Marriott International, Inc. (MAR / NYSE) has been named as one of the 100 best companies to work for in America by Fortune according to the January 11 issue of the magazine.

Marriott was ranked 44th in Fortune`s second annual employee survey. The list was compiled through a poll of more than 27,000 randomly selected employees at hundreds of companies nationwide.

“Marriott is pleased to be recognized again by Fortune,” said Brendan Keegan, executive vice president, human resources, Marriott International. “We are especially proud of our associates` ongoing commitment to service excellence. In addition, we are pleased that we can make a difference in the quality of their worklife.”

Fortune collaborated with best-selling authors Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz to compile the list, using methodology similar to that used for the authors` books, The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. To be eligible, a company had to be at least ten years old and have a minimum of 500 employees. Fortune said that more than 1,000 companies were considered, and 295 as the most viable candidates for this list were selected. Of this group, 206 agreed to participate.

Employees of the selected companies completed the Great Place to Work Trust Index designed to evaluate trust in management, pride in work and camaraderie, along with the Hewitt People Practices Inventory, a 31-page questionnaire. Firms also were asked to submit company newsletters, employee handbooks and videos. Candidates were rated on a 175-point scale, based on responses from the employee survey, the written comments, the Inventory questionnaire and the supporting materials.

The typical 100 Best company is a composite drawn from the medians of several categories. It is 36 years old and has a U.S. work force of 5,520. It had 1997 revenues of $1.3 billion and a CEO with an eight-year tenure. Its work force is 44% female and 78.2% Caucasian. A third of employees have been on the job less than two years, with six percent more than 15 years.

Of the 66 publicly traded 100 Best Companies, 28 offer stock options to every category of employee. The stock of the 55 companies on the Fortune list that had been publicly traded for at least five years had an average annual appreciation of 25% in that period compared with a gain by the Russell index of 19%. Firms that have been public for a decade maintained about the same margin of outperformance.

Contact: Nick Hill, Corporate Relations, 301/380-7484

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