Bill Marriott, another passionate blogger

He's 75 now and still visits an average 250 hotels a year worldwide. I'm talking about John Willard 'Bill' Marriott, Jr. - where does that name 'Bill' come from, I wonder - and he's the big boss of Marriott International. Yesterday, Bill (right) was visiting the historical city of Ghent on the occasion of the opening of Marriott Ghent, the fifth Marriott Hotel in Belgium and as you can see, he was in the good company of our Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (left) and the Mayor of Ghent, Daniël Termont (middle). The day before, he had opened the Marriott Paris Rive Gauche and after his time in Ghent, he left for Dublin for the opening of another new hotel. Honestly, I'm a bit jealous of that man. Such energy, such passion, such a testimony and such an empire he has built. I will never succeed in that by publishing meetings industry magazines, I thought (wink wink). To me, it was an enormous pleasure interviewing Bill, especially because he's a passionate blogger himself. That's what we have in common… I was almost about to say: certainly at our age!
But there's a second reason why I enjoyed the interview. Six years ago I had a cover interview for MIM magazine (No. 58) with his son John, the cover title being 'Crown prince of a family empire'. That took place in London on 9/11 in 2001! For a moment I noticed an emotional expression on his face. Then John Jr. told me his father doesn't like the colour blue: 'You'll rarely notice a variety of blue in our hotels. Blue is cold, my father likes warm hues better, like red, yellow and gold. He also adores flowers. Strangely enough he dislikes brown colours as well.' And what did Bill answer to this passage of his son's interview: 'Not entirely true, it depends on the kind of blue. For example, I like the blue carpet in the lobby of this hotel in Ghent!'
What really stayed in my memory after the interview, was the strong conviction that Marriott Hotels is one big family where everyone is still living by the philosophy of the grandfather. 'If you take care of your staff, then they, in their turn, will take care of the hotel guests!' That's wonderful, after three generations!
Be sure to read all about the interview in MIM No. 94 (September issue).