"We're very excited to be opening this great new hotel, which is in the heart of downtown Louisville and on the doorstep of everything this dynamic city has to offer," said Jon Peck, general manager, Louisville Marriott Downtown. "This hotel appeals to business travelers, leisure travelers and meeting planners looking for a great new location to hold their events. We're pleased to have come out of the gates strong, with a very busy first 90 days and business on the books through 2009."

The Louisville Marriott Downtown is the area's first full-service Marriott to offer the company's new, more luxurious bedding, which features plusher mattresses, softer sheets, more pillows, and a new, fresh, white look. Replacing the traditional hotel bedspread is a down comforter nestled inside a sheeted duvet, which will be freshly laundered for each new guest. Mattresses are thicker and more comfortable with the addition of a two- to four-inch mattress topper, and the 300-thread-count, cotton-rich, white top and fitted bottom sheets are among the finest and softest sheets of any global hotel chain. The stylized bedding is accented with euroshams, a decorative bed scarf and a bolster.

The property is connected to the 300,000-square-foot Kentucky International Convention Center via an enclosed skywalk, and area attractions just minutes away include Fourth Street Live (Louisville's new $80 million entertainment district), the Kentucky Derby Museum, Churchill Downs, Slugger Field and the Slugger Museum, and the new Muhammad Ali Center, which opens in Nov. 2005. Louisville International Airport is just ten minutes away.

The hotel's 50,000 square feet of meeting space includes the 21,000- square-foot Marriott Ballroom, which is divisible into 10 sections and can accommodate up to 2,500 people. The Kentucky Ballroom features more than 11,000 square feet of meeting space, is divisible into seven sections and can accommodate up to 1,100 people. Technological capabilities include wireless high-speed internet access, videoconferencing, web streaming and teleconferencing capabilities.

The hotel's Blu restaurant offers Italian Mediterranean cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Signature menu items include fresh mozzarella with yellow and red tomatoes and eight-year balsamic vinegar; whole golden trout baked in rock salt with haricot vert, squash and sweet tomatoes; and balsamic filet with garlic potato pave, cipollini onions and roasted asparagus. Guests can also enjoy specialty cocktails, wine and appetizers in the hotel's lounge area, Bar at Blu, or gourmet coffee and "grab and go" snacks at the Starbucks Coffee Shop. Champions Sports Restaurant is a Kentucky sports themed dining venue with a fun, casual atmosphere and 22-inch flat-screen TVs for sports viewing.

Guest rooms offer flat-screen TVs with cable television and pay-per-view movies, individual climate control, laptop-sized in-room safe, two-line telephones with voice mail and data ports, high-speed internet access, in-room coffee and tea service, hair dryer, iron and ironing board, and an oversized work area with ergonomic desk chair. Other hotel amenities include a fully equipped business center, room service, oversized fitness center with state- of-the-art equipment, indoor pool and whirlpool, gift shop, guest laundry and laundry valet service. Also available is a concierge level with upgraded amenities and a concierge lounge offering spectacular views of the Ohio River and serving daily continental breakfast and cocktails.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. (NYSE: MAR - News) is a leading lodging company with more than 2,600 lodging properties in the United States and 65 other countries and territories.

Marriott International, Inc.
http://www.marriott.com