“Everything you are about to see, behind these doors, is ‘top secret’.” These are the words that every journalist and editor longs to hear. I was in Washington – in a place called Bethesda – on a ‘mission’ to explore something new – something undiscovered – for the listeners of Travel By Design, the travel and design podcast I host for Marriott Bonvoy Traveler. Jeff Voris, Senior Vice President at Marriott International, greeted me at my hotel door with a smirk on his face. It was then when I realised that this was not going to be a standard hotel review.
Allow me to set the scene. A months ago, when planning the episodes of the current series of the podcast, to my utter disbelief, my producer told me that Marriott International were basically giving me the keys to their headquarters for the day – and it was my job to explore what hidden gems lurked in between…