An interesting interview with J. Willard Marriott Jr., the 72-year-old chairman and namesake of the 2,700-hotel Marriott Hotels International, in the Boston Globe recently. Along with news about the chain and its plans—including plans to upgrade the beds a la Starwood—he answers the question I’ve always wanted to ask: Why is it so expensive to use the phone in your hotel room?

His answer: “In a hotel, you have a whole cadre of people who answer the phones and take the messages for you. You have your own personal answering service. So we try to cover those expenses.”

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That’s right, despite the fact that they currently only fly on 5 percent of flights and increasing rumblings that “something” is bound to happen between now and the U.S. presidential elections in November, the number of federal air marshals on U.S. flights is actually decreasing.

And remember those two air marshals who were ejected from a flight for not wearing sports coats last month? The flight went on without them, since being properly dressed is of course more important than passenger safety.

One last piece of idiocy: “A third marshal was grounded last week in Las Vegas, during the current high terrorist alert level, on suspicion of leaking disparaging memos from the Federal Air Marshal Service to journalists. He is washing government cars as punishment. ‘Morale is low,’ one air marshal said.”

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Starwood makes the grade at diversitybusiness.com, with an article on its diversity philosophy and business practices.

“Our goal is to have the various [consumer] markets out there represented internally at all levels and at the decision-making table where strategies and budgets are decided.” –Ana Mollinedo, vice president, diversity, communications and community affairs, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide

I was particularly interested in the company’s ideas on how to rejigger the balance between the high number of employees of color at the bottom of the ladder and the low number in management. The answer: “To correct that issue, Starwood is implementing a program that prepares associates at its hotels for promotion into management. While the program is not specifically for women and employees of color, it is being structured so that 70 percent of the participants are women and people of color, says Mollinedo…’The program exposes participants to mentors and develops their skills. If an employee in house-keeping has the skills to become a department head, then the training will develop those skills.’”

But this brings me back to something I posted back in July about only rewarding those who move into management–what I’d really like to see is a company that finds ways to reward those who may not want to be managers, but who are pretty darn good at what they do right where they are, whatever their race, ethnicity, religion, or whatever.

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Not only did the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa in Bonita Springs, Fla., manage to escape the wrath of Charley relatively unscathed, the 450-room hotel (which has more than 73,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, BTW), is helping others not quite as fortunate.

It is donating 18 crates of bath products, and sheets and blankets to the National Guard in Punta Gorda, which was hardest hit by the storm. It also is housing emergency clean-up crews and volunteers.

Of course, The Walt Disney Company and Walt Disney World Resort are also reaching out with a $100,000 contribution to the American Red Cross and the Heart of Florida United Way. It’s also going to do a food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank, and is putting together work crews to help clean up. The company also is being very generous to employees affected by the storm.

Sure, some hotels are joining in the rampant price-gouging going on, but my gut tells me the majority are living up to their “hospitality” label. This article contains more examples–I love that so many hotels waived their “no pets” policies so people didn’t have to abandon their animals to fend for themselves through the storm!

If you know of a company that’s reaching out to help, please e-mail me. I’m a sucker for a Good Samaritan story.

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