Marriott’s Commitment to Cleanliness

Since our founding 92 years ago, Marriott International has always placed an emphasis on health and safety for our guests and associates. Our founder, J.W. Marriott, used to personally inspect kitchens and guest rooms for cleanliness during his hotel visits. A high standard of cleanliness is in our DNA.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to raise our demanding standards to an even higher level with new protocols for the current circumstances. To tell our story on how  Marriott is elevating cleanliness standards and changing hospitality norms, across our portfolio of hotels, we tapped a hospitality veteran, the son of our founder and someone who, like his father, has been known to conduct cleanliness inspections while touring hotels – our Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, Bill Marriott. Take a look.

As you saw in the video, Marriott has put in place a multi-pronged approach designed to meet the health and safety challenges presented by COVID-19. Below is an overview of the key components of Marriott’s Commitment to Cleanliness.

• Marriott Global Cleanliness Council:  Consisting of in-house and outside experts in food and water safety, hygiene and infection prevention, and hotel operations, the council will work to develop a new generation of global hospitality cleanliness standards, norms and behaviors for our more than 7,300 properties around the globe.
• New Cleaning Technologies: While our council develops its work, we have initiated plans to roll out enhanced technologies at our properties over the next few months, including electrostatic sprayers and the highest classification of disinfectants recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization to sanitize surfaces throughout hotels.
• Cleaning Regimen Changes:  When guests check into our hotels over the next few months, they will notice a number of additions to our cleaning regimen designed to set an even higher standard of cleanliness for the hotels as well as modifications to associate-guest protocols developed to be consistent with recommended social distancing guidelines.  

The steps we’re taking on cleanliness and new hospitality norms are as much about the health and safety of associates as they are about our guests. If we’ve learned anything during this pandemic, it is that we are all in this together. By taking care of associates and following these new protocols – we will be collectively taking care of our guests and the global community.

We are all facing an historic battle and most days it is simply about rolling up our sleeves to fight that battle. There are countless moments of humanity and resilience – I see them in how our hotel teams and individual associates are responding to the crisis around them. And that fills me with tremendous hope for the future. 

We don’t know when the COVID-19 pandemic will be over or when our lives will return to some sort of normalcy. But we want our guests and our associates to know that when the time comes to travel once again, we will be ready to welcome them back to a safe and clean hotel environment.

Until that time, please stay safe and healthy.

Arne Sorenson

President and CEO, Marriott International