What started 40 years ago today as an office of eight people supporting 20 hotels has become Marriott International’s Omaha Global Reservation Sales & Customer Care Center.  In 2010, with 1,300 employees who support over 3,500 properties worldwide, the center used the latest technology to generate $1.3 billion in annual property level revenue at managed, owned, leased and franchised hotels across Marriott’s family of brands.

“We are so excited to celebrate this special anniversary.  I’m so proud of the many great employees that have been taking care of our guests for 40 years,” says L. Kaye Dengel, senior vice president of Marriott Sales and Customer Care.

The volume of calls answered by the Omaha Reservation Center annually has grown more than 40 times from the first year’s 160,000 reservations.  Today the facility handles over 7 million calls a year, 25% of Marriott’s total reservation sales call volume in the U.S, and employs leading-edge web-based technology, a reservation system that J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, calls “the most effective reservation system in the industry.”

Recognized twice as the “#1 Best Place to Work” by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Reservation Center has evolved from only taking hotel room reservations to a full-service customer care center—managing worldwide reservations, customer service and national sales. This year, the center ranked 1st out of 69 companies in a Forrester phone experience satisfaction study.  Additionally, the center has been recognized by the Nebraska National Federation of the Blind and Nebraska Vocational Rehabilitation Services for employing visually impaired associates who utilize specially designed software to assist customers.

The Omaha Reservation Center is the largest facility and is the hub of a virtual network linking seven North American call centers and seven international call centers.  It also boasts the largest population of the company’s innovative myPlace by Marriott™ remote agent program, allowing more than 253 sales agents the opportunity to work from home and generate more than $2.8 million in revenue.

On hand to help celebrate the anniversary will be Jim Suttle, Mayor of Omaha, and Marriott executives: Bob McCarthy, group president, and Stephanie Linnartz, global officer of sales and revenue management.

City.Mobi

Also in United States today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Omaha.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Omaha.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.