{"id":2210,"date":"2017-11-26T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T02:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2210"},"modified":"2017-11-27T17:08:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T00:08:03","slug":"jennifer-hudson-takes-the-stage-at-marriott-marquis-grand-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/2210\/jennifer-hudson-takes-the-stage-at-marriott-marquis-grand-opening","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Hudson Takes the Stage at Marriott Marquis Grand Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chicago

Chicago native Jennifer Hudson performed at Marriott Marquis grand opening (Photography by Jeff Schear Visuals)<\/p><\/div>\n

What is your favorite hotel in the world?<\/p>\n

\u201cNice try,\u201d Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, answered. \u201cI have four children and I won\u2019t tell you which one of them is my favorite either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorenson, who was in Chicago for the grand opening of the 33-story, 1,205-room Marriott Marquis, said a number of factors provoke people to feel affection for a hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of the travel experience for people is about the purpose of their trip and what they\u2019re doing there. Often people love the hotel where they\u2019ve had the most memorable trip. Why? Maybe they were with a spouse. Maybe they were celebrating a special event in their lives. To some extent it\u2019s about the hotel but it\u2019s really about that experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sorenson did relent to mention a Ritz Carlton the company built in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\"Marriott

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson revisits his days as a radio disc jockey<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe lobby is onVisit Site<\/a> the 98th<\/sup>floor and the rooms go up from there. There is an outdoor bar on the 120th<\/sup>floor. It is one of the world\u2019s most impressive hotels. Hong Kong is also an extraordinary city. But whether you love Hong Kong might tell you whether you love that hotel,\u201d Sorenson theorized. \u201cI love Paris. It\u2019s a city you could walk in all day long and see beautiful architecture. You can stop for coffee in the morning and stop for wine or beer in the afternoon. In a sense the hotels are all better there because I love Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorenson equates Chicago among great world cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mentioned at the ribbon cutting that Marriott Marquis Chicago is our 141st<\/sup>\u00a0hotel in the city of Chicago. That tells you how much we love Chicago. It has all the hurly burly of a big city with architecture and great music and food, but Chicago also extends an authentic, genuine welcome. Chicagoans love to see people come in from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorenson personally spends 200 nights a year in hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I love traveling and the hotel business. I love seeing the people. I love the design. It\u2019s a never ending, interesting job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The grand opening included a private concert by Chicago-native\u00a0Jennifer Hudson, the singing sensation who, after finishing seventh on TV\u2019s \u201cAmerican Idol,\u201d went on to win the Academy Award for her performance in \u201cDreamgirls.\u201d On stage at the Marriott Marquis, Hudson sang the song \u201cAnd I Am Telling You I\u2019m Not Going\u201d for which she received acclaim in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get home here that often but sometimes I get to sing my way home,\u201d said Hudson from the stage. She currently serves as a judge and coach on \u201cThe Voice\u201d television show.<\/p>\n

\u201cJennifer Hudson\u00a0is \u2018Ms. Chicago,\u2019 said Sorenson. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day a hotel is going to have someone like her show up and sing, but we do want our hotels to offer a decidedly local feel and experience to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To invite the city in, the Marriott Marquis rooms features artwork depicting various Chicago bridges and locations. Artwork by 30 Chicago-based fill the corridors and lobby, each with a video-enabled QR code so guests can conduct their own tours with their smart phones. The hotel is connected to McComick Place, Chicago\u2019s massive convention center.<\/p>\n

Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be heard via\u00a0MiBigShow.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His latest book is \u201cI Call Him Mr. President \u2013 Stories of Fishing, Golf and Life with my Friend George H.W. Bush\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is your favorite hotel in the world? \u201cNice try,\u201d Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, answered. \u201cI have four… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19164],"tags":[1044565,6304,3427,998695,1006537,594110],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-offcourse","tag-travel","tag-marriott","tag-chicago","tag-midwest","tag-jennifer-hudson","tag-illinois"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2017\/11\/Marriott_Chi_1753_JSchear-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}