No Housekeeper Should Ever Feel Alone. Here's What We're Doing to Make Sure They Feel Safer.

When J. W. Marriott founded this company 90 some years ago, he had a simple philosophy: Take care of our associates, and they'll take care of our guests.

Well, among our most important associates are the housekeepers, whom guests count on to present their rooms beautifully, and keep them immaculate throughout their stays.

But too often — and even once is too often — our housekeepers can feel vulnerable and alone while doing their jobs. 

At a time when women around the world are opening up about their own experiences with sexual harassment, our housekeepers have started opening up about situations they've found themselves in at work.

So, we've been actively testing a system that will empower our housekeepers to call on help if they ever feel threatened in any way.

An associate alert device carried in their pockets will let them discretely call for help when the need arises. They just have to push a button, and whether in a remote corner of an island resort or on the 25th floor of a downtown high-rise, the device will pinpoint their exact location so hotel security can respond immediately.

Don't get me wrong, this is complicated technology that must work without fail. Where we've been field testing it, our housekeepers are delighted. Not because they've had to use it, but because they know they can — that they aren't alone if trouble arises.

Our goal is to have these devices in every one of our managed and franchised hotels in the U.S. and Canada, with deployment through 2020 — just over two years from now. And we won’t stop there – we are exploring technology solutions to meet the needs of our hotels across the world.

This is the latest next step we've taken as a company to combat sexual harassment wherever it occurs. Throughout the years, we've crafted policies, training, and reporting procedures to support a respectful and harassment-free workplace, including requiring mandatory harassment-prevention training for all U.S. associates.

I'm deeply proud to say that our entire industry is embracing this goal as well.

Today, in fact, members of the American Hotel and Lodging Association — which includes all the major hotel brands in the country — are joining together in a pledge to broadly implement similar associate safety devices at hotels across the U.S. We're also committing ourselves as an industry to implementing tougher policies, better training, and to work with outside partners, to better fight all forms of sexual harassment in the workplace.

No one should ever be fearful doing their job, least of all those associates who are so vital to the success of our company and our industry.