I really enjoyed this book. I was vacationing at a Marriott Hotel and actually bought this book I wanted to read it so much (even though I thought it should just be given away to the guests). It did not disappoint me. As one of the other reviewers noted, it was a well-written, easy read.

Mr. Marriott inspired me with the business tips contained in the book. I especially enjoyed reading about the checklists that Marriott Hotels uses in its business. I really like checklists too. Why invent the wheel everytime you want to do something? Why try to remember all of the steps needed to complete a task, such as making up a room at a Marriott Hotel? Why not just find out what works and put it on paper?! In this way, a business can create a standardized process that can be taught to its employees, instead of relying upon each individual's whim. This idea is also discussed in Michael Gerber's excellent book, The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.

I also enjoyed reading J. W. Marriott, Jr's criticisms of his father's way of making decisions (I also thought it was interesting that he was so negative with regard to his father, in a published book). Jr. said that his father fretted too much about decisions and basically drove himself crazy. Jr. says in this book that one should not try to make a perfect business decision. That involves too much angst and is a waste of time. One should gather the necessary information to make an informed decision as best as one can, then actually make the decision. The price of pefection is prohibitive.

I hope you find this book as enjoyable and as inspiring as I did.

Ran into a copy of this succint biographical book at the Sydney Marriott alongside the Bible/Gita/Buddhist manual, and I wasn't too sanguine about something from the hospitality industry being too relevant to me. But this slim, easy read may actually connect with almost any business person. More so if you are in any way related to customer services or marketing.

Without skipping any beat on chapters of glorious prose, ala TypicalBusinessBook, it shoots straight from the gut about the tenets of Marriott -- how with sheer determination it shot to the big league from a small cottage inn, the MBE leadership style of Marriott (the younger Marriott that is) who prefers to walk his troops instead of boardroom inertia, lessons in team building, the importance of listening to all the levels of the organization, codifying past experiences into business philosophies (not the usual "Best Practices" bromide that is bandied about in elite echelons of business) etc etc.

In all respects, a hidden business gem of a book.

Now the million (ok, 11) dollar question. You can imagine how I got my copy. So would I *buy* this book if I had to? For the basement price, and for the simple but compelling REAL WORLD lessons, most likely yes.

I stayed at a Marriott in Denver last week and found a copy of this book in the nightstand. I expected it to be hogwash and instead found it to be the most useful business book I've ever read. It is a quick read (about 150 pages, not the 240 mentioned in the Amazon catalog). It is entertaining without being self-indulgent and informative without being preachy. The anecdotes revealed an appropriate level of introspection (my one quibble is that Mr. Marriott claims that his family and faith come before business and yet also describes himself as a workaholic). I'm not in the hospitality industry and yet I found dozens of parallels to my own business (computer software and book publishing). Most interesting were the frank assessments of Marriott's business mistakes. He truly used them as an opportunity to learn. The book is chock full of excellent and thought-provoking strategies and totally devoid of the cheesy buzzwords so prevalent in, say, the latest Tom Peters books. Although I have no association with Marriott, the book will cause me to examine the entire service industry in a new light.