriott Beijing Northeast. This is our sixth Courtyard hotel in China and we have three more in the pipeline. It’s located 20 minutes from Beijing Capital International Airport between the Lido Commercial District and Wangjing High Tech Park.

This hotel has a very unique story behind it as it hosted a very special person as its first guest. Mr. Jolland Chan, the man who wrote “Olympic Beijing,” the theme song of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was the very first person to stay in the hotel. It was an honor to host Mr. Chan and I’m very excited to hear his song when the Olympics debut just a few months from now!

Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go.

Brian

Brian's Blog: Middle East Expansion

Just a few weeks ago, Marriott announced that we will be more than doubling the number of hotels we have in the Middle East by 2011. On top of that, it was just announced that Marriott will be managing nine more new hotels in Saudi Arabia starting in 2010. I’m really excited because one third of these new Saudi Arabian properties are going to be Courtyards. It’s a real testament to the global power of the brand.

The new Courtyards will be located in the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. All will feature the brand’s new, modern design and its high standards of quality and service.

I’m really excited to see Courtyard expanding so rapidly in the Middle East. We already have a few Courtyards in the region in cities like Dubai, Kuwait City and one coming early next year in Doha, Qatar. And now that business travel and tourism is booming in that part of the world, we are going to be adding more and more.

I was in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2007 and was able to see for myself the tremendous growth. The skies of Dubai were filled with cranes as far at the eye could see. There is such an atmosphere of excitement and energy in these markets as travelers from around the globe are discovering the region’s cultures for the first time.

And the region is home to some of our top hotels. Our team at the Courtyard Dubai Green Community is led by our General Manage Elaine Watson whose hotel was not only named our International Hotel of the Year in 2007, but she was honored as our International General Manager of the Year. Elaine and her team are very deserving of these awards. They consistently provide stellar service to the guests, give back to their community and do everything they can to go ‘green’ and protect the environment.

Courtyard’s international presence is growing very rapidly. I’ll be sure to keep you updated as the brand continues to expand!

Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go.

Brian

Brian's Blog: Courtyard Hong Kong Opens

We just opened our first Courtyard hotel in Hong Kong and it is gorgeous. For those who don’t know, our Courtyard hotels in Asia are more like full service hotels with amenities like room service. That’s because the Asian market demands these types of services and amenities.

The 245-room hotel within a skyscraper faces the harbor in the Sai Ying Pan district on Hong Kong Island. As you can see from the slide show, they’ve incorporated some of the elements we’re rolling out in the U.S., like the individual welcome podiums. The bathroom is spectacular, adorned with marble and rainforest showerheads. The bed linen has many of the same characteristics you’d find in our stateside Courtyard hotels, like the decorative accent skirt on the bed. There’s also MoMo Café and MoMo to Go with the to-go concept we’ve also included in our new U.S. lobbies.

So as you can see, some brand concepts do translate well. Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go.

Brian's Blog: Another Courtyard Hotel in Rome

While the majority of our almost 800 Courtyard hotels are located in the U.S., the brand is growing very quickly internationally. This week we announced that we will be adding our second Courtyard hotel and fourth hotel from the Marriott family of brands in Rome, Italy. It will be a conversion of the former Hotel Central Park Rome and will be located in the quiet residential area of Balduina/Monte Mario. It’s a beautiful property and in a great location with fantastic views of St. Peter’s Basilica and other famous Roman sites.

The hotel will incorporate many elements and features of both our new lobby and new guest room concepts. It will also have some extra amenities like a fine dining restaurant called “Moscati,” which will offer Mediterranean and traditional Italian cuisine and the “Corpus Sport Center,” which has 4 workout areas, a sauna and even a Turkish bath.

The hotel will remain open while it undergoes renovations, so I hope you will check it out if you’re over that way!

That’s it for now. Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go.

Brian

Brian's Blog: Around the World with Courtyard Hotels

It’s ironic but I began working for Marriott the same year we launched Courtyard. I hate to date myself but that was 1983. The brand broke new ground. Some of you might remember the line, “The first hotel brand built for business travelers by business travelers.”

A lot has changed since then and what was one hotel 25 years ago will surpass 800 hotels in 2008. What was once confined to the United States is now a global brand in 27 countries and growing.

Our first Courtyard hotel outside North America was in the United Kingdom, the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Slough/Windsor, which opened in 1992. The brand has great name recognition in North America and now it’s gaining traction on other continents. In some cases, Courtyard is leading Marriott’s expansion into new locations, like Northern Ireland. In the past year or so, we’ve also announced Courtyard’s expansion into Japan, Hungary, Thailand, El Salvador, Norway and Sweden.

Courtyard hotels outside the U.S. reflect the local flavor and culture of the country in which they are located, but still offer business travelers the amenities that have made Courtyard so great. Most importantly, Marriott’s culture of service and care for its guests transcends all borders. No matter where in the world you may find yourself, you can always count on the quality that is synonymous with the Courtyard name.

I actually experienced this firsthand when I visited our new Courtyard hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, while it was still under construction. The entire pre-opening staff at that hotel was so warm and caring as they unloaded boxes and began to prepare to welcome our first guests. True to the Marriott culture, they made me feel welcome as soon as I walked through the door. But they added their own local flair to their welcome and presented me with a “puang maa-lai,” a garland of flowers that is placed around your hands as part of a local welcome gesture called “yin-dee dtôn ráp.” I was really impressed because not only did I feel welcome at their hotel, I felt like they were welcoming me into their culture as well. Since the hotel has opened its doors, the response from customers has been terrific!

Thailand is just one of the many places in Asia that will open a new Courtyard hotel in the next few years. And because the brand is expanding so rapidly in this region, I will be doing more traveling to this enchanting part of the world. I plan to share with you my experiences from my travels there in future blog posts.

That’s it for now. Thanks for keeping Courtyard on the go.

Brian