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

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

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