July 27, 2011 - What started 40 years ago today as an office of eight people supporting 20 hotels has become Marriott International’s (NYSE: MAR) Omaha Global Reservation Sales & Customer Care Center.  In 2010, with 1,300 employees who support over 3,500 properties worldwide, the center used the latest technology to generate $1.3 billion in annual property level revenue at managed, owned, leased and franchised hotels across Marriott’s family of brands.

“We are so excited to celebrate this special anniversary.  I’m so proud of the many great employees that have been taking care of our guests for 40 years,” says L. Kaye Dengel, senior vice president of Marriott Sales and Customer Care.

The volume of calls answered by the Omaha Reservation Center annually has grown more than 40 times from the first year’s 160,000 reservations.  Today the facility handles over 7 million calls a year, 25% of Marriott’s total reservation sales call volume in the U.S, and employs leading-edge web-based technology, a reservation system that J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, calls “the most effective reservation system in the industry.”

Recognized twice as the “#1 Best Place to Work” by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Reservation Center has evolved from only taking hotel room reservations to a full-service customer care center--managing worldwide reservations, customer service and national sales. This year, the center ranked 1st out of 69 companies in a Forrester phone experience satisfaction study.  Additionally, the center has been recognized by the Nebraska National Federation of the Blind and Nebraska Vocational Rehabilitation Services for employing visually impaired associates who utilize specially designed software to assist customers.

The Omaha Reservation Center is the largest facility and is the hub of a virtual network linking seven North American call centers and seven international call centers.  It also boasts the largest population of the company’s innovative myPlace by Marriott™ remote agent program, allowing more than 253 sales agents the opportunity to work from home and generate more than $2.8 million in revenue.

On hand to help celebrate the anniversary will be Jim Suttle, Mayor of Omaha, and Marriott executives: Bob McCarthy, group president, and Stephanie Linnartz, global officer of sales and revenue management.

To contact Marriott International’s Global Reservation Sales and Customer Care Center in Omaha, call: 1-800 MARRIOTT

Visit Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) for company information.  For more information or reservations, please visit our web site at www.marriott.com, and for the latest company news, visit www.marriottnewscenter.com.