My Marriott Hotel

Marriott has developed an online game that could be fun to play and recruit new employees, too.  Those who play "My Marriott Hotel" will find themselves in the restaurant business and have to make decisions to keep the kitchen moving.  The game is as realistic an experience as possible to see what it takes to manage all aspects of the restaurant business from purchasing to service and more. 

I went to Facebook where the game is to be found and it is not ready to load yet but here is the URL that you can access if you have an account to download the App.
http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=My%20Marriott%20hotel&init=quick&tas=0.739057746431893&ref=ts#!/apps/application.php?id=145796492133388

According to an article in the Wall Street, Marriott chose to create this game due to the success the U.S. military had with its online game to recruit soldiers.  Also cited in the article was the success of Siemens AG which brought "Plantville," which simulates being a manager for bottling facility, a vitamin factory or a plant that builds trains.

In any event, this would be an EXCELLENT free tool to use in your restaurant management class for budding chefs to see if they can run a restaurant for Marriott.  The game is intended to be as realistic as possible.  According to a Marriott spokesman, those who who play the restaurant game will have to buy ingredients, such as cheese for spaghetti, after given an array of options in quality and price.  Players will also hire staff, purchase equipment and small wares.  During rounds in the kitchen, players have to direct tickets to cooks and inspect food orders for quality before sending them out to customers and more.

If you do choose to use this game in your class please let me know so we can share with others on the blog.  I am teaching the restaurant class this fall at Purdue and once I navigate it I will look into using it to establish extra credit points or something.  Time will tell.