Marriott's mSpot Lands in New Orleans With Blow-Out Entertainment and a Hot New Guest Room

Marriott's mSpot Lands in New Orleans With Blow-Out Entertainment and a Hot New Guest Room

Company's Jazzed Up Room Design and High-Tech Amenities Showcased on Canal Street

NEW ORLEANS, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Having trouble locating the mSpot? It's been on the move. After conquering New York's Times Square, the mSpot today made its much anticipated New Orleans debut. Amidst the celebration of the one-and-only Jazz Fest, Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR), kicked off two days of mSpot festivities with the unveiling of its new guest room and a free noon-time concert featuring the legendary Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers. This marks the second stop on the U.S. tour of the world's most entertaining live billboard.

Celebrating the company's hot new room design for its Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand, the mSpot is in New Orleans for a two-day extravaganza complete with musical performances and celebrity appearances. Marriott executives David Marriott and Amy McPherson unveiled the room today, along with local celebrity John "Spud" McConnell, the official mSpot host.

The mSpot is a live billboard like no other. Enclosed in glass at street level, the life-sized Marriott Hotels & Resorts guest room doubles as a soundstage. mSpot becomes an entertainment hot spot, as artists Marc Broussard, Jeremy Davenport, Ingrid Lucia and Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers give free concerts. Also on hand, Grammy(R) Award-winning producer/musician Randy Jackson hosts his Westwood One syndicated radio show, "The Hit List" live, with surprise celebrity appearances. For more information and performance times, please visit http://www.marriottmspot.com/.

An integral and enticing component of the new room experience is the unique "plug and play" technology, provided by Marriott's proprietary high- tech connectivity panel. Guests can simply hook their laptop or other personal entertainment equipment (including an iPod), into a state-of-the-art, 32" LCD HDTV. Guests can even split the screen so they can multitask or watch TV as they write e-mails simultaneously on the screen.

"We are thrilled to help celebrate the spirit of New Orleans and add our own special touch to the Jazz Fest experience," said David Marriott, senior vice president of global sales, Marriott International, Inc. "Marriott has been part of the New Orleans community for more than 30 years and we are excited to showcase our new guest room right on Canal Street."

All mSpot concerts are free and open to the general public, so both festival attendees and New Orleans' locals can enjoy the performances of these amazing artists. For the next two days it will be Jazz Fest by day, mSpot by night.

"The mSpot has been an exciting new marketing approach for our company," said Amy McPherson, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Marriott International, Inc. "It helps us break through the clutter and effectively reach our loyal customers, while engaging the attention of a whole new generation of travelers. We're making it clear that Marriott's priority is providing wonderful guest experiences, along with innovations in technology and comfort."

The revamped guest room offers a new look, with clean and crisp design elements, simple forms, straight lines and uncluttered surfaces. The high- tech connectivity panel offers a variety of power outlets at desk level that enable guests to connect laptops and personal entertainment devices, including DVD players, MP3 players, iPods, camcorders and video games, into the television. As for the televisions, digital HDTV's by LG Electronics complement the room's sleek décor, while offering high-definition visuals -- ideal for watching movies, viewing a presentation or playing a video game. The highly adaptable room invites guests to work, relax, play ... or all of the above. Case in point, imagine jamming to your iPod while you pivot the desk toward the TV, magnify your laptop to a 32" monitor and bang out that presentation -- now that's multitasking!

Not able to get to Canal Street for the mSpot event? Check out http://www.experiencemarriott.com/ for an up close and personal tour of all the elements that make Marriott's new guest room more stylish, more innovative and so luxurious you'll never want to check out.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. (NYSE:MAR) is a leading lodging company with nearly 2,800 lodging properties in the United States and 66 other countries and territories. Marriott International operates and franchises hotels under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bulgari brand names; develops and operates vacation ownership resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club International, Horizons, The Ritz-Carlton Club and Grand Residences by Marriott brands; operates Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate housing through its Marriott ExecuStay division; and operates conference centers. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has approximately 143,000 employees at 2005 year-end. In fiscal year 2005, Marriott International reported sales from continuing operations of $11.6 billion. For more information or reservations, please visit our web site at http://www.marriott.com/.

Source: Marriott International, Inc.

CONTACT: Matthew Carroll of Marriott International, Cell: +1-240-388-
6208, matthew.carroll@marriott.com

Web site: http://www.marriott.com/
http://www.experiencemarriott.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/532963.html

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