I’m blogging today from Shanghai, China, where we are celebrating the opening of our 800th Courtyard hotel. This is an absolutely beautiful hotel with 364 guest rooms on 23 floors, a large state-of-the-art fitness center and our MoMo café, a full service restaurant featuring local cuisine. Courtyard prides itself on recognizing and adapting to the needs of business travelers from different regions around the world and this particular hotel truly caters to the high expectations of Asian travelers.

Today’s celebration was really spectacular. It was attended by many VIPs from all over China and featured a traditional music and costumed dancers. The celebration ended with the lighting of festive firecrackers that officially marked the opening of the hotel.

And back at our headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, the associates there are joining the celebration, too. A traditional Chinese lion dance will be performed right outside of the cafeteria and traditional Chinese food will be served for lunch. A video of the ceremony that took place in China will also be played so associates in the U.S. can commemorate the occasion as well.

We chose to celebrate this milestone in Shanghai to reflect the brand’s global growth and reach. Currently, we have Courtyard hotels in 28 countries around the world. This is the seventh Courtyard to open in China and we plan to open another one there later this year. The brand is also growing rapidly in other parts of Asia as we plan to open five new Courtyards in India in 2009 and eight new Courtyards in the Middle East by the end of 2011.

It is remarkable how far the brand has come from its first hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, that opened in 1983.

Thanks for helping me keep Courtyard on the go…at 800 strong, and counting!

Brian