Ummm. Marriott has at least 30 hotels chains under it umbrella. Including Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, W hotels, Gaylord, Fairfield, Four Points, Springhill, Meridien, and a slew of others. The only one's I've seen the BoM in is Marriott Hotel. Went to Prague, stayed in the Downtown Marriott. BoM was in the nightstand, right next to the fridge that held wonderful Czech beers.
85-year-old Bill Marriott is the Executive Chairman. The CEO, Arne Sorenson, was born in Tokyo, and has degrees from Luther College (founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and the University of Minnesota Law School. I doubt he's a Mormon. Marriott Internationals, Inc. is a big company employing all kinds of people. But if it's too Mormon for you, Crazyhorse, that's okay. Stay wherever you prefer. After all, there are hotel chains I avoid because their decor is ugly or because their name is stupid.
I was gonna stay at the Super 8 in Woods Cross Utah until BYU Boner told me it a drug dealing haven...so I chose the new Hampton Inn in Farmington instead.
crazyhorse Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I will skip this hotel!
You can skip any hotel you want - you don't have to stay there, or anywhere... and you don't have to read the dumb books or Bibles they have there either. I never do. I don't even read some of the books on my shelf at night when I stay there. Just saying
Marriot hotels are typically very nice hotels. Beyond the BoM in the night stand, there is nothing else that says "Mormon". IMHO it is no different than seeing the Bible in the night stand. The hotel chain is in not affiliated with the church beyond the fact that the Marriot family is LDS. There is no reason to avoid staying there.
(I cannot remember which Marriot it was, but when I was a small kid in Washington D.C. one of them was my bishop in the Chevy Chase, MD Ward.)
That's true, the only thing Mormon about them is the fact that there's a Book of Mormon in the room, but they also have coffee machines in the same room, and a full bar where you can get any type of alcoholic beverage if you're 21 and over. In saying that, the last Marriott I stayed at had crappy cellphone reception because the cellphone tower was too far from the hotel. Also, many of them even have a Starbucks and it's run by the hotel, not Starbucks as they don't accept the coffee chain's gift cards.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2018 12:42PM by adoylelb.
I've stayed at as lot of Marriott properties and not all of them have copies of the Book of Mormon in the nightstand. Either the BoM policy is optional or I was preceded by an exmo on a mission.
There's not need to try to sleep with that garbage in your room. It's like the mindless advertising telling you to buy pizza or shop at an overpriced doo-dad shop.
I love Residence Inn, and have logged whole months in Town Place Suites. But I do take the opportunity to write my un-testimony in the BoM if there is one (I haven't always found one).
Thank you, I was worried you would be pressured to be Mormon, there was this Mormon village at inpendence rock and they were putting pressure on you to meet with missionaries! Would you like to meet with missionaries today? But you must! No thank you haha
My thoughts about Marriot? Have stayed in the Ritz Carlton. Not bad. The Marriot in Suzhou China was the cleanest and most peaceful place. Food was out of this world awesome. Staff were over the top attentive. Paid them GOOD tips. Wish I could live there. My only Marriot experience.
incognitotoday Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My thoughts about Marriot? Have stayed in the > Ritz Carlton. Not bad. The Marriot in Suzhou China > was the cleanest and most peaceful place. Food was > out of this world awesome. Staff were over the top > attentive. Paid them GOOD tips. Wish I could live > there. My only Marriot experience.
I have to ask, was there a BoM in the nightstand?
I worked in China for three years, and stayed in many hotels around the country, and I do not ever recall seeing a bible in the night stand.
I opt not to stay at Marriott when I can help it. I choose not to patronize anything "Mormon," no matter how remote the relationship. I don't want any of my money going to the Morg, even if it's only pennies. For those folks who believe "Mormon" equates to success, I want to deprive them of it as best I can.
I think that modern hotels should not leave religious literature in the rooms. Instead, they could put a notice saying that if any guest desires a Bible, BoM, Koran, etc. they are to call to the front desk and a copy will be delivered.
Crazyhorse, I think you are justified in spending your money as you see fit. Having said that, I know that Marriot has widely been regarded as being a well-run chain.
summer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think that modern hotels should not leave > religious literature in the rooms. Instead, they > could put a notice saying that if any guest > desires a Bible, BoM, Koran, etc. they are to call > to the front desk and a copy will be delivered. >
At least this so called church doesn't own it but really can't stand the book of Mormon at all, I threw mine away and told the missionaries you can have it back or i will throw it away! And they said keep it and pray about it
crazyhorse Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ... told the missionaries you can have it back or i will throw it away and they said keep it and pray about it
They don't want it. They have no use for it. They can't sell (give away) the ones they have (even the cheap/ 'free' ones).
I prefer Holiday Inn, personally, but I love Marriott International. I worked for them for a couple years after college and can’t say enough about what a nice company it is to work for. Yes, Bill is a Mormon, but it’s never pushed off on employees. Instead, the focus is on an excellent guest experience with great support offered to employees. Great company, great hotels.
Marriott is a large corporation that is a great place to work, with excellent benefits (at least according to friends and relatives who work for Marriott). The religion is never pushed on employees. So freaking what if a BOM is on the nightstand? A person is not forced to read it anymore than a Gideon Bible that is in most hotels .I have only been in two Marriott hotels both were clean and comfortable .
One of the best draught craft ales I ever drank was at the Marriott Santa Clara in the San Francisco Bay area.
Lagunitas IPA, it was.
And there was a BOM and a bible in my room. Plus a rather good Sci Fi novel after I left. I had read it on the flight over and didn't want to bother taking it back. ;o))
The company is publicly traded - has been for 65 years now. Yeah the Marriott family exists and a couple of them still draw salaries, which are only a tiny fraction of the company's revenue. Our current CEO is a Lutheran who has a long history of supporting liberal causes, most especially LGBT rights.
We have a non-discrimination policy which includes religion (my own boss is Jewish, and I've never had a Mormon boss). It also includes sexual orientation (my team lead is openly gay and brings his husband to all our work events) as well as gender identity and expression. We've also scored 90 to 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's corporate rating scale, every year the scale has been published, for how we treat our LGBT customers and employees.
Nobody really talks about religion at work -- the only reason I know my boss is Jewish is because she told me outside of work. Seriously, it's a whole lot easier at Marriott to be openly gay than openly Mormon. I like working there, I think I'll keep my job as long as they'll have me.
Yeah, I wish they'd get rid of the BoM placements in our hotel nightstands, but that's a minor thing for me. Nobody's required to read them, and the practice is fading out anyway. Even the hotel in Bethesda, Maryland, right next to our HQ office building, doesn't place them. We don't place the BoM (or the Gideon Bible) in our new millennial-oriented brands (Moxy and Edition), or in the Starwood brands we recently acquired, either. I think the rest of our placements will officially start fading away sometime soon after Bill Marriott passes away (and he's 85.)