TWENTY years of being one of the city’s premiere hotels have certainly given the Cebu City Marriott Hotel many reasons to celebrate. Several of those reasons were brought together in one grand evening during the hotel’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which was followed by the Partners in Excellence Awards, and the culmination of the hotel’s Global Customer Appreciation Week.
The hotel’s lobby was filled with guests, business partners, Club Marriott members and friends from the media when hotel general manager Patrick Carroll ceremoniously lit up the 15-foot Christmas tree in Marriott red and gold. Guests admired the tree alongside a life-size gingerbread house with edible gingerbread cookies while they enjoyed sikwate and chocolate-dipped cookies, and Christmas carols sung by the Celestial Voices Chorale.
Soon after, guests were ushered into the Sampaguita Ballroom, where they enjoyed appetizing hors d’oeuvres and flowing cocktails and conversation. Throughout the evening, members of the hotel’s executive committee, led by Mr. Carroll, took turns in expressing their heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been a part of Marriott’s legacy for the past 20 years. Awards were given to top corporate accounts, top travel agencies and top wedding suppliers for the business and friendship they’ve shared with the hotel over these two decades.
By the end of this year, Marriott’s management contract with Ayala Land Hotels and Resorts will end. But as director of sales and events Frances Alfafara said, the evening is a validation of the legacy that Marriott will leave behind—a brand of service excellence and brilliant hosting that found its home in Cebu.