We're now two days away from opening my two new Marriott hotels. When I arrived at the project in March, we were supposed to open in July. Now it's December. Construction has been a nightmare. Sub contractors have been incompetent at best. We'll be fixing a lot of their work for the next six months, especially the detail work.

 

I can't remember the last time I had a day off. Wait - I took off Thanksgiving day. But that's it since early November.

 

Last Wednesday at the end of the day Marriott told us we would open mid-January. Three hours later the President of my company asked if I could get us open in 9 days. Wait - what? I thought I had another month. I told him that my team would be ready, but I doubt the punch team could fix all of the contractor errors throughout the hotel in that time.

 

When the Marriott trainers arrived on property 7 days out they were not happy to see construction still going on. A day later they told the Marriott opening Manager they would not sign off on opening our hotels (we're two hotels under one roof). I told them that they should not underestimate my team and we would be ready. They scoffed. They whispered among themselves how ticked off they were that they had to be here.

 

They're eating crow right now.

 

My amazing team rallied and by t minus 1 day we'll be ready. The Marriott corporate folks that scoffed at us a few days ago have changed their tune. They're singing the praises of my team. Me? I knew they could do it and I'm thankful for every one of them.

 

We have an amazing property with two brands, a restaurant, a bar, an outdoor Beer Garden, an outdoor covered stage with live entertainment, and we connect to 65,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. The entire city, county, and state have been waiting for us to open and we're almost there. I still don't know when I'll get a day off. My F&B Director doesn't start for a week, so besides running two hotels I'll also be running F&B for a while.

 

I have no idea when I'll get a chance to fish again. The 2026 GA Bass Nation Kayak series actually began last weekend on Lanier, but I had to work. We hit Seminole next month, and I'm scheduled to fish a Bassmaster event in February. But the hotel already has sold out dates on the books those months, so who knows if I can get away.

 

What would be ironic is if after putting in all this work, that $2 I spent on a Powerball ticket lands me the billion dollar jackpot. Anyway, the picture below is of the hotel lobby and restaurant area as we were putting the hotel together.

 

 

@Kayak Koz I'm sorry brother but that 1.25 billion is mine.😂

Hotel looks nice. One of these days I'll have to ride out there and meet with you and talk bassin. It's only 30 miles from my castle.

 

I did 2 Marriott's as a super back in ‘08 & ‘09. Both were very fast projects - aggressive schedules - and a mad scramble at the end. Getting the Marriott flag  flying was a nightmare. I know what you’re going thru. The approval process with the folks at Marriott were and can be challenging. 

 

I remember 16 hour days and also remember we had 6 floors with an open atrium you could look down on on one of the projects. We built from 6 down. We were just wrapping up on the second floor and getting ready to punching out the floor when a sprinkler head on 5 let go. Mad scramble to get new carpet, repaint and wallcovering  to replace the damage to 4 floors of finished common areas below.

 

I think I slept for a week after each project. 
 

Congrats for making it to the finish line.

As someone who manages a facilities and capital projects group, there is few things sweeter and more frustrating than finishing a big project. Getting contractors to punch out a building and getting them back on site if they left is less fun than a root canal.

 

I also know, the first year at least after new construction can keep you just as busy fixing shoddy work that will pop up and doing the "oh man we should have..." work. 

 

Hopefully you get some much needed time out. Remember, scheduling a few days or even one for yourself can do more for your job than if you power through. The refresh gives you a clearer perspective coming back.

 

I'm sure your know all this at your level...but sometimes reminders don't hurt in the thick of it!

 

Congrats on the accomplishment!

Congrats!  Its looking ever the standard of Mariott that we've used for dogs years.  I'd love to know which city you're in.

Congrats on the project.  I know it's both satisfying and aggravating for you.  High corp pressure to launch "something" by a certain date is never fun.  It's the 70% rule.  If it's 70% finished, then it's good enough to launch.  "We'll fast-track the fixes after launch" they say....then they cut the funding.

 

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.  Weeeeee!

 

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

Congrats!  Its looking ever the standard of Mariott that we've used for dogs years.  I'd love to know which city you're in.

Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, GA.

Congratulations @Kayak Koz! Forgive my ignorance, what does “f&b” stand for?

Food and Beverage would be my guess, Volzfan.

 

Gotta love it, Koz.

     I hope you snag a big ass bonus check for getting it done.  Hope the opening goes great!

Best,

Fishingmickey

1 hour ago, volzfan59 said:

Congratulations @Kayak Koz! Forgive my ignorance, what does “f&b” stand for?

Food and Beverage.

1 hour ago, Fishingmickey said:

Food and Beverage would be my guess, Volzfan.

 

Gotta love it, Koz.

     I hope you snag a big ass bonus check for getting it done.  Hope the opening goes great!

Best,

Fishingmickey

Thanks. Me too. 

 

But I'll accept a few extra days off to go out of town and fish for a bit. I have a tournament on Seminole next month and I'd like to pre-fish.

We’re open! It was down to the wire but we fixed enough of the contractor issues to open. It will probably take 3-4 months to to fix all of the details.

 

I’m exhausted. But I probably won’t have a day off for another two weeks. We have a green staff and I need to be there to support them.

 

We did a press release at 4:30 this afternoon and by 6:30 the press was at our hotel.